A thrilling missing person mystery with a nuanced and rich backdrop of Native American women on the reservation.

Quill is a runner. She runs in the morning and sometimes evening, a mom of two who is in touch with the land and her heritage. One morning she hears a woman scream, and it creates a series of events that leads Quill and her friends Punk and Gaylyn to try to find out what happened to Mabel. It becomes more and more tense, hitting brick wall after brick wall, all the time leading with characterization of main and subsidiary characters, the endless roster of aunties and cousins.

“Here on the rez, shit happened, and you just kept going.”

The mystery is good, and I won’t complain about the plot holes because I can’t do it without spoilers, but what really makes this book are the details. The details of what the character eats, the relationship and maturity apparent in the dialogue, and the description of the land, the sounds and smells, it’s a very sensory book that will be luxurious to those that appreciate the modern indigenous experience.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bantam books for the ARC. Book to be released September 3,2024.

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Thank you to NetGalley for this free read in exchange for an honest review. I really enjoyed this book although the subject matter is incredibly sad. As a Native American, it's so disheartening that women and children continue to be taken and go missing and there is truly no accurate number to reflect this tragedy. I appreciate the authors notes at the end that give some sobering statistics.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this eARC.

Marcie R. Rendon’s Where They Last Saw Her is a poignant and gripping novel that delves into the heart of a Native American community grappling with loss, resilience, and the quest for justice. This book, set on the Red Pine reservation in Minnesota, offers a powerful narrative that is both a mystery and a profound exploration of cultural identity and trauma.

 The story follows Quill, a Native American woman who has lived on the Red Pine reservation her entire life. Haunted by the memory of a childhood tragedy and the pervasive threat to women in her community, Quill’s life takes a dramatic turn when she hears a scream while training for the Boston Marathon. Investigating the area, she finds only tire tracks and a single beaded earring. 

Rendon excels in creating deeply layered characters. Quill is a compelling protagonist whose determination and courage drive the narrative forward. Her relationships with her friends Punk and Gaylyn, her loving husband Crow, and their two children add emotional depth and highlight the strong community bonds that are central to the story. 

The Red Pine reservation is vividly depicted, with Rendon’s rich descriptions bringing the setting to life. The novel’s atmosphere is charged with tension and a sense of foreboding, reflecting the real-life dangers faced by Native American women. 

Where They Last Saw Her explores themes of justice, cultural identity, and the impact of trauma. Rendon’s writing is both lyrical and incisive, capturing the emotional weight of the story while maintaining a gripping pace. The novel raises important questions about bystander culture, systemic violence, and the long-lasting effects of being marginalized. 

Where They Last Saw Her is a powerful and thought-provoking novel that sheds light on the often-overlooked issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women. Marcie R. Rendon has crafted a story that is both heart-wrenching and inspiring, offering readers a glimpse into the strength and resilience of a community fighting for justice. This book is a must-read for fans of mystery and literary fiction, as well as those interested in stories that address important social issues.

Just like in Marcie Rendon's hard-hitting Cash Blackbear trilogy (Murder on the Red River, Girl Gone Missing, Sinister Graves), When They Last Saw Her gives readers an unflinching portrait of life on the reservation for Native American women. It's a life filled with danger-- especially when "man camps" for pipeline workers are built on reservation land. Even tribal police don't do their due diligence when Quill reports the heart-stopping scream she heard when out running in the woods. When more women disappear, she and fellow runners must go in groups guarded by husbands, brothers, and boyfriends in pickup trucks.

Rendon not only paints a portrait of women living in fear, but she also shows us the loving family life Quill has with her husband, Crow, and her two young children. Quill's refusal to "let it go," to let "boys be boys," is admirable and frightening all at the same time. Readers know how easy it would be for her to disappear, too.

Readers can also learn how government policies, like the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978, have changed family dynamics within the Native community. Rendon's books are poetic, life-affirming, informative, and compelling. Quill is a force of nature every bit as strong as Cash Blackbear, and I didn't want When They Last Saw Her to end. I can't wait for Rendon's next book.

This is an example of a book that was never on my radar and wouldn’t be something I’d choose from the bookstore, but one that honestly delighted me!

At first, I didn’t think I’d get very far. The simplistic writing made me think it wouldn’t be a very good read, but it surprised me in the end.

I am currently in the middle of teaching my Indigenous American Literature unit to my juniors in high school, so the timing lined up perfectly for me to read this mystery/thriller about life on the rez (reservation).

I loved the three main characters and their very distinct personalities. I loved Crow and the elders. I loved even the psycho characters.

I hated those pipeline workers. 😡

I truly learned more about the customs and traditions of these Indigenous people and I thought it made the book more realistic. I thought that Quill and Gaylyn were brave (sometimes a little too brave) and strong female characters.

I wasn’t a fan of some of the dialogue - it was often so elementary that it bordered on cringey.

Overall, I really enjoyed this story! It kept me turning pages until the end!

Thank you so much to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for providing me with an Advance Reader Copy of this book.

I am a long-time fan of Marcie Rendon, and love the Cash Blackbear series, so I was so excited to read her new standalone novel, soon to be published. It did not disappoint. Quill is a compelling and relatable main character, and her family, friends, and community are brought to life so much that I felt like I could picture them all perfectly.

The mystery at the center of this book unravels bit by bit, taking the reader along with Quill and the other characters as we learn each new piece of the puzzle. While some of the reveals were I think predictable, that doesn't make it any less satisfying how they were revealed, and I think just underscores that the problems outlined in this book are well-known, even if they don't get the attention they deserve, highlighting white supremacy and racial inequalities, as well as systemic power imbalances.

I think what I loved the most about the book was how it shows the community supporting each other and working together to try to solve these issues. Even if Quill sometimes goes off on her own, or rushes ahead without telling her family and friends what she's planning to do, over the course of the book she gains a better understanding of how working with her community of friends and family will be more effective. I loved her so much as a character, and even if it is a standalone, I'd love to read more of her!

Thank you to Ballantine and PRH Audio for the review copies. Where They Last Saw Her is a powerful and atmospheric novel that resonates with the works of Nick Medina and Tommy Orange, drawing attention to Indigenous lives and, crucially, the often-overlooked stories of missing Indigenous women. The audiobook format, with its moody intensity, beautifully captures the style and tone of Rendon’s work, making it an especially engaging way to experience the story.

The novel is rich in detail, offering deep insights into Quill's life and the paths she navigates. Rendon’s exploration of bystander behavior, passive acceptance, and the normalization of problematic mindsets is particularly impactful. I was especially moved by the portrayal of Indigenous women's lives and the complex experiences surrounding missing women, as well as the broader cultural treatment of women.

Thanks to the author, the publisher and NetGalley for providing me an eARC for this soon to be published novel. The author has been on my radar for some time as we share Minnesota roots and indigenous people relatives. This novel is an empowering present day view of the plight of many indigenous people wrapped up beautifully in a crime novel. I will seek out other works by this author past and future. Highly recommended read.

I would like to thank NetGalley for an advanced readers copy of this book. I loved this book so much. It is an eye opener to the epidemic of violence that Native American Women face everyday. Can’t wait to read more by the author!!

𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬:
This book follows Quill, a Native American woman who is scared for her life, her community, and her family as women keep disappearing from the reservation that they live on. One morning Quill is out running on the reservation when she hears a faint scream. She is convinced this scream has come from a woman. Quill is determined to find out what is going on and why these indigenous women are being targeted and keep disappearing. This is their land, and Quill wants to keep it safe and see that those behind the women’s disappearances are held accountable for their actions.
This book is so well written and I love the Native American history that Rendon has included throughout. Rendon’s storytelling is fantastic, gripping, and heart wrenching at times. I loved Quill’s character- she is strong, persistent, determined, a leader, and her character is so beautifully complex and well developed that you cannot help but adore her. This story grips the reader in from the first few chapters, and slowly the layers and the mystery are peeled back. There is just the right blend of suspense, tension, mystery, and emotion portrayed throughout. If you are looking for a powerful book that blends mystery with Native American history and the women who fall victim to the monsters that surround them then be sure to pick this one up!


𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗜𝗳 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗘𝗻𝗷𝗼𝘆:
✦Mystery, suspenseful, and emotional books
✦Native American history
✦A powerfully moving mystery that centers around one courages and determined woman
✦Well developed, complex, and multi-layered characters
✦A gripping and engaging story from start to finish


𝐌𝐲 𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️4/5

Native American author Marcie R Rendon is known in crime fiction for her smart and engaging Cash Blackbear series, but with Where They Last Saw Her she brings us a standalone novel about an amateur detective searching for some women. At a deeper level, Rendon explores the social issue of the thousands of indigenous women and girls who have gone missing and been murdered over many decades in the US and Canada. It’s a book that shows the injustice and violence done to indigenous women, through their eyes.

The novel opens with the main character Quill running on a snow covered trail on the Red Pine reservation in Minnesota. She moves with ease and confidence, and is training daily for the Boston Marathon. The sound of a woman screaming in the distance brings her to a halt as she drops to the ground in fear.

There are no further screams. When Quill doesn’t see anyone else in the woods, she runs the three miles back to her car. Once she is home safely, she notifies the tribal police. They promise that they will drive to the area to check things out.

It is evident that Quill loves her home and family deeply. Her husband Crow is a mechanic who works from home unless he is out doing a service call. They have two children – a 10-year-old girl named Niswi, and a three-year-old boy called Jackson. He might be three, but he’s still referred to as Baby Boy. Quill and her friends joke about him still being called Baby Boy when he starts grade seven.

The following day, Quill and Crow return to the area where she heard the scream. The tyre tracks in the snow show that the tribal police only drove one mile down the trail and turned around. Quill sees their lack of thoroughness as a sign of incompetence and laziness. She and Crow go a couple of miles further along the trail and discover a spot where a vehicle was parked. The tracks in the snow indicate that there was some sort of a struggle beside the truck. Quill finds a beaded earring in the snow which she slips in her pocket.

The earring has a very distinctive style that Quill recognises as the work of Giigoonh Jones. She decides that she and Baby Boy should visit Giigoonh to see if she can learn anything about the woman who purchased the earring. Her friends and fellow runners, Punk and Gaylyn, join them. The earrings were sold to someone called Mabel Beaulieu – vital information to move the case forward. Quill vows to herself that she will make the tribal police find the missing woman.

Some men in a pickup truck follow Quill and her friends on their way home. The truck has no front plates and the back plate is covered with mud. Later when another woman is abducted, Quill becomes obsessed with finding out who was in that truck. Her searching does not go unnoticed. The more determined Quill becomes to identify the men, the greater the risk. This is amplified further yet another woman goes missing. You may struggle to decide if Quill is extremely brave or foolish in her determination, but you will not be able to put the book down.

Although missing indigenous women are often described as addicts or sex workers in the press, this takes a limited view of them and their lives. The press fail to see their posts on social media sharing images taken with their families and friends during happy times. When Quill researches missing and trafficked women, she discovers that in another area three oil and gas pipeline workers had lost their jobs after a sting operation uncovered the men’s role in trafficking the women. This information feeds her anxiety about what is happening in their community. The reputation of the pipeline workers is not good. Her anxiety is contagious. You too will worry about the girls and women living on the Red Pine reservation.

Rendon’s plot about the missing women and girls shines a light on the strange symbiotic relationship between the pipeline employees and the people who live on the rez. The men who traffic indigenous women as sex workers benefit financially through the exploitation. Their behaviour is not welcome in the community but it creates a strange dynamic as the oil companies bring much-needed money to the area. The hotels, restaurants and bars rely on their business. Rendon will have you invested in the lives of the people who live on the rez.

You may wonder why Quill takes so many risks in her search for the missing women. Why doesn’t she seek more assistance from the tribal police or from her husband? Crow is a good man and a loving supportive partner but this is not his story. Where They Last Saw Her is about indigenous women in control and supporting each other and in it we also see the support provided by the female elders in the community.

This story takes place on the Red Pine Reservation in Minnesota. Quill lives with her husband and two children. Their Ingenious nation is know as the Ojibwe to the the non-ingenious people. But they know themselves as Anishinaabe people. Quill knows that women of her color and looks disappear. So she must be careful as do her friends on the reservation. She is a runner and trains for marathons and runs in any type of weather. In Minnesota, the weather gets mighty cold and there is lots of snow. When she is running she hears and see things. I love when she see the the birds flying in the sky. But one day she heard a scream. How alarming that was to her and to wonder where it came from. She goes to look to see where the scream came from and finds a pretty beaded earring, but only the one.

Then another woman disappears, and in her heart she needs to know how they disappear. She must help, she searches for clues as to how and where they have gone. She learns of men who are working on a pipeline north of their reservation. This is a part of history many of you do not know, there are many Ingenious woman who have disappeared and have not been found. I wanted to read this book and I wanted to know the story and history of these happenings to these beautiful women. How can someone just take a wife, daughter, aunt, sister and even children too, then harm them. As, I am of native American background too.

I found this book very hard to put down each night when I would read. I would fall asleep wondering what was going to happen next. I highly recommend this book to those who want to learn this history. Thank you Marcie for penning this book. And a thank you to Bantam and Net Galley for approving me to read this wonderful book before publishing.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A Native American goes missing and a trio of three other women begun a hunt for her. The characters are interesting and their backstories contain twists that demonstrate why the search is individually important to each woman.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the free e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

When Quill and her husband, Crow live on a reservation in Minnesota. When out for a run in the Minnesota's Red Pine reservation, Quill hears a scream in the middle of the forest. She's unnerved and convinces Crow to go back out with her, where they find signs of a scuffle but nothing else. As Quill and her 2 friends begins to investigate, they discover that many women and children are going missing. When they figure out who is responsible, they take justice into their own hands.

This is a very well written and intensely engaging story based upon the kidnapping of native american women. Quill is a really strong, fierce main character who doesn't always make the best decisions but who clearly has her heart in the right place. I liked seeing Quill's interactions with her friends and how those relationships grow over the course of the book.

Really a well written, powerful book!

I think with this book, it's important to go in expecting a slower burn mystery than a thriller. I loved Quill's relentless pursuit of what happened to the missing women, and the book sheds light on the many Missing or Murdered Indigenous Persons.

This story focuses on Native American communities and Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women which needs to be talked about more, and I want to continue learning about. Although the topic is important, I had mixed feelings about how I wanted to rate this book because the writing was a little chaotic and didn't flow nicely. When a scene was set up it would suddenly be the next day and I felt like many times a thought was not completed. Also...I did see the twist coming and the end made me confused at times. I enjoyed the character development, the friendships, and strong female lead!

Everything changes for Quill when she hears a scream on her usual afternoon run. She, along with her friends Punk and Gaylyn find themselves pulled in and determined to find not only the mysterious woman but also to help other women who have been grabbed and abused. Her husband Crow (great character) isn't happy that she's putting herself at risk, especially after she becomes a target. But she's determined and she goes all in. What's up with Punk? What is the mystery behind Gaylyn? No spoilers from me. This is a propulsive, immersive thriller where you'll feel the cold, taste the stew, run with the women, and turn the pages. My only quibble beyond the slightly fuzzy life timeline for the characters is that the last couple of chapters which feel too hasty compared to the care taken earlier. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. I'd not read Rendon before but I'm going to look for her in the future. Quill, as impulsive and reckless as she can be, is a woman to admire.

I really enjoyed this fast-paced mystery with its strong female characters, Quill and her two closest friends, as they work to help missing Native American women. It was easy to root for Quill and her friends, even when they put themselves in dangerous situations. I could see myself going to great lengths to save my own close friends as well. The story is gripping and brings important awareness to the issue of undocumented missing Native women, making it a must-read for everyone.

In the novel, Quill, a Native American woman from the Red Pine reservation, hears a scream during her morning run and finds only tire tracks and a beaded earring. When another woman goes missing, she decides she’s had enough and starts investigating the men working on a nearby pipeline. With the support of her friends and family, Quill is determined to uncover the truth and bring justice to her community, facing hard truths along the way.

Thank you Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine Books for providing me this complimentary copy in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Marcie R. Rendon for providing me with a complimentary digital ARC for Where They Last Saw Her coming out September 3, 2024. The honest opinions expressed in this review are my own.

This is the first book I’ve read by this author. I really love Native American stories! I feel like I can’t get enough of them. This one had a really good plot. I loved Quill’s character. She’s a quiet but strong character who has compassion for the people who live on the Red Pine reservation. I loved her husband Crow was supportive of her. They work together well. There were some heavy themes in the book and I loved the exploration of those themes of crime, missing women and bystander culture. I would definitely check out more books by this author!

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys Native American stories!

This is a story that will tug at your heart strings. It will make you want to cry, kick and scream at the injustices. The author does a magnificent job of using the characters to humanize and create empathy in what is a horrible situation. In the midst of all of it she shows their resilience, kindness, love of community and family. It is a well crafted story and one I believe everyone should read.