📚 Where They Last Saw Her by Marcie Rendon 📚

Thank you Random House and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this early. Pub date September 3rd!

This is a standalone novel/thriller about MMIW in Minnesota. It's not a Cash Blackbear novel and I found myself thinking about similarities and differences between Quinn, the main character in this, and Cash, the very beloved amateur sleuth from the series.

Quinn is a little bit older than Cash, is a mother, and is in a good relationship with her husband. She grew up in her tribe and on the reservation, unlike Cash who was in several foster homes before ICWA. Quinn is also living in present day Minnesota whereas Cash is in the early 70s. As I read further into the book, I discovered some of their similarities - especially the tendency to make rash decisions that place themselves in clear danger, and their lack of trust in authority figures like police to make a difference when it gets down to it. Needless to say, I loved this book even though it didn't feature Cash, and she was still in my thoughts a lot while reading it.

Quinn navigates fear, trauma, parenting through trauma, trust issues, while investigating a disappeared woman whose scream she heard while she was out running. Though some of her decisions confused me, I came to realize that they were about doing what she only trusted herself to do, no one else, when it came to protecting women from the man-camps and other places and people who were preying on them. I loved how she used running and the community uplifted her with that and it helped with some healing. The book is thought-provoking and brought up the sense of horror that families of MMIW are feeling all the time. It's an unputdownable thriller and also a book that brings this issue to the forefront, everyone should read it.

Quill is a Native American woman who is tired of seeing women go missing on and around the reservation. She is scared for her life and her friends and family. She’s not a person to take it lying down. She starts investigating the missing women and discovers shocking things.
This was an interesting story and had me quickly flipping the pages. Thanks NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine for this eARC that will be released September 3, 2024!

Where They Last Saw Her covers some very hard but very real issues for Indigenous Women and children. This book is a fictional story of Native American women living on a reservation in northern Minnesota. The women have to do things in a group in order to be safe. The reservation law enforcement is overworked and often can’t spend enough time on each case.
Marcie R. Rendon does a good job with informing us of some of the statistics for Native American women’s abductions, murders and trafficking. There are over 4,000 unsolved murders and missing Native American/Indigenous women.

The book is definitely a hard to read book, but I really enjoyed reading about the women who helped each other. The elders and families were respected. Altogether, the members of the reservation were a cohesive group.

This review has been hard to write, I wanted to tell of the issues that are happening and yet also state how much I loved this book. Something must be done to help the Native American women who have been abducted, raped, trafficked, and abused.

This book would be a great for a book club, I would love to be a part of the discussion.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book. The review is entirely my opinion.

.

Okay so let me get my peeves out of the way so I can tell you what an incredible read this was! (and I read an advanced reader copy so maybe hopefully someone else pointed this out and fixed it)
Marathons are 26.2 miles. It is a defined distance, not 27 miles, and there are no "long marathons" unless the race director screwed up the route or you got lost. Or, you are referring to an ultramarathon, which wasn't the case. Later I tripped over another inconsistency regarding dinner prep but that was (embarrassingly) because I was drooling over the thought of a nice thick stew for dinner even though it was 100+ degrees here. It sounded so good!

And, now on to my glowing review.
OMG!! This book! The female friendships! The relationship between Quill and Crow! And the heartbreaking all too true to real life story of the attacks on indigenous women and children! This book was fiction but these horrors are continually happening. While Crow was getting angry at Quill, I could understand her need to do something and to stop feeling helpless. I loved how the community gathered frequently to support each other and how the elders in the community were respected and honored. I wish that for the rest of us. The writing was wonderful and descriptive. My heart twisted over and over again following along. I am not sure I was supposed to figure out the twist at the point I did or not, but it didn't detract from how everything went down for me. I know books like this won't create safe spaces for indigenous women and children, but bringing awareness of the issue to more people certainly can help create a foundation of support! I will be reading more from this author!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy. I have mixed feelings about this book. The subject matter was timely and something I was interested in reading about, but the execution was off. I liked the view into life on the rez, but there was so much repetition. I didn’t necessarily need to know every time Quill made a stew or went for a run. Also, it was obvious who the villain was pretty much the moment he was introduced to the story, which definitely ruined any suspense/thriller aspects of the book. Overall, this was a simple, slow burn type of drama, so if that is what you are looking for, you will enjoy it.

Quill did not quit - and I loved her for it.
She showed up. For the women who needed her. Those missing, those lost.
Her daughter bears witness- does she even have the luxury of innocence? No. It terrifies her. But this is her mother's, the women's legacy- bear witness for the lost women.
So well written.

Quill has a passion for running. One day while she is out running she hears a scream that sounds like it belongs to a women. Quill later becomes determined to find this missing women and unravel the myster of the mmiw.

I throughly enjoyed this book. Quill was a relatable character. At times she could be reckless and impulsive, but given her circumstances you understand. I enjoyed that this book touched on many subjects including generational trauma, MMIW, and addiction. I enjoyed seeing how different characters reacted to the women going missing in their area, it was realistic. Some were fearful others angry. Sisterhood had a strong presence in this book. I would have rated 5 stars however, I felt the last few chapters were a little rushed. I would enjoyed it more if they were much longer.
Overall I recommend this book and can't wait to check out the author's other works.
Thank you publishers and netgalley for this review opportunity.

An intense slow burn mystery/thriller that shines a necessary light on the Missing Murdered Indigenous Women Girls Two Spirit movement. I really like how this was a female centric story and the main cast of female characters came together and were determined to solve a crime that would otherwise be neglected and unsolved. The author identifies some of the issues that the tribal nation faces but also showcases their power of community, support, and resilience. A great pick if you enjoyed "True Detective: Night Country".

Many thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for an early review copy of the book.

SYNOPSIS
- On the Red Pine Reservation in Minnesota, Quill is training for the Boston Marathon & she is out for a run on an early, cold morning. She hears a scream.
- Quill investigates in her own, as she remains frustrated by the fruitless efforts by law enforcement. She discovers a lot, and we get to see her friends (Punk and Gaylyn) and her family (her husband Crow & her two kids).

MY THOUGHTS
- Such a timely, devastating topic - Missing Indigenous women. Beautifully written by a Native woman.
- I loved watching it all unfold, and the author does an amazing job unpacking the harsh realities impacting the Indigenous women every single day. The book does a great job discussing generational trauma as well.
- The author beautifully illustrates tight-knit communities & strong women. Loved getting to see their friendships.
- The book is painful to read at times, but it is a necessary read.
- Quill is a very likable main character. Although she makes rash decisions at times, she is a strong woman fighting for the truth, and she is exhausted by the epidemic going on that impacts the fellow women in her community.

TL;DR: ⭐️⭐️⭐⭐️amazing story about the epidemic of missing Indigenous women. Beautifully written by a Native woman.

Thanks to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Bantam and Netgalley for this digital ARC in exchanges for an honest review. This book will be published on September 3, 2024.

I know this review may seem like I didn’t enjoy the book, but it is the exact opposite. I had so many conflicting emotions when reading, but I think that is a sign of a great story. MMIW needs to have more of a spotlight and Marcie Rendon did an amazing job creating a story that is all too real.

Now to the review, Quill has to be one of the most frustrating characters I have ever read. Her heart is in the right place and I loved her tenacity, but she did not think things through at all. She was constantly putting herself and others in danger. She should have gone into law enforcement, she would have made a great detective, but it seemed she was hell bent on self destruction when it came to her family.

At the same time, her feeling of powerlessness when it came authorities finding the missing women is all too familiar. Too often crimes against indigenous people are caught in red tape over whose jurisdiction it is, and the actual people are lost in the bureaucracy.

I can’t recommend this book highly enough. I hope you read it and it starts a discussion with people that do not know about this very real plight.

Thank you Netgalley and Random House-Ballantine for the ARC of Where They Last Saw Her.

4.25 🌟

This book does such a good job bringing to light the struggles of indigenous women and the communities they live in.

This book deals with a lot of hard struggles - drug and gambling addictions, r@pe, child abduction etc. So know you are picking up a heavy book when you pick this book up. The mystery drew me in and I think it's so important to understand the struggles of others.

Thanks, Netgalley for the ARC of this book!

Utterly heartbreaking. Where They Last Saw Her is such a powerful story. A fictionalized version of an all too common tale of kidnapped and missing indigenous women and children.

This story is centered around Quill, a native woman who has lived on Red Pine reservation in Minnesota her whole life, as well as her friends and family, as they navigate a tragedy shaking their community to its core.

I couldn’t stop reading once I started. I was so consumed by needing to know that Quill and all those she loved were alright. Thank you NetGalley and Bantam for my copy.

This is a very important--but heartbreaking--book about MMIW.

One of my favorite "small" things in the book was hearing about what an Indigenous person of this tribal group might have as part of their daily diet. I appreciated Quill's strong feeling and need to try and help these women, but putting herself in danger when she has a family at home who needs her, became frustrating. I'm so happy she wanted to advocate for these women, but alongside her husband Crow, it led me to constantly worry about her. (I adore him, by the way.) Overall a good and worthwhile read, that also reminds us we can all do better.

3 stars!

This book is really hard for me to rate and review because I think the issue it covers - indigenous women being kidnapped, assaulted, and abused often without care from government and law enforcement agencies - is extremely important, but unfortunately something about this book just didn't work that well for me.

What I Liked:
- I think that the three main female characters were very established and definitely felt like real people. I also liked the relationship between the three of them and thought they really complimented each other
- I enjoyed learning more about the indigenous culture, and as I said before, I appreciated reading more about this difficult but poignant topic

What Didn't Work for Me:
- I understand how running and races became a theme of community for the women on the reservation, but there was just so much talk about running
- The writing style was a little too simple for me. I found that I really couldn't connect to the writing, and it felt like many parts (setting, a coffee cup, other small almost unimportant details) were overexplained
- This book was also very slow paced. This is definitely more of a literary mystery (think along the veins of I Have Some Questions For You) instead of a more fast paced twisty investigative process.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Training for the Boston Marathon is not an easy task. Where can you find a long path that is safe and free of obstacles?

Quill was living on a reservation in the northern area of Minnesota near Duluth. She was three miles on her run in a wooded area when she heard a woman’s scream. This set the pace for the book where Quill was now obsessed to find out what happened to this person. Was she alive or dead?

The statistics were familiar: over 5,000 Native women have been documented as missing or murdered with trafficking as a huge problem. Women have been drugged, raped and taken to the Duluth harbor ships never to be seen again.

Quill was happily married to Crow with two adoring children. Her husband wanted her to stay safe at home but she needed to help her women friends and she couldn’t stop trying to search for those that were missing. Plus, she had to keep training for the big race.

The pace is quick and the plot is dark and tense. There were enough hints in the story to predict the outcome. However, the message was clear: something must be done to help the Native women that are missing and this book is thought-provoking and stays in your head. Running long distances helped Quill and her friends with the anxiety they faced. This would be an excellent topic for book clubs.

My thanks to Bantam and NetGalley for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this book with an expected release date of September 3, 2024.

When Quill is out for a run on the Minnesota's Red Pine reservation, she hears a scream in the middle of the forest. She's unnerved and convinces her husband Crow to go back out with her, where they find signs of a scuffle. But when the tribal police investigate and comb the forest, they don't find anything. Quill is spooked, but this is just the beginning--soon, another woman is kidnapped from a local casino, and a second woman is drugged and barely escapes kidnapping herself. Quill is convinced everything is connected and, along with her friends Punk and Gaylyn, is determined to investigate the escalating violence against these indigenous women that no one else seems to care about.

This was a fairly intense and heart wrenching book, but I couldn't put it down. 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, and you can't help but root for her. Her love for her husband, children, and community shines through and she's willing to put herself at risk to protect those she loves. Despite the intense subject matter, the book also lifts up female friendship and community, and it's nice to see Quill's interactions with her friends and how those relationships grow over the course of the book. Really well written, powerful book from an award-winning author (of the Cash Blackbear series, just a note that this is a standalone and not part of that series).

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Netgalley for the arc of this upcoming title.

Mysteries are something I have always gravitated towards, but in the world of tropes and what sells, i feel like I have read the same story. Could their be something new in this genre? I always hope so.

This isnt to say I disliked this, but this didn't keep the same beats. I kept a certain tone which I did appreciate. However, in the end, this was nothing new.

This was a compelling story about a timely issue, so I feel a bit awkward admitting that I did not enjoy it as much as I expected. The writing style was fairly straightforward, but the timeline was confusing in several parts, and there were inconsistencies in the story that distracted me from becoming fully immersed. There were also a few moments where a detail was shared in the narrative and it felt like it was foreshadowing something, but then nothing would come of it.

I also found the main character, Quill, to be a bit too chaotic for me. I realize she suffers from PTSD, but there were so many times that her judgment seemed way off-course, to the point that even her friends and family were trying to redirect her to better, safer options, and she was not willing to listen or take appropriate action. The reader is never told her age, but I got the impression she was relatively young - late twenties, maybe.

Things I enjoyed about the story: character development was solid, especially for the three main female protagonists, and Quill's husband, Crow. I found the strong bond of friendship between the women both authentic and inspiring. I liked the inclusion of Ojibwe cultural, linguistic, and spiritual elements. And the author knows how to create tension in the getaway scene near the end - my heart was racing!

Rendon’s latest novel was utterly gripping. It tackles heavy subjects like child abductions, sexual violence, and family trauma, making it a tough but compelling read. As someone who is from the area she is writing about, this is SUCH AN IMPORTANT topic to discuss. Despite the harrowing content, I couldn’t look away. I've had multiple people within my community and in my personal life affected by the topics discussed within this book. This intense and eye-opening book sheds light on an urgent and often overlooked crisis.

This novel is set near Duluth Minnesota area and is about a young woman on the Ojibwe reservation who is training for the Boston Marathon. While she is out running she hears a high pitched scream somewhere near her. She tries to find the victim but is not able to do so. The rest of the story is her intense effort to find the missing woman even though it means putting her loving family and friends in real danger. This story is written in such a way that the reader is deeply involved in the story and learns so much about life on the Indian reservation. The story is masterfully crafted and all characters are developed so that the reader is hooked and breathless as the story slowly unfolds. This is mystery at its best while teaching us all about the plight of indigenous women on the reservations and how they are kidnapped and disappear in alarming numbers and very few are found. I highly recommend this book and I look forward to reading more by this author in the future.

I wish to thank Net Galley and Bantam Random House publishers for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this book. I have voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.