Random House Publishing provided an early galley for review.

This is the fourth novel from Rendon and, having read them all, I see that she employs similar elements with this one as she has with her Cash Blackburn mystery series. Being a Native American, she writes about what she knows and does a fantastic job doing that. Her details about life for those on the reservations comes across clearly and honestly. It is a strength that she plays into for her novels.

Rendon also makes it a point to highlight the challenges that Native Americans face. This novel specifically focuses on the abduction of women and children from reservations. She feels it is important to shine a light on these problems and uses her writing to inform and to sound a call for action.

There are a couple things in her writing, though, that did not work for me as a reader.

First, she occasionally peppers dialogue with the Ojibwe language. While this very much adds to the realism of her work, it can be a source of confusion for the reader. Without some kind of translation, it puts the responsibility on the reader to find a way to translate things (if they decide to put in that effort at all). That takes time that pulls them out of the reading experience.

Second, her sentence structure tends to be less complex. It is often person-did-this, person-did-that. A lot of telling rather than showing. Again, it factors into the overall reading experience.

In both of these things, the mileage may vary depending upon the reader and their usual consumption sources

I just turned the last page of Where They Last Saw Her on my kindle and I am sitting here thinking of the words that would accurately portrait this book. Important. This is an important book that I would recommend for 16 plus. While it is fictional, it is based on the kidnapping and trafficking of our Native women. I am embarrassed to admit that I had no idea this was happening. According to the Author’s note, approximately 4200 missing and murdered cases have gone unsolved.

I have never read any of Marcie Rendon’s books before, but this one is an easy 5 stars for me. Not only is the topic important, it is extremely well written. I looked forward to my time with the characters every night when I read.

“Where We Last Saw Her” had a good plot and likable characters. I liked story of Quill and her friends and learning about their culture. I know many Native American women do go missing so the book was very realistic. However I found the writing style rather immature and not to my taste, which is why I gave it 3 stars instead of 4.

Thank you to Net Galley and Random House - Ballantine Books for the ARC to read and review with my honest opinions.

4.5 stars

Quill is a woman on a mission. She is set on training for the Boston Marathon, but when the reservation she lives on becomes a hunting ground for women and girls who look like her, her husband begs her to be cautious and only run in groups.

Tragedy after tragedy unfurls in this book full of unsolved mysteries. Quill finally decides to take things into her own hands when it seems no law enforcement is focused on finding the Native American women who continue to go missing.

I really enjoyed the main characters and their thorough development. I always love books that educate while they entertain, and this one sheds light on the thousands of missing Indian women and girls in the US & Canada.

Quill is a young woman living on the Red Pine reservation in Minnesota, when one day she hears a woman scream while out running in a nearby forested area. Where They Last Saw Her embarks on an investigation of what happened to the woman, and an overall examination of the experience of Native women and their treatment by law enforcement officers and white men, from the perspective of Quill.
This is certainly a worthy topic, but the execution, specifically the writing, was clunky and lacking finesse. When I first started the book, I had to check to see if the author was a debut writer because it felt like it was written by a novice. There were multiple story threads, and while I would not dispute that this is the experience of Native women, it felt like there was too much going on and the author lost certain threads as the book progressed.
For me, while I found the topic and the characters worthwhile, my enjoyment of the book was decreased by the execution of the writing. This was a hard rating to make because of the topic being so important, shedding light on the experience of Native women.
Thank you to Random House Ballantine and NetGalley for the electronic ARC of this novel for review.

There’s no denying that the plot starts slow. I definitely almost dnfed. I’m not a fan of writing that does a lot more telling than showing which is something this book features. I also think there is a cycle of scenes that are very similar which made the story a bit bland. Things did pick up eventually, and I was curious to see how things would play out. It’s not my favorite missing woman on a reservation story, but it’s ok.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced eARC.

Where They Last Saw Her takes place on Red Pine reservation in Minnesota. Quill is out running on a wooded trail one day when she hears a woman's scream. Women are disappearing from the reservation, and Quill is determined to find them. The novel explores the issue of the many missing and murdered Indigenous women and the camps of men who have come into the area to work on the pipeline. It's an important subject that the author seeks to tackle, but I found the dialogue awkward and sometimes just didn't feel true. It was a difficult book to get into. Thanks to NetGalley and Bantam for the ARC.

Inspiring mystery! Quill is so lucky that she doesn't live the same heart-wrenching hardships as some of her neighbors. She's compelled to help them at whatever cost. This author is an excellent story teller!

This novel feels authentic and disturbing. It offers a detailed sense of an indigenous community, especially in the sense of community ties, as well as a sold feel for the friendship among the women. They live in a fraught world where hope for justice is faint and pressures to cling to tradition battle with a sense of themselves as strong women. At times, Quill was annoying for her insensitivity, but her need to be herself still shone through. I enjoyed being an insider to the traditions, clothing, and community bonds.

This is a Native American Story set in Minnesota. Quill lives in the Red Pine reservation and deals with her anxiety by running. She's hoping to run the Boston and has inspired some other women to run with her. It's when she is running out alone that she hears something - she is sure that it is a woman that is in trouble. Even with her husband and her friends alerted, she is unable to get the local police interested. Quill does what we would do - she takes it into her own hands and puts herself in danger.
A good story. #randomhouse #marcierrendon #wheretheylastsawher

A hard book to read but an important one and well worth my students reading, both those who are Native and those who aren't. Lots of issues woven into the mystery and strong female characters and strong cultural and family shown.

Well. This was devastating. Incredible thriller with a dark reality woven in. It left me thinking about it for a week after finishing.

This book is sad but based in reality of how native women are and have been treated for years. The female characters are strong and the plot is interesting.

A tough look at the MMIW (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women) crisis brings attention to the tragedy through a decent mystery novel.

Quill and her family live in rural Minnesota on an Ojibwe reservation. Quill is a runner and is training for a marathon, but when she’s running out in the forest she hears a woman scream. The tribal police half-heartedly investigate, so Quill decides to find out more for herself. As she digs deeper, Quill witnesses and hears about more attacks on Native women and she herself is intimidated and threatened.

As a mystery this is just okay, but what makes it much more immediate is the folding in of the real life horror of missing Indigenous women and girls, particularly around “man camps” set up to work on pipelines. Quill and her friends are given agency in their search for justice, though this does lead them to make some risky choices. I completely sympathized with Crow, Quill’s stoic and supportive husband, in his frustration and protectiveness.

Also adding to the texture of this novel, is the weaving in of information about Indian culture. This is sometimes done seamlessly but occasionally is a bit clumsy and clunky. The author creates a powerful feeling of community with the women’s group who run together to bring attention to the plight of their sisters.

I felt I learned a lot, which is not necessarily something you look for with a mystery, but it worked for me.

Thanks to Bantam and Netgalley for the digital review copy.

Simply put, this book was amazing. Thoroughly thought-provoking, as it provides perspective on a serious issue and trauma occurring in Native communities across Canada and the United States. Marcie R. Rendon does a good job at providing information/statistics to enrich and guide her storytelling. It is dark yet captivating. I would overall recommend this book. (4 stars)

This book brings to light the every important issue of Native American women going missing and how little seems to be done to try to find them. The books starts off fast with the woman's scream and it kept me intrigued. It was definitely a hard read at times knowing how this is so true to life but it is every important for people to actually know about and understand.

I liked this book I like the elements of native culture and I felt it important that it brings to light the large number of native women who go missing and nothing is done
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me review the book

Thank you to the publisher for my arc!

I really wanted to enjoy this but sadly this wasn’t for me. The story didn’t keep me engaged

Thank you Netgalley and the author for allowing me to read this book. I very much enjoyed it. While reading I learned a bit about native culture. The book was exciting and scary. It brought to my attention about how many native women go missing and nothing is done. I will be reading more about this.

Quill and husband, Crow, live on the rez in Minnesota. She’s training for a marathon but, what or who is she really running from? As I read her story her motivations became clearer - fear, anger, pain and the need for justice. The plot highlights the search for women missing and those searching for them. I’ve read several other novels which highlighted ongoing social disparity within the Native American people. The book reminded me of the short-lived TV show Alaska Daily. Women of many ethnic groups go missing by the hour, when will changes come? The area where this takes place is very unfamiliar to me, cold near the Canadian border. The characters were vivid and the search for the missing is an emotional journey. Quill is so focused on getting answers and finding the forgotten missing women, that her own husband and young children take a back seat. She doesn’t realize her priorities could leave them motherless. She’s impulsive, determined and puts herself in risky situations. Much of her frustration stems from law enforcement’s continued jurisdictional disputes with little to no cooperation between agencies. The cultural insights were relevant and valuable. This was another new author to add to my watch list. Thanks to Bantam Books, Penguin Random House for providing the Advance Reader Copy of “Where They Last Saw Her” by Marcie R. Rendon, via NetGalley, expected publication 09/03/2024. These are my own honest personal thoughts and opinions given voluntarily without compensation.