Marcie Rendon Reading/Signing

About the Book:

Set in 1970s Minnesota on the White Earth Reservation, Pinckley Prize–winner Marcie R. Rendon’s gripping new mystery follows Cash Blackbear, a young Ojibwe woman, as she attempts to discover the truth about the disappearances of Native girls and their newborns.

A snowmelt has sent floodwaters down to the fields of the Red River Valley, dragging the body of an unidentified Native woman into the town of Ada. The only evidence the medical examiner recovers is a torn piece of paper inside her bra: a hymnal written in English and Ojibwe.

Cash Blackbear, a 19-year-old Ojibwe woman, sometimes helps Sheriff Wheaton, her guardian, on his investigations. Now she knows her search for justice for this anonymous victim will take her to the White Earth Reservation, a place she once called home.

When Cash happens upon two small graves in the yard of a rural, “speak-in-tongues kinda church,” Cash is pulled into the lives of the malevolent pastor and his troubled wife while yet another Native woman dies in a mysterious manner.

Praise:

A Ms. Magazine Most Anticipated Book of 2022

A Publishers Weekly Big Indie Book of Fall

“Marcie Rendon is writing an addictive and authentically Native crime series propelled by the irresistible Cash Blackbear—a warm, sad, sharp, funny and intuitive young Ojibwe woman. I want a shelf of Cash Blackbear novels! To my delight I have a feeling that Rendon is only getting started.”

—Louise Erdrich, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Night Watchman

“Marcie R. Rendon pulls us into a gritty Native American noir about a rebel with a supernatural verve: Cash Blackbear. She’s as mysterious as she is deadly, and after five minutes in Cash’s presence I was intrigued and charmed. Sinister Graves is a gripping novel that digs into the sacred and unearths haunting fragments of reservation life. Rendon is a master storyteller and binds us inside the depths of our own psychological cellars, of which we may never return.”

—Oscar Hokeah, author of Calling for a Blanket Dance

“Sinister Graves is a gripping, must-read mystery. The rhythm brings to mind Sue Grafton at her finest, but Cash Blackbear, the story’s beating heart, is a character all her own. She’s both fierce and vulnerable, and I’d follow her anywhere.”

—Jess Lourey, Edgar-nominated author of Unspeakable Things

“A superb slice of character-centric crime.”

—Mystery Scene

“Lots of menace in this hyperunderstated character piece.”

—Kirkus Reviews

Order Your Copy From Next Chapter Booksellers

ISBN: 9781641293839

About The Author:

Marcie Rendon is an enrolled member of the White Earth Nation, a Pinckley Prize-winning author, playwright, poet, freelance writer, and a community arts activist. Rendon was awarded the McKnight Distinguished Artist Award for 2020. She is a speaker on Native issues, leadership, and writing. Her second novel in her Cash Blackbear mystery series, Girl Gone Missing, was nominated for the Sue Grafton Memorial Award. Rendon was recognized as a 50 over 50 Change-maker by Minneapolis AARP and Pollen in 2018. She lives in Minneapolis