⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨ (4.5 stars)
Cash Blackbear never goes looking for trouble, but trouble always finds her. When the Ojibwe college student and farmhand stumbles across a murdered farmer and a frightened young girl in rural Minnesota, she’s pulled into a case as tangled as the furrows she plows. What unfolds is more than a mystery—it’s a stark look at the foster care system, the weight of racism, and what it means to fight for survival when the odds are stacked against you.
Marcie R. Rendon’s Broken Fields is one of those mysteries you inhale in a weekend. On the surface, it’s a deliciously complicated whodunit set in 1970s Minnesota farm country. But Rendon, an enrolled member of the White Earth Nation, gives us much more—gritty details of rural life, the American Indian Movement, women’s liberation, and the ugly realities of abusive labor practices.
Blackbear, the tough Ojibwe heroine of Rendon’s series, is as sharp as ever—resourceful, intuitive, and unwilling to play by white men’s rules. Here, she’s pulled into a tragic, unforgiving case that shines a harsh light on the foster care system and its devastating toll on Indigenous kids.
This is crime fiction with teeth—and heart. Broken Fields delivers suspense, social insight, and a heroine you can’t help but root for. A standout in the growing field of mysteries led by Indigenous women sleuths.
**Thanks to Edelweiss Plus and Soho Crime for a comp. Opinions are my own.