FollowSinister Graves, Girl Gone Missing, and Murder on the Red River — by Marcie Rendon
My wife recommended Marcie Rendon and her character Cash Blackbear, and I binged Sinister Graves (2022), Girl Gone Missing (2019), and Murder on the Red River (2017)—in reverse order as it turned out.
Set in the Vietnam era upper Midwest—the border of Minnesota and North Dakota near Fargo and Moorhead—the novels feature Renee “Cash” Blackbear, a young native woman who made her way through a series of bad foster homes to an independent life. She spends nights working on farms, then playing pool at the Casbah and other venues. She’s rarely without a cigarette or a long-necked Budweiser and she’s got a married lover. She’s in college at Morehead State and she’s the informal ward of the local sheriff, who recruits her to look into various crimes: a dead farmworker, a missing college student, and the body of a young woma
n found after a flood.
Rendon explores Cash’s anxieties about her background but
shows her resilience in facing them and her toughness in facing down criminals. Rendon uses the crimes and Cash’s narration to comment insightfully on native and rural issues of the time.
A highly recommended series and I’m looking forward to reading the fourth book, Broken Field
The Boy With Six Fingers by Barry Vitcov
In this novella, Barry Vitcov introduces an ensemble of characters who mature like fine wines. The central character is the quirky Seymour S. Seymour (“called me Sy”), a red-beret-wearing senior citizen who befriends young man nicknamed Wink and his family. Wink enjoys polydactylism—in this case an extra middle finger and Sy explains that it makes him exceptional, like having a triple-decker name or wearing a red beret. Sy passes on early in the book, but he leaves a legacy of influence. Vitcov introduces us to Wink’s parents, Mel and Sylvie, his wife Sylvia (nicknamed Pinky), his children the judgmental Seth and the happy-go-lucky Boyd, and various others: a retired teacher, a Beatle-s quoting waitress, Sy’s grandson Stanley. Each character gets their own short chapter. The arc of the story involves a tragic shooting, an anonymous confession, and the coming together of the characters at a celebration commemorating the 50-year anniversary of Sy Seymour’s death. Reflecting on Sy’s influence, the characters discover much about themselves and the power of connection. Vitcov has a special talent for depicting a wide-range of characters and bringing them all together in a seamless whole. You’ll enjoy this uplifting story.
Trial by Ambush by Marcia Clark
Read this one for my book club. It’s an intriguing true crime story ripped from the headlines of the 1950s. Clark is somewhat clunk as a writer–often interjecting herself into the story for no reason–but she’s done a fine job of researching the history of the Barbara Graham case and has a good eye for interesting historical details.
Graham, who became known as “Bloody Babs,” was a petty criminal with a lousy background—unloved and in and out of reform schools. In 1953 the thirty-year-old Graham was involved in a robbery that resulted in the murder of a 64-year old widow in Burbank and she became the main attraction of a media circus treating her as a femme fatale. Prosecutors withheld crucial evidence and Graham was executed in 1955 in San Quenton prison. It’s a cautionary tale of media sensationalism, prosecutorial misconduct, and sexism.
