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Quill, her husband, Crow, and her two young children are embedded in the culture and community of the Red River reservation in northern Minnesota, although they are more prosperous than most. She is a runner who has her heart set on competing in the Boston Marathon, so she trains heavily on the remote roads and trails of the reservation. One day, when she is out running on a snowy road, she hears a scream. When she and Crow head out to investigate the following day, Quill finds a disturbed area in the snow and a tiny beaded earring. Though she tells the tribal police about the scream and disturbance, they don't put much effort into investigating. Quill has had enough with women from the reservation going missing with no consequences and the resulting suspicion and nervousness of the Ojibwe community where she lives, so she takes on the investigation herself.
Throughout the book, Quill makes dangerous choices and engages in behavior that has her husband desperate to stop her from inserting herself into the search for murderers. While Rendon does, in general, a great job of building Quill's character, Quill's need to continue the investigation even in the face of danger to herself and her family is hard to believe. Quill's friends and running buddies are equally well developed, and in some ways make more sense given the reality of the dangers involved. Rendon also includes more traditional Ojibwe women in the story, and it is with these characters that she is able to provide a sense of the interconnectedness of the reservation community.
The reader gets a sense of the long distances traveled by the reservation members just to manage their day-to-day lives. The interdependence of the tribe members as they make those treks and attempt to find safety in numbers is palpable. There are many tough issues dealt with in the book, stretching beyond the central theme of missing Indigenous women. Drug addiction, inherent toxic masculinity fostered in all-male work camps, gambling at native casinos…all are sensitively dealt with. There's a heartfelt connection between the youthful runners and the traditional grandmas from the reservation as they all attempt to make a safe place for native women.
Rendon brings a different perspective to the issue of missing Indigenous women than many of the recent novels that have been built around this theme have managed. She brings the perspective of the women themselves into the forefront, especially how this frightening epidemic affects native women's sense of security in their day to day lives. The story-telling never loses this point of view, which adds power to the plot and the resolution.
I'm not sure if this is the start of a new Indigenous series. Rendon's ongoing Cash Blackbear series is more compelling to me mainly because I find Cash's character more nuanced and sympathetic. If Rendon decides to continue with Quill in a series, and there is some indication that may happen in the final words of WHERE THEY LAST SAW HER, I have no doubt but that some of my discomfort with Quill's character will be resolved. Even if this is all that we see of Quill, the book provides an important frame of reference for understanding the dangers faced by Indigenous women in the context of a suspenseful story.
§ Sharon Mensing, retired educational leader, lives, reads, and enjoys the outdoors in Arizona.
Reviewed by Sharon Mensing, September 2024
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