This book covers a epidemic that needs more exposure and talk. Every day indigenous women disappear or worse and the news never covers it! This book had me from the first page and I am so glad I read it. I'll be reading more by this author and I hope she gets all the press and exposure so she can bring to light this problem in both here and Canada.

Thank you Netgalley for the advance reader copy of Where They Lost Saw Her by Marcie R. Rendon in exchange for an honest review. What an insightful book. I am so glad that we are getting more books, movies and TV shows that are shining a light on the Murdered & Missing Indigenous People. Laws really need to be fixed so that there are better investigations and that those responsible are held accountable. I grew very attached to Quill, family and her strength.

First of all thanks to Netgalley and Random House/Bantam for letting me read and eARC of Where They Last Saw Her by Marcie R. Rendon. Where They Last Saw Her was an excellent mystery with a fantastic plot that kept me intrigued throughout its duration. More importantly, however, is the commentary and light it shines on missing and murdered indigenous women.

Don’t miss this one. I thought I was picking up a mystery based in the Native American Community but finished with new knowledge about the violence against women and children surrounding the pipeline workers and the man camps. I had no idea. This book is a good mystery but also immerses you in life on the reservation as a woman and living with the fear that you and your children are not safe. Quill is running on the reservation when she hears a scream and finds an earring and knows another Native American woman has gone missing and she’s not going to let this one go. You get to know Quill’s friends, husband and children and more women and children go missing. Not to be missed, important work by an Indigenous Female author

Excellent read and very important story to be told. The missing Native American women is something that needs to be addressed more.

Marcie R. Tendon I cannot thank you enough for opening my eyes to the plight of American Indian and Alaska Natives. The statistics in your Author’s Notes share that “…there are approximately 4,200 missing and murdered cases that have gone unsolved.”
Quill was such a strong, persistent woman, always putting others first. Her relationships with her husband, children, and friends rang so very true. I was hooked instantly when Quill heard a chilling scream as she was running and was intent on pursuing finding out what happened. The symbolism of the earring was very clever. Her own background as a child set the stage for her future.
As I intently read I realized that Marcie R. Rendon had a powerful message for the reader. Awareness of the dangers of camps of men working in close proximity to so many Native women and girls will bother me for many years. The thought never crossed my mind that they would treat women like they were disposable…so easily kidnapped, used, and disposed of. So very chilling and heartbreaking. Although this story is fiction I have no doubt it is a true depiction of reality.
Quill’s investigative skills were truly inspiring, as was her commitment to her friends as well as women she had never met. She risked her marriage and her life to help these poor women. So loved the comradery of the women in her village, supporting each other. Loved the was Quill used running to keep herself in check and the way she inspired so many others to run as well.
My only question was why her son was always referred to as Baby Boy throughout the book.
My sincere appreciation to Marcie R. Rendon for bringing awareness to the horrific situations they are placed in, Bantam, and NetGalley for providing me with an arc of this thought provoking book,

This is a work of fiction with a nonfiction background.
Human trafficking and the kidnapping and murder of Indigenous women and children are very real and very heartbreaking, terrifying, and anger inducing.

In this story, the Indigenous women rise up and fight for one another in solidarity. While inspirational, it still brings to life that heartbreak, fear and anger because the reader, upon doing any research of this topic, will find that those horrible things happen every year(and many cases go unreported).

This diverse read is well worth your time and attention. It truly makes the reader think about what is happening around us. A work of fiction that can not only be entertaining but also informative is very much worth the read.

4⭐️

As always, thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to have an advanced ebook copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I finished reading Where They Last Saw her a couple weeks ago and haven’t stopped thinking about it. The book is a heartfelt and terrifying commentary on the violence against Native American women—the pressure they have to balance their family, their heritage, their career, and everything else with little support and lots of looming danger.

Where They Last Saw Her by Marcie Rendon is a hard book for me to review, so I’m going to split it into a list of what I liked and disliked.

Quick summary: Quill is an Indigenous woman who has lived on the Red Pine reservation her entire life. She’s married to a great man, and together they have two small children. She has a passion for running, and is training for the Boston Marathon with two of her close friends. But one day on a run, she hears a scream in the woods and from that day forward, she finds herself falling deeper into a dark conspiracy happening on the reservation.

Likes:
- We need more books by Native American women to hit the mainstream, and this one has a lot of the marks to do that. Rendon writes about the disappearances of Indigenous women, a topic people are often ignorant of or simply don’t know enough about. I am glad this book exists.
- While I didn’t find Quill likable, I feel like she was a well-developed character who found herself in a really difficult situation. Her choices sometimes bothered me, but they made sense for her character in those moments.
- Some readers may dislike this, but I love that Rendon sprinkled a lot of Ojibwe words/phrases into the story. The context is there to figure out the meaning, and it truly centers the community this book represents.
- Rendon knows the story she’s telling and is not afraid of showing how dark it is. She does not hold back, and I appreciate that.

Dislikes:
- This is almost all telling rather than showing, and it really makes the book feel dry. The writing is quite simplistic: person does this, then this, then this. There is very little attempt to show this world to us.
- There is so much superfluous information. I tested to see it I could skip big chunks of chapters and still understand what was going on, and yup, it was easy to find spots in the book that were skippable because they added nothing to the plot or characters. I would go back & read the sections I skipped just to be sure I hadn’t missed anything - nope, just unnecessary paragraphs of telling.
- Random PSAs. Yes, this topic is of massive importance but there is a way of showing that through craft that does not involve the characters delivering lines about MMIW without it feeling as if they are speaking to an audience. It made several sections feel inauthentic because characters seemed to be breaking the third wall and talking to readers rather than the other characters.

Overall, I’m glad I read this and I hope more people pick it up. While it has its issues (in my opinion), the actual story is really compelling and one that needs to be told.

The premise of the book is the sexual / physical trafficking and abuse of Native American women. Indian customs and beliefs are present throughout the book and quite interesting. However, I found the writing style and inconsistent and at times too slow. Was overall disappointed.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group Ballantine for the eARC.

This book is haunting. It was really a well done, emotional mystery. How can a whole group of people be perceived as invisible? This book will show you.

I thought the premise of this book was really interesting but the writing style didn’t work for me and I decided to DNF. It felt like we were really kept at arm’s length from the characters.

Where They Last Saw Her is one of the best socially-conscious thrillers that I’ve ever read. The novel takes place on the Red Pine reservation in Minnesota, and features Quill, a wife, mother, and runner who is training for the Boston Marathon. During a morning run, Quill hears a woman’s scream and reports it to the tribal police. When the police claim they searched and found nothing, Quill returns to the area and finds drag marks and a single earring, making it clear that a woman has been kidnapped. She then enlists the help of her friends and fellow runners, Punk and Gaylyn, to find the missing woman.

The author, who is a citizen of the White Earth Nation, has done a good job creating a strong main character in Quill, who is conflicted between taking care of her family and her community. I particularly enjoyed the author’s depiction of life on the reservation where close personal and familial bonds co-exist with generational trauma, substance abuse, and the plight of murdered and missing Native women and children. This is particularly true where, as in the novel, there are “man camps” near Native communities that provide temporary housing to men in the energy industry who feel free to do what will without repercussions. I can’t recommend this book highly enough, and look forward to reading more from this author.

Thanks to Random House and NetGalley for providing me with a complimentary copy of this book.

Actual Rating 2.5

There were several good aspects of this work. The author, being Indigenous American, included many wonderful details about traditions and life that created some good depth for the characters and the setting. I also enjoyed the friendships that were highlighted and how the women supported each other.

Unfortunately, I had a hard time connecting with Quill. She wasn’t easy to like or relate to as she made some awful decisions without any good reason aside from being obstinate. With how often she threw herself in dangerous situations despite her husband begging her not to, it was difficult to sympathize with her and her decisions. While the characters were good, they never came alive, which I think was largely related to the way they were written and to the fact that they had little development beyond what was needed for the plot.

One of the biggest things that didn’t work for me with this one was the writing style. It heavily relied on a somewhat repetitive and simplistic style with short, choppy sentences. This kept the story from flowing as well as I wanted to. The author also heavily relied on telling, which made it difficult to become immersed in the plot and setting or to connect with the characters. I was massively disappointed by this. A few other quibbles relating to the writing style included the incorrect use of several words, as well as the constant repetition of unnecessary phrases (e.g., “grandma’s marathon in Duluth” used many times on just one page).

If you enjoy mysteries and writing styles don’t really bother you, then you’ll probably enjoy this one. My thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for allowing me to read this work. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

This book. This book has my whole heart. I absolutely adored this! From the incredible characters, to the plot, to falling in love with everything so quickly- I couldn’t put this down. I highly recommend this! It really just sucks you in and makes you never want to leave. In my opinion, those are the best books and I couldn't get enough.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for this #gifted ARC. All opinions are my own!

I normally finish a book and have the urge to immediately detail my thoughts in a review.

That’s not what happened for this one.

I had to sit on my thoughts for a minute with this book. I had to let every single thing that happened in this book fully absorb before I could contemplate attempting to rate and review it.

First off, I loved this book… but it’s not a thriller. You could classify it as a mystery, but I’d venture to guess that most people will figure out the twists pretty easily. You could say it’s literary fiction… but, go in knowing this is based on a real life crisis.

There are 3 main characters in this book, but only one viewpoint. Parts of this book punched me in the gut. I felt panic, sorrow, and fear alongside our main character (Quill). However, there were aspects in the story that I think would have been more effectively written if we got to see it through a different point of view. I would have loved to see certain chapters through the eyes of Punk and Gaylyn.

I did like the ending, even though things wrapped up a little quickly.

This is my first book Marcie Rendon, but I did immediately added her award winning Cash Blackbear series to my TBR after I finished this.

SUGGESTED SNACK PAIRING: peanut butter cookies* or venison stew

“Aiming for a measure of normalcy, Quill pulled a chair over to the kitchen counter for Baby Boy to stand on so he could help her make peanut butter cookies. Like the three-year-old he was, he sloppily dropped teaspoons full of cookie dough on a baking sheet.”

Triggers: kidnapping, child death, sex trafficking, rape, murder, domestic abuse, drugs abuse, suicide, racism

While not a member of the Cash Blackbear story, this stand alone by Rendon is a solid mystery. It exposes the underbelly of the oil/fracking fields on indigenous land, and the criminals who prey on indigenous women. The lead character is strong, intelligent, family-oriented, determined to find answers, and also rightfully terrified. Another reminder of how vulnerable women are in a male-toxic area, and especially when it comes to indigenous women. I appreciate Rendon reminding us of the epidemic of missing Native women - America should and could do so much more. This is a solid mystery that i could see becoming a series, tho I am anxious to get back to Cash Blackbear again!

Rendon transports readers to the Red Pine reservation in northern Minnesota. Quill and her girlfriends run in the woods, training for the Boston Marathon, and hear a woman's scream, then suspicious tire tracks and a single beaded earring clearly left behind after a struggle. Quill, furious that another of their women has been stolen, can't help but become involved despite her husband's protests. Along with friends, Gaylyn and Punk, Quill continues to investigate at the casino, a rehab halfway house in Duluth, and the hospital. Putting their safety on the line, the women seek the truth and try to break the cycle of Native American trauma. A powerful story, well written, with high drama and plenty of thriller aspects to keep the reader on the edge of their seat. Well done Marcie Rendon, another enhtralling read.

I can't thank you enough, Net Galley, Random House Publishing, and especially Marcie Rendon for this ARC of When They Last Saw Her. First, and most importantly, allow me to give you the short story of how I came upon Marcie as an author. Two years ago, my brother and I were at the Texas Book Festival for the first time. The festival has been around since the time of Governor George and First Lady Laura Bush, but neither of us had ever attended. We were browsing the book sales tent, just getting a feel for what was offered. I happened upon, Marcie's book, Murder on the Red River, A Cash Blackbear Mystery.. It had an appealing cover and was a bargain price. I bought and read it several months later, awarding it four Goodreads stars. It was a compelling mystery with a glimpse into the life of a Native American girl, Cash. I so enjoyed the way in which Cash and the sheriff were described as living, breathing characters and the cooperative work they did to solve a crime.

This book, though not part of that same series, was a great glimpse into the life of an indigenous woman (Quill), her friends, family and the "white" culture that tended to view the females in her tribe as mere objects to be used and discarded. When a woman from her reservation goes missing, Quill and her friends are much more invested in finding her than any of law enforcement, even the tribal police seem not to have the same incentive. When her friend, Punk is taken also, Quill is on a mission. At this point, you begin to see the strength and power not just Quill, but the many of the females on her reservation. It's a well-paced, quickly moving story, but it's also an inside look at what the indigenous women are sometimes forced to contend with, even short of kidnapping and murder. As an aside, Quill is a runner, training for the Boston Marathon. It is easy to see she uses this hobby for stress relief, but also finds it very empowering as do more of the women around her as the book progresses.

“I’m telling you,I heard a woman scream.”

Where They Last Saw Her is an emotionally charged novel that shines a stark light on the ongoing crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women.

From the start, the novel establishes a gripping tone. The story kicks off with Quill’s distressing discovery following a scream she hears, underscoring the sense of fear and urgency that pervades the community.

Throughout the novel, Quill's journey is interspersed with moments of profound reflection. For instance, the reflections on the historical trauma endured by Indigenous peoples,add layers of depth to the story, highlighting the generational pain and resilience within the community.


By the end of the book, the return to a semblance of normalcy in the community feels both poignant and unsettling, emphasizing the ongoing nature of the crisis and the resilience required to face it.
Overall, Where They Last Saw Her is a powerful read that combines a suspenseful plot with a critical social commentary. It serves as both a thrilling mystery and a sobering reminder of the need for justice and systemic change for Indigenous communities.