Prairie Gothic Mysteries

Presented to the Calgary Women’s Literary Club by Shawna Mattison, November 14, 2023.

Marcie R. Rendon, is an Indigenous author enrolled with the White Earth Anishinaabe Nation in Minnesota. Born in 1952, her birthplace is given online as either Winnipeg or Minnesota. Wherever she was born, her life has been lived out in Minnesota and I think she would consider herself as an Anishinaabe woman ahead of either an American or Canadian identity.  While she has written a great many things, her mystery writing caught my attention.

Ms. Rendon has degrees in Indian Studies, Criminology and Human Development. While raising her children, she worked in mental health, leaving the rural Minnesota life that is in her heart. In interviews, Rendon is hesitant to speak about her personal life and her childhood, although she ma. From what she has said interviews, she started writing as a child. In her early writing career, she was frustrated with how many rejections her work received. At one point, she started to cry while reading a Stephen King novel, thinking she would never be able to write like him. This breakdown led to the revelation that she needed to write what was true to her.

The result was short stories, children’s books, plays, poetry and podcasts. I have not been able to access the plays but I did read The Midwife Who Delivered Jesus (2011), a short story written in response to a child’s question about the role of women in the Nativity. The story presents a midwife who could be a traditional midwife from many cultures, encouraging an easy birth and a welcoming start to a new life. Rather than seeking recognition, the midwife is satisfied in her role.

Powwow Summer (1996, 2013) is a short book intended to introduce young people to the Anishinaabe Circle of Life. It is a short non-fiction book, beautifully illustrated with colour photography, that chronicles a family’s experience of modern Indigenous Powwows as places of healing, comfort, and celebration. The Downwind family of this book show an Indigenous system of foster care, in opposition to the brutal, unfeeling foster care that is presented in Rendon’s mystery series.

I also read a brief self-published chap book of poetry Dreaming Into Being (2013). These poems are a blunt presentation of the author’s experience as an Indigenous woman. I suspect they are even more powerful when delivered out loud by the author.

Then, in 2018, her first mystery novel, Murder on the Red River was published. The novel is set in 1970’s rural Minnesota and North Dakota (just south of Manitoba) and features an Indigenous heroine named Cash Blackbear.  This novel was successful and was followed by Girl Gone Missing and Sinister Graves. A fourth novel is pending. Her characters may have some autobiographical elements, and some stories are inspired by her work in healthcare, but she is careful to say it is fiction.

While speaking to a friend about these books, I was asked “Are they good mysteries?”.  A discussion of what makes a good mystery followed. My conclusion was that for me, although it is important the villain is not too obvious, setting and character are critical. Either the author takes me somewhere I am interested in seeing or they show me the dark side of a place I am familiar with. In this case, rural Minnesota never looked so sinister. In addition, rather than the usual protagonist, Rendon gives the reader a tough young woman, Cash Blackbear, who is not really a detective.

Cash Blackbear is in her early 20’s in the first book. She has worked her way out of a brutal foster care system doing back breaking farm labour, earning the grudging respect of the local farming community. The bigotry she faces due to being Indigenous, being a woman working a man’s job, and by being an orphan are clearly portrayed. Like many fictional (and many real) characters, she is a bit of superwoman finding her way into a college program while still working.

Without giving too many spoilers, Cash is a hard worker, hard drinker, and smoker. She supplements her income by pool hustling fools who underestimate her. She drives a cool car. While a child, a local sheriff befriends her and helps her along. At some point, she picks up detective skills and helps the sheriff out, particularly with crimes involving the local Indigenous community. She also has a gift of a second sight of sorts, adding a supernatural dimension to this work.

These books are more Katerina Vermette than Thomas King. Rendon uses the familiar detective novel/mystery format to show us an Indigenous woman who is not one dimensional. She fits the mold of many detectives, tough and an outsider. However, her life experience and the setting highlight life in and around the Anishinaabe reservations. The contrast between the foster “care” she experiences and the traditional family she deserves couldn’t be more stark.

In conclusion, I recommend the mystery novels by Marcie Rendon. While in many ways they are familiar, for an outsider such as I they are a door to a culture the author wants us to appreciate. Once you have read the mysteries, perhaps you will take a deeper dive into her work.