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Cash Blackbear Mysteries #4
Broken Fields
Cash Blackbear, a young Ojibwe woman, is back on the case after two men are found dead on a rural farm in Minnesota in the next installment of the acclaimed Native crime series.
1970s Minnesota. It's spring in the Red River Valley and Cash Blackbear is hoping to make some spending money doing spring field work for local farmers while attending college—and she finds a dead man on the kitchen floor of the property's rented farmhouse. The only possible witness to the murder is the young daughter of a Native laborer. The girl is too terrified to speak about what she’s witnessed, and her parents seem to have vanished.
In the wake of the murder, Cash can't deny her intuitive she is suspicious of the dead man's grieving widow, who offers to take in the girl temporarily. While Cash scours the county and White Earth reservation trying to find the missing mother before the girl is placed in the care of a social worker—the same woman who placed Cash in foster care a decade earlier—another body turns up. Concerned about the girl's fate, and with the help of local Sheriff Wheaton, Cash races against the clock to figure out the truth of what happened in the farmhouse.
Broken Fields is a compelling, fast read with seamlessly woven in details of rural life, the American Indian Movement, abusive labor practices, and women's liberation.
1970s Minnesota. It's spring in the Red River Valley and Cash Blackbear is hoping to make some spending money doing spring field work for local farmers while attending college—and she finds a dead man on the kitchen floor of the property's rented farmhouse. The only possible witness to the murder is the young daughter of a Native laborer. The girl is too terrified to speak about what she’s witnessed, and her parents seem to have vanished.
In the wake of the murder, Cash can't deny her intuitive she is suspicious of the dead man's grieving widow, who offers to take in the girl temporarily. While Cash scours the county and White Earth reservation trying to find the missing mother before the girl is placed in the care of a social worker—the same woman who placed Cash in foster care a decade earlier—another body turns up. Concerned about the girl's fate, and with the help of local Sheriff Wheaton, Cash races against the clock to figure out the truth of what happened in the farmhouse.
Broken Fields is a compelling, fast read with seamlessly woven in details of rural life, the American Indian Movement, abusive labor practices, and women's liberation.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published March 4, 2025
127 people are currently reading
6322 people want to read
About the author
Marcie R. Rendon
18 books957 followersMarcie R. Rendon is an enrolled member of the White Earth Anishinabe Nation. She is a mother, grandmother, writer, and performance artist. A recipient of the Loft's Inroads Writers of Color Award for Native Americans, she studied under Anishinabe author Jim Northrup. Her first children's book is Pow Wow Summer (Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2014). Murder on the Red River is her debut novel.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 248 reviews
July 11, 2025
I've now spent my February in the Red River Valley in Minnesota with Cash Blackbear and I must confirm that I've enjoyed my time with her. I've read all the books up till now and I've enjoyed them.
Let's just say that Cash is complicated. I've now been with her for some time, seeing her grow, her whys and wherefores though the series up to now. Rendon takes the opportunity to show how each incident even the smallest effects Cash and how she is working through her grief and trauma. Grief and trauma are a filter through which we see the world and our lives and effect our lives accordingly.
Rendon through her stories explores how the violence, trauma done to her people has a generational effect. It does not stop with the actual victims but it’s visited on their children. The children inherit the effects of the trauma, the bad decisions taken because of the trauma and coping with it have a direct effect on them. Their own reactions and possible bad decisions then effect their own children and so on and so forth. What seems of little importance to people who are not traumatised or downtrodden can have a big effect to those thus effected.
Broken Fences is the 4th in the series. Although you’ll probably do just fine reading them as standalones, you’d miss Cash’s personal arc which I’m very interested in.
An ARC kindly given by author/publisher via Netgalley.
Let's just say that Cash is complicated. I've now been with her for some time, seeing her grow, her whys and wherefores though the series up to now. Rendon takes the opportunity to show how each incident even the smallest effects Cash and how she is working through her grief and trauma. Grief and trauma are a filter through which we see the world and our lives and effect our lives accordingly.
Rendon through her stories explores how the violence, trauma done to her people has a generational effect. It does not stop with the actual victims but it’s visited on their children. The children inherit the effects of the trauma, the bad decisions taken because of the trauma and coping with it have a direct effect on them. Their own reactions and possible bad decisions then effect their own children and so on and so forth. What seems of little importance to people who are not traumatised or downtrodden can have a big effect to those thus effected.
Broken Fences is the 4th in the series. Although you’ll probably do just fine reading them as standalones, you’d miss Cash’s personal arc which I’m very interested in.
An ARC kindly given by author/publisher via Netgalley.
March 21, 2025
I love the whole series, but this might be my favourite book in it, I adored little Shawnee ), and all the character development we got. I can't wait for the next one!
4.5
4.5
August 2, 2025
The writer has really hit her stride in this book, the 4th in the series. The main character, Cash, has started to undergo some real character development and that makes all the difference.
March 1, 2025
I received a copy for review purposes. All opinions are honest and mine alone.
BROKEN FIELDS, by Marcie R. Rendon, is 4th in an ongoing series and easily read as a standalone. Rendon provides enough background for readers to understand what happened to lead character, Cash.
Cash is a complex, young indigenous woman who harbors an intense amount of anger, resentment and pain resulting from her life spent in the foster care system. The story takes place in the late 1970’s, (her having grown up in the 60’s-70’s) when Indigenous children were taken from their families and placed in “Christian” homes, many of them under horrendous, abusive conditions.
Shawnee is a 4 or 5 year old little girl who witnessed the death of her parent’s employer. Her parents are missing; folks assume they’re guilty - they’re Indians. Cash, after discovering the dead farmer whom she worked for, also found this little girl, shivering under a bed, too scared to speak. She brings her to town, to her good friend, Wheaton, the sheriff.
He transfers Shawnee to the county social worker’s care, the same woman who was responsible for Cash as a child. At this point, the rehashing and comparing of two storylines is prominent.
Also in abundance throughout the book are descriptions of, well, almost everything other than people and how they feel. Cash has a gift of intuition that helps her investigate for Wheaton. She sometimes dreams, gets a shiver or an out of body vision. This aspect is not well developed in her character, she’s not all together comfortable with it which makes it feel less contrived. I wouldn’t say it’s at a magical realism level. I wanted to know more about how Cash and Wheaton felt during many scenes.
There were stretches of time I found the prose to be frustrating. Rendon writes with lots of short, simple sentences and is repetitive to the point of frustration. She has some kind of preoccupation with saying the model of car Cash drives: Ranchero. Good grief, it must be stated over 100 times! In addition, there are many, many non sentences. It’s possible these will be edited, as I’m reading an eARC, but I suspect they are a stylistic choice. It’s one I find that when used for effect, it can be successful but in this case, it makes for choppy passages.
It was interesting to learn some unique Midwest words and usage, (ope, the tamarak, 3.2 beer), after researching them myself. Perhaps earlier books gave definitions but this one didn’t. Still, I enjoy learning new things. That’s not the case with political and social issues in this story. There are some mentions, mostly by Cash and her experiences that are now being compared to Shawnee’s, but there are no long diatribes or significant amounts of historical information detailed.
Violence and sexual content are at a PG-13 level without detailed descriptions. Language is R rated with a full complement of expletives, including f-bombs.
Recommended for those who like period fiction, domestic mysteries, small town stories with a limited cast of characters and series fiction that offers complete stories in a single volume📚
Read and Reviewed from a NetGalley eARC, with thanks.
BROKEN FIELDS, by Marcie R. Rendon, is 4th in an ongoing series and easily read as a standalone. Rendon provides enough background for readers to understand what happened to lead character, Cash.
Cash is a complex, young indigenous woman who harbors an intense amount of anger, resentment and pain resulting from her life spent in the foster care system. The story takes place in the late 1970’s, (her having grown up in the 60’s-70’s) when Indigenous children were taken from their families and placed in “Christian” homes, many of them under horrendous, abusive conditions.
Shawnee is a 4 or 5 year old little girl who witnessed the death of her parent’s employer. Her parents are missing; folks assume they’re guilty - they’re Indians. Cash, after discovering the dead farmer whom she worked for, also found this little girl, shivering under a bed, too scared to speak. She brings her to town, to her good friend, Wheaton, the sheriff.
He transfers Shawnee to the county social worker’s care, the same woman who was responsible for Cash as a child. At this point, the rehashing and comparing of two storylines is prominent.
Also in abundance throughout the book are descriptions of, well, almost everything other than people and how they feel. Cash has a gift of intuition that helps her investigate for Wheaton. She sometimes dreams, gets a shiver or an out of body vision. This aspect is not well developed in her character, she’s not all together comfortable with it which makes it feel less contrived. I wouldn’t say it’s at a magical realism level. I wanted to know more about how Cash and Wheaton felt during many scenes.
There were stretches of time I found the prose to be frustrating. Rendon writes with lots of short, simple sentences and is repetitive to the point of frustration. She has some kind of preoccupation with saying the model of car Cash drives: Ranchero. Good grief, it must be stated over 100 times! In addition, there are many, many non sentences. It’s possible these will be edited, as I’m reading an eARC, but I suspect they are a stylistic choice. It’s one I find that when used for effect, it can be successful but in this case, it makes for choppy passages.
It was interesting to learn some unique Midwest words and usage, (ope, the tamarak, 3.2 beer), after researching them myself. Perhaps earlier books gave definitions but this one didn’t. Still, I enjoy learning new things. That’s not the case with political and social issues in this story. There are some mentions, mostly by Cash and her experiences that are now being compared to Shawnee’s, but there are no long diatribes or significant amounts of historical information detailed.
Violence and sexual content are at a PG-13 level without detailed descriptions. Language is R rated with a full complement of expletives, including f-bombs.
Recommended for those who like period fiction, domestic mysteries, small town stories with a limited cast of characters and series fiction that offers complete stories in a single volume📚
Read and Reviewed from a NetGalley eARC, with thanks.
June 14, 2025
I've really enjoyed this series even though it isn't one I would normally read! I love when a challenge or a book of the month gets me to read outside my comfort zone and I end up with a great read!
Maybe we will get move books with Cash Blackbear! She is not your run of the mill heroine, but she genuinely cares for people and finds herself helping even in the worst situations!
Maybe we will get move books with Cash Blackbear! She is not your run of the mill heroine, but she genuinely cares for people and finds herself helping even in the worst situations!
June 28, 2025
The audiobook is excellent cinematic drama!
the best told story so far in the Cash Blackbear mystery series with the resilient Ojibwa heroine, now in her 20s. In this volume Cash is able to be the supportive advocate to a very young girl who faces similar trauma like her own past, offering emotional reflection and strength. And I love Cash's visits with Jonsey, the best mentor!
A great read to compare to The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich especially for the small community relationship drama aspects.
I also noted similarities with the book A Grandmother Begins the Story by Michelle Porter --- an immersive, haunting, and lyrical multi-generational saga of resilient Métis women, their stories and songs, as well as enchanting interactions of the land with a charismatic bison includes some heavy realism, shapeshifting magical-realism, and liminal interactions between the living & the dead.
More on the whole series:
This entrancing, lyrical & spare Indigenous-wise coming of age mystery series is set along the Red River in Minnesota and North Dakota during the era of the Vietnam War in the 1970s. With emphasis on injustices endured by Native American families and children through the foster care system, Ojibwa heroine Renee “Cash” Blackbear is irrepressible; she endures foster care then finds an advocate and independence as a truck driving farm worker and tournament champion pool player. Her advocate is Sheriff Wheaton and thanks to insight Cash gleans through dreams, she assists in solving crimes.
the best told story so far in the Cash Blackbear mystery series with the resilient Ojibwa heroine, now in her 20s. In this volume Cash is able to be the supportive advocate to a very young girl who faces similar trauma like her own past, offering emotional reflection and strength. And I love Cash's visits with Jonsey, the best mentor!
A great read to compare to The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich especially for the small community relationship drama aspects.
I also noted similarities with the book A Grandmother Begins the Story by Michelle Porter --- an immersive, haunting, and lyrical multi-generational saga of resilient Métis women, their stories and songs, as well as enchanting interactions of the land with a charismatic bison includes some heavy realism, shapeshifting magical-realism, and liminal interactions between the living & the dead.
More on the whole series:
This entrancing, lyrical & spare Indigenous-wise coming of age mystery series is set along the Red River in Minnesota and North Dakota during the era of the Vietnam War in the 1970s. With emphasis on injustices endured by Native American families and children through the foster care system, Ojibwa heroine Renee “Cash” Blackbear is irrepressible; she endures foster care then finds an advocate and independence as a truck driving farm worker and tournament champion pool player. Her advocate is Sheriff Wheaton and thanks to insight Cash gleans through dreams, she assists in solving crimes.
March 7, 2025
"This time, this space, this solitude in nature. It was this land and this river that had fed her soul in the absence of her mother and the rest of her family."
March 25, 2025
Fans of Native American storyteller Marcie R Rendon’s wonderful Cash Blackbear mysteries have been pining since 2022 for a new novel starring the young Ojibwe farm worker, college student, and occasional sleuth. The wait was worth it: Broken Fields is a terrific fourth outing in Cash’s escapades in the Red River Valley during the 1970s.
Cash is doing Spring fieldwork for a Minnesota farmer when she discovers him dead on the kitchen floor of a rented farmhouse. A young Native girl, Shawnee, is hiding under her bed, terrified. Shaken by events in the previous book, Sinister Graves, Cash questions her intuition, while feeling long-held anger and resentments flare when Shawnee is put into foster care, then with the grieving widow, a ‘good Christian woman’. Triggering for Cash, given her experiences being near-slave labour for white families as an indigenous foster child. While Cash and Sheriff Wheaton search for Shawnee’s parents, another body turns up, and rumours swirl of ‘Peyton Place’ style scandals among their community.
Rendon, a poet and playwright, and member of the White Earth Anishinabe Nation, crafts another immersive mystery that vividly evokes time, place, and historic attitudes. Cash is a fantastic heroine; complex, fascinating, and authentic as she deals with PTSD and ongoing prejudices. Rendon’s light touch means despite the dark acts and traumas Broken Fields never reads as too bleak. A terrific novel in a terrific series.
This review was first written for publication in Good Reading magazine, in Australia
Cash is doing Spring fieldwork for a Minnesota farmer when she discovers him dead on the kitchen floor of a rented farmhouse. A young Native girl, Shawnee, is hiding under her bed, terrified. Shaken by events in the previous book, Sinister Graves, Cash questions her intuition, while feeling long-held anger and resentments flare when Shawnee is put into foster care, then with the grieving widow, a ‘good Christian woman’. Triggering for Cash, given her experiences being near-slave labour for white families as an indigenous foster child. While Cash and Sheriff Wheaton search for Shawnee’s parents, another body turns up, and rumours swirl of ‘Peyton Place’ style scandals among their community.
Rendon, a poet and playwright, and member of the White Earth Anishinabe Nation, crafts another immersive mystery that vividly evokes time, place, and historic attitudes. Cash is a fantastic heroine; complex, fascinating, and authentic as she deals with PTSD and ongoing prejudices. Rendon’s light touch means despite the dark acts and traumas Broken Fields never reads as too bleak. A terrific novel in a terrific series.
This review was first written for publication in Good Reading magazine, in Australia
March 10, 2025
I enjoy the Cash Blackbear mysteries. Most of the attraction is because I grew up in Fargo during the time period of the story and find that entertaining. Broken Fields Story line is good but Rendon could have done a lot more with it. Redundancy throughout the story, that could have been left out. I will keep reading this series because I enjoy them, but Rendon is a much better writer and could move this series into a much better murder mystery series.
April 29, 2025
The Cash Blackbear stories are not for me. Repetitive, smoking her cigarettes and drinking her beer and quite crass. If I heard her mention her Ranchero one more time I would have screamed!!!!
January 6, 2025
Every book in this series is amazing, but I think this might be the best one yet. Cash Blackbear is a flawed protagonist, yet she’s so easy to root for. I love the complexity of her as a character. The mystery in this book is fairly straightforward, though the addition of a child named Shawnee, who may have been a witness to the crime, gave an added sense of urgency to the story, while at the same time forcing Cash to confront her own traumatic past. The author addresses several difficult topics: the foster care system, the overall treatment of Native Americans in the U.S., misogyny and racism (particularly in rural communities), individual traumas. It would be easy for the book to become depressingly bleak, but it never tips too far in that direction. Cash’s relationship with Wheaton, who is a sort of father figure for her, is, in turns, entertaining and emotionally satisfying. I loved seeing some of Cash’s old friends pop up in this book, and you never know when she’ll make an unexpected new friend or ally, too. Highly recommend this one!
April 25, 2025
Cash Blackbear's story is definitely compelling, but I hope she gets some professional help soon. She is on the verge of full-blown alcoholism, which is probably understandable given her awful experiences in foster care and the flashbacks that plague her. But her impulsive actions put herself and others in danger, and she lurches from one life-threatening situation to the next. Yes, she is trying to save a small Native girl from going into foster care and repeating the experiences she endured, but Cash operates well outside the law. It seems impossible that the sheriff allows her to help him on cases and arranges for her to get a work-study position for her upcoming academic term. (Next book?). Cash constantly experiences discrimination and abuse because she is Indian so she trusts no one. But can't Rendon include any white woman who isn't criminal, clueless, heartless, or mentally ill? Please. Let Cash find some happy moments outside of pool playing and binge drinking. I have been drawn into all the books in the series, but I keep hoping something good will happen for her.
November 3, 2025
Such a good series!
Cash Blackbear is mowing a field for a farmer when she notices a car running at a farmhouse. When it is still there hours later, she gets a feeling that something isn’t right. Inside the farmhouse, she finds a man dead and a little girl hiding under the bed, terrified and refusing to speak.
Working with Sheriff Wheaton, Cash is determined to keep Shawnee, the little girl safe, and prove that her mother didn’t kill the farmer or her husband, who is also found dead.
Cash is a great main character, strong, loyal, and faithful to the few friends she has. Definitely recommend this series.
Cash Blackbear is mowing a field for a farmer when she notices a car running at a farmhouse. When it is still there hours later, she gets a feeling that something isn’t right. Inside the farmhouse, she finds a man dead and a little girl hiding under the bed, terrified and refusing to speak.
Working with Sheriff Wheaton, Cash is determined to keep Shawnee, the little girl safe, and prove that her mother didn’t kill the farmer or her husband, who is also found dead.
Cash is a great main character, strong, loyal, and faithful to the few friends she has. Definitely recommend this series.
March 31, 2025
Marcie Rendon’s, Cash Blackbear series is easily starting to become one of my favorite series. Cash is a Native American gal in the 1970’s living in the Red River/Fargo area of Minnesota. She is an orphan and does tough field work for farms but she also solves crimes on the side. She has a gift of seeing and feeling things in the world that most others can’t. This series also spotlights how horrible Native Americans were and still are treated in the world. If you are into mystery books please consider reading. She is a Minnesota Indie Author who is the most lovely lady you could ever meet.
March 6, 2025
I love this series. I love Cash.
February 27, 2025
Cash Blackbear is a young Ojibwe woman I've come to care about deeply in this series (of now) four books. Broken Fields is a tapestry tightly woven with details of Native American life in northern Minnesota, abusive farm labor practices, and women's liberation.
Rendon's depiction of the landscape and farming aspects takes me right back to my childhood in a small farm town in central Illinois. Sights, sounds, smells-- Rendon's descriptions are incredibly vivid.
Equally vivid are her characters. There's Sheriff Wheaton, the great rescuer, who keeps a close eye on Cash and is doing his best to further her education and work experience. No one wants to see Cash succeed more than he does. But no character shines more brightly than Cash, battle-scarred survivor of the harsh foster system. Her fierce protectiveness of little Shawnee shows how deeply she cares-- and sometimes she cares so deeply that her anger takes control of her actions. After what happened in the previous book (Sinister Graves), Cash doesn't trust her intuition the way she used to. She sleeps with the lights on. She drinks too much. It's been a long time since I've been so invested in a character. I want this young woman to succeed. I want her to thrive.
And I want this series to continue for a good long time. If you like good mysteries with a strong main character, a superb sense of place, and a writing style that draws you right into the heart of each book, you have to make the acquaintance of Cash Blackbear. Start with the first book, Murder on the Red River. You can thank me later.
(Review copy courtesy of the publisher and Net Galley)
Rendon's depiction of the landscape and farming aspects takes me right back to my childhood in a small farm town in central Illinois. Sights, sounds, smells-- Rendon's descriptions are incredibly vivid.
Equally vivid are her characters. There's Sheriff Wheaton, the great rescuer, who keeps a close eye on Cash and is doing his best to further her education and work experience. No one wants to see Cash succeed more than he does. But no character shines more brightly than Cash, battle-scarred survivor of the harsh foster system. Her fierce protectiveness of little Shawnee shows how deeply she cares-- and sometimes she cares so deeply that her anger takes control of her actions. After what happened in the previous book (Sinister Graves), Cash doesn't trust her intuition the way she used to. She sleeps with the lights on. She drinks too much. It's been a long time since I've been so invested in a character. I want this young woman to succeed. I want her to thrive.
And I want this series to continue for a good long time. If you like good mysteries with a strong main character, a superb sense of place, and a writing style that draws you right into the heart of each book, you have to make the acquaintance of Cash Blackbear. Start with the first book, Murder on the Red River. You can thank me later.
(Review copy courtesy of the publisher and Net Galley)
August 22, 2025
I liked the first three books in this series, but this one left me disappointed. It drags in too many places---Cash just driving around thinking about things, or having dreams or visions, all with too much repetition. We already know from previous books that Cash smokes too much, drinks too much, and isn't too discerning about men. Why continue to belabor these points at the expense of anything else happening? A lot of time is spent recounting events from the previous book. I think this is intended to show Cash experiencing continuing trauma about that and her childhood, but it, again, is too repetitious and dulls the impact.
Annoying plot holes: Bank employees describe the driver, but Wheaton assumes she's a bank teller and a hostage??? Wheaton and Jeff develop a plan and somehow get into perfect position in the midst of a rural car chase---probably way too fast even in the cell phone era; absolutely too fast in the 1970s.
Very little actually happens in this book. Way too much telling/explaining with little showing. Only the length of the book (short) got me to the end. I hope all of this was an aberration because I like the idea and the setting of this series. I hate to think it's running out of gas so soon because it seems there could be so much more. And maybe Wheaton could be more than merely a stick figure who somehow happens to appear at just the right time?
Annoying plot holes: Bank employees describe the driver, but Wheaton assumes she's a bank teller and a hostage??? Wheaton and Jeff develop a plan and somehow get into perfect position in the midst of a rural car chase---probably way too fast even in the cell phone era; absolutely too fast in the 1970s.
Very little actually happens in this book. Way too much telling/explaining with little showing. Only the length of the book (short) got me to the end. I hope all of this was an aberration because I like the idea and the setting of this series. I hate to think it's running out of gas so soon because it seems there could be so much more. And maybe Wheaton could be more than merely a stick figure who somehow happens to appear at just the right time?
June 16, 2025
I listened to this fourth book in Marcie Rendon’s Cash Blackbear series in just a few days. Cash is working a field in the Red River Valley when she notices something happening in the farmyard nearby. She goes to check things out and finds the farmer who hired her dead in the kitchen and a little girl hiding under a bed upstairs, her parents nowhere in sight. Cash calls in Sheriff Wheaton and assists him in finding the little girl’s parents and solving the murder. Cash has an added motivation for helping the girl and trying to keep her out of the foster care system. Cash has flashbacks to her own terrible experiences in the system as a child. I grew up in the Red River Valley of the North in MN, and I can picture all the places that Rendon describes. I enjoy reading about my home area from another perspective, and Rendon creates compelling stories with well drawn characters. Isabella Star LaBlanc is the perfect choice as narrator for these stories.
May 20, 2025
I usually travel with more than one book. This short 4 day vacation, I really didn’t think I was going to have much time to ready but I should know better. 😂😁. I don’t like to read on e-books. I’m on my devices too much and reading an actual book is very satisfying for me.
Anyway, there was a very small Indy bookstore right next to where I was having breakfast. I popped in to see what they had. The selection was ok, a few books that were on my list but I wanted a book I could finish on my flights home- thus this is the book I choose.
“Broken Fields” is book 4 in a series but from my convo ChatGPT, it can be read as a stand alone! Phew.
Not going to take the time to write a review as this could easily have been a DNF. As I mentioned, I needed something to do on the flights- I finished it.
2/5⭐️
Anyway, there was a very small Indy bookstore right next to where I was having breakfast. I popped in to see what they had. The selection was ok, a few books that were on my list but I wanted a book I could finish on my flights home- thus this is the book I choose.
“Broken Fields” is book 4 in a series but from my convo ChatGPT, it can be read as a stand alone! Phew.
Not going to take the time to write a review as this could easily have been a DNF. As I mentioned, I needed something to do on the flights- I finished it.
2/5⭐️
May 4, 2025
I love the Cash Blackbear series and was excited that the 4th book was being released while I was on parental leave...and promptly zipped through it.
I enjoyed Broken Fields, but for me, the story didn't live up to the first two books (I didn't love the third). I enjoyed the evolution of Cash's character and the mystery in this book, but I felt that the events of the previous novels were re-visited and explained too many times in this one. It felt like filler content at several points - tedious, annoying, and unnecessary for plot development. I found myself saying "just get on with it already!".
All that said, I'm fully invested and would greatly look forward to another book in the series if another were to be written.
I enjoyed Broken Fields, but for me, the story didn't live up to the first two books (I didn't love the third). I enjoyed the evolution of Cash's character and the mystery in this book, but I felt that the events of the previous novels were re-visited and explained too many times in this one. It felt like filler content at several points - tedious, annoying, and unnecessary for plot development. I found myself saying "just get on with it already!".
All that said, I'm fully invested and would greatly look forward to another book in the series if another were to be written.
May 26, 2025
I do not hand out 5’s often.. I just really liked the book. It is about an American Indian woman who helps the local sheriff investigate .She is not part of his staff but has helped solve other unsolved crimes.
She is trying to get a job with the sheriffs dept or at least a paying internship. In the mean time she works the local farms doing whatever needs to be done to make money. Along the way she tries to solve a double murder. Lots of zigs and zags along the way. It was one of those books I had trouble putting down .
She is trying to get a job with the sheriffs dept or at least a paying internship. In the mean time she works the local farms doing whatever needs to be done to make money. Along the way she tries to solve a double murder. Lots of zigs and zags along the way. It was one of those books I had trouble putting down .
July 7, 2025
The final book in the Cash Blackbear series, I love the Sage Jonesy! This book continues the thread of foster children and their vulnerability. Cash steps in . . . Some lovely writing about the Red River Valley of the North. Page 226 highlights Rendon’s gift. “This time, this space, this solitude in nature. It was the land and this river fed her soul in the absence of her mother and the rest of her family. This river. These trees. These fields of black dirt, plowed broken fields that lie flat 30-40 miles either side of the River. This is what fed her soul. Kept her spirits alive.
April 11, 2025
I love this series. I hope it'll only end when Cash is completely happy, she deserves the best. Some scenes had me teary eyed. I really liked the descriptions of the land. Even though the writing isn't all that flowery, I always had a very clear picture of the setting in my mind. My only complaint is that the murder mysteries are never that intriguing and very predictable.
March 31, 2025
Best written book in the series
I've liked all four books in the series but this one was had the best writing. Less fluff and more plot development. Cash's persona continues to flesh out and the focus on the native experience was more developed and nuanced.
I've liked all four books in the series but this one was had the best writing. Less fluff and more plot development. Cash's persona continues to flesh out and the focus on the native experience was more developed and nuanced.
April 5, 2025
I love the Cash series. She’s so tough, smart, insightful, and underneath it all, very sensitive. I have lived in Fargo in the Red River Valley since 1986. I know all the towns and roads described in the books. Imagining it in the early 70’s is fun.
September 14, 2025
I will start out by saying, I didn’t know this was a book from a series. I just read it alone. I only finished because I thought maybe it would get better. It didn’t. It was extremely boring and predictable, no real mystery or depth. I also found the over use of Ranchero extremely irritating.
March 16, 2025
Cash Blackbear is one of my favorite characters!! I loved this one. I look forward to returning to 1970’s with her for her next mystery! Please keep writing them, Marcie!!!
May 5, 2025
I've read all the Cash Blackbear books, and this is the best one yet. Cash is a great character, and I hope this series keeps going for a long time yet!
July 31, 2025
How many cigarettes did Cash smoke in the book?
August 21, 2025
I always enjoy reading about Cash, but this felt like a “lite” version. Not compelling :(
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