What do you think?
Rate this book
Cash Blackbear Mysteries #1
Murder on the Red River
Cash and Sheriff Wheaton make for a strange partnership. He pulled her from her mother's wrecked car when she was three. He's kept an eye out for her ever since. It's a tough place to live—northern Minnesota along the Red River. Cash navigated through foster homes, and at thirteen was working farms. She's tough as nails—Five feet two inches, blue jeans, blue jean jacket, smokes Marlboros, drinks Bud Longnecks. Makes her living driving truck. Playing pool on the side. Wheaton is big lawman type. Scandinavian stock, but darker skin than most. He wants her to take hold of her life. Get into Junior College. So there they are, staring at the dead Indian lying in the field. Soon Cash was dreaming the dead man's cheap house on the Red Lake Reservation, mother and kids waiting. She has that kind of power. That's the place to start looking. There's a long and dangerous way to go to find the men who killed him. Plus there's Jim, the married white guy. And Longbraids, the Indian guy headed for Minneapolis to join the American Indian Movement.
Marcie 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.
Marcie 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.
208 pages, Paperback
First published February 20, 2017
560 people are currently reading
12041 people want to read
About the author
Marcie R. Rendon
18 books978 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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,024 reviews
March 16, 2017
As someone who lives in Fargo, the setting of this novel rang true, and the character of Cash drew me in right away. She defies gender stereotypes as a nineteen-year-old Native girl who drives trucks for farmers in the Red River Valley during the day and earns free beers playing pool at night. In addition to the chilling mystery, I was compelled to read on as details of Cash's upbringing in White foster homes are slowly revealed. This book unflinchingly portrays racial tensions in this area, tensions that recently flared during the Dakota Access Pipeline/Water protectors movement. This would be a great book for community or small book group discussions, and because of the age of the protagonist, it would fit the older Young Adult reader audience.
July 23, 2020
Like thousands of Native Americans, Cash was taken from her mother and entered the system as a young child. Now an adult she is a chain-smoking farm worker who hustles a pool table for drinks every night.
She lives the small life, the life of getting by, that is lived by everyone who has no money. When the body of a Native American man is found in a field she investigates his murder.
I'm going to struggle to do this book justice. On the surface it's a murder mystery but that is just a hook to hang this story on. It's about much more than that. It deals with entrenched racism and the government sanctioned destruction of not just families but entire cultural groups.
And there is also a very subtle thread of her culture, almost (but not quite) magical realism drifting to the surface occasionally.
The book is both gritty and poetic. I loved it.
She lives the small life, the life of getting by, that is lived by everyone who has no money. When the body of a Native American man is found in a field she investigates his murder.
I'm going to struggle to do this book justice. On the surface it's a murder mystery but that is just a hook to hang this story on. It's about much more than that. It deals with entrenched racism and the government sanctioned destruction of not just families but entire cultural groups.
And there is also a very subtle thread of her culture, almost (but not quite) magical realism drifting to the surface occasionally.
The book is both gritty and poetic. I loved it.
July 15, 2023
TW//
I had to read Murder on the Red River for my summer English class and I’m honestly a little confused about why my professor assigned this one. There are brief themes of the trauma that indigenous people face and what foster kids experience, but the themes are mostly drowned out by the main character’s excessive drinking. Had this book dived into the heavy themes more, this book would’ve been a lot more impactful. Instead this book turned out to be about 200 pages of repetitiveness. Cash wakes up every morning and completes any of her dull tasks for the day then heads to a bar, gets drunk, plays pool, and heads home to have intercourse. The cycle repeats itself over and over again.
The mystery in this story and the plot itself are very weak because of the repetiveness of Cash’s daily activities. Every mystery scene felt very rushed while each of Cash’s repeated activities are drawn out in detail. Since the plot was bogged down by Cash’s drinking and boring daily activities, I found that this book dragged on and it felt like the story was much longer than it actually was.
I honestly don’t understand why this book has so many positive reviews on Goodreads. I hated every second of Murder on the Red River and I’m dreading having to write essays about it for my class.
I had to read Murder on the Red River for my summer English class and I’m honestly a little confused about why my professor assigned this one. There are brief themes of the trauma that indigenous people face and what foster kids experience, but the themes are mostly drowned out by the main character’s excessive drinking. Had this book dived into the heavy themes more, this book would’ve been a lot more impactful. Instead this book turned out to be about 200 pages of repetitiveness. Cash wakes up every morning and completes any of her dull tasks for the day then heads to a bar, gets drunk, plays pool, and heads home to have intercourse. The cycle repeats itself over and over again.
The mystery in this story and the plot itself are very weak because of the repetiveness of Cash’s daily activities. Every mystery scene felt very rushed while each of Cash’s repeated activities are drawn out in detail. Since the plot was bogged down by Cash’s drinking and boring daily activities, I found that this book dragged on and it felt like the story was much longer than it actually was.
I honestly don’t understand why this book has so many positive reviews on Goodreads. I hated every second of Murder on the Red River and I’m dreading having to write essays about it for my class.
June 2, 2018
3.5 stars. Really solid book, a bit of a slow burn that is much more about the main character and life for a Native American in Fargo, ND in the 1970s than it is about the larger mystery.
See me talk about this book briefly in my February wrap up: https://youtu.be/pbHr4Jc3Y_M?t=1m59s
See me talk about this book briefly in my February wrap up: https://youtu.be/pbHr4Jc3Y_M?t=1m59s
May 11, 2023
The main character of ‘Murder on the Red River’ by Marcie R. Rendon is Renee Blackbear, but she calls herself Cash. The novel feels like it will be book one in a series, but so far, there is only this one which basically is an origin story. The tone of the writing reminds me a lot of the style Marcia Muller (Edwin of the Iron Shoes perfected - a procedural detective mystery written from a viewpoint which reflects the concerns of a loner and outsider through a female prism - although at this point in Cash’s life she is not yet a detective.
Cash is a nineteen-year-old Ojibwe who grew up being often moved since she was three years old to many many White foster homes near Fargo, North Dakota. At the present time, the 1970’s, she sticks to roaming and working the Red River Valley which straddles the border between North Dakota and Minnesota. Her mother was an alcoholic who lost her parental rights to her three children, one of whom was Cash. She hasn’t talked to her mother or her siblings since her mom’s rollover car crash years ago. Cash now drives big trucks and farming machines, such as tractors, and doing odd jobs for local farmers as a laborer, which she has been doing since she was eleven years old. She lives in a small apartment above a bar.
She has one person in her life who tries to help her when he can. Sheriff Wheaton is the one who took semi-charge of her since she was three years old, at least as much as he could, after her mother rolled her car into a ditch while driving drunk again. Cash also has lots of barfly and farmer acquaintances, including a friend with benefits, Jim Jenson, who is a married man with children. Their illicit relationship is not a secret in the Casbah or the Flame, local bars where the two join together to hustle people for money and beers playing pool.
The focus of this book is not exactly on a murder mystery (although there is a murder with which Cash becomes slowly involved), but it is mainly about a Big Picture murder of sorts - a genocide of aboriginal families. I found it spot on, telling it like it is for the lost generations who are surviving in the aftermath. The main character, Cash, is mostly aimless and 3/4ths psychologically destroyed in a way that is exactly true to life. She is only nineteen years old, not yet fully understanding that she has the power to overcome the lingering psychological effects of the genocide of her culture and family through education. Right now, she is angry and depressed and unknowingly lonely even while she rejects close relationships. While she sourly takes in the constant insults and prejudices of White people every day (such as the stereotype that all Indians are alcoholics), she drinks to excess every day herself, and smokes cigarettes one after another, having no goals or hopes or plans other than winning enough at pool to drink beer.
Wheaton is the only person who cares about her like a family member. But he lacks a lot of the legal parental protections in his ability to really help her as fully as a mother or father could. Can you understand how terrible that is for a child, teenager or young adult to grow up without a real family or any accepting culture or connections, hearing the usual cultural mores and truisms which obviously are nothing but empty promises and hollow falsities? I grew up myself realizing how hollow mainstream faith and values are, how the fantasies Disneyland celebrates are actually ‘does not apply’ for poor children. The middle-class are safe because of money and family and connections, not because they are people with values despite what the middle-class professes to believe, or maybe truly believes, about how the world works. I grew up without a close family like Cash, and poor. Although I am a big city kid with a different past, my interior sense of
‘why want or make an effort to try for anything? I am trapped in the underclass by other people more powerful than me determined to take everything I work for away. Plus they insist on me verbally parroting and sometimes even forcing me to believe religious and other cultural truisms (god loves and protects me, be everything you can be, I want what is best for you) which none of them will actually permit me to experience or intend me to really have.’
was exactly the same as Cash. It comes from a childhood with no ability to have anything of one’s own or any sense of belonging or safety or any permanence of place while growing up. It doesn’t take long before an unwanted and poor child to figure out all adults lie about things turning out well, or that this or that thing is ‘for their own good’. Survival is the only paradigm of existence which is Truth.
The character of Cash rang my internal bells of recognition for another seemingly similar to myself who is growing up (grew up) feeling only how empty the future is about their life. But Cash does have a sense of place - the empty plains of the Midwest, the Western farmer lifestyle, the jeans/t-shirt shitkicker life of a transient alcoholic laborer. Cash has grasped it with all of her being. I think Wheaton is trying to fix her, gently. He wants her to enroll in a local college, her only hope for a better life (as it was for me). He might succeed in weaning her from her dead-end path...if she survives the mysterious attempts on her life!
Cash is a nineteen-year-old Ojibwe who grew up being often moved since she was three years old to many many White foster homes near Fargo, North Dakota. At the present time, the 1970’s, she sticks to roaming and working the Red River Valley which straddles the border between North Dakota and Minnesota. Her mother was an alcoholic who lost her parental rights to her three children, one of whom was Cash. She hasn’t talked to her mother or her siblings since her mom’s rollover car crash years ago. Cash now drives big trucks and farming machines, such as tractors, and doing odd jobs for local farmers as a laborer, which she has been doing since she was eleven years old. She lives in a small apartment above a bar.
She has one person in her life who tries to help her when he can. Sheriff Wheaton is the one who took semi-charge of her since she was three years old, at least as much as he could, after her mother rolled her car into a ditch while driving drunk again. Cash also has lots of barfly and farmer acquaintances, including a friend with benefits, Jim Jenson, who is a married man with children. Their illicit relationship is not a secret in the Casbah or the Flame, local bars where the two join together to hustle people for money and beers playing pool.
The focus of this book is not exactly on a murder mystery (although there is a murder with which Cash becomes slowly involved), but it is mainly about a Big Picture murder of sorts - a genocide of aboriginal families. I found it spot on, telling it like it is for the lost generations who are surviving in the aftermath. The main character, Cash, is mostly aimless and 3/4ths psychologically destroyed in a way that is exactly true to life. She is only nineteen years old, not yet fully understanding that she has the power to overcome the lingering psychological effects of the genocide of her culture and family through education. Right now, she is angry and depressed and unknowingly lonely even while she rejects close relationships. While she sourly takes in the constant insults and prejudices of White people every day (such as the stereotype that all Indians are alcoholics), she drinks to excess every day herself, and smokes cigarettes one after another, having no goals or hopes or plans other than winning enough at pool to drink beer.
Wheaton is the only person who cares about her like a family member. But he lacks a lot of the legal parental protections in his ability to really help her as fully as a mother or father could. Can you understand how terrible that is for a child, teenager or young adult to grow up without a real family or any accepting culture or connections, hearing the usual cultural mores and truisms which obviously are nothing but empty promises and hollow falsities? I grew up myself realizing how hollow mainstream faith and values are, how the fantasies Disneyland celebrates are actually ‘does not apply’ for poor children. The middle-class are safe because of money and family and connections, not because they are people with values despite what the middle-class professes to believe, or maybe truly believes, about how the world works. I grew up without a close family like Cash, and poor. Although I am a big city kid with a different past, my interior sense of
‘why want or make an effort to try for anything? I am trapped in the underclass by other people more powerful than me determined to take everything I work for away. Plus they insist on me verbally parroting and sometimes even forcing me to believe religious and other cultural truisms (god loves and protects me, be everything you can be, I want what is best for you) which none of them will actually permit me to experience or intend me to really have.’
was exactly the same as Cash. It comes from a childhood with no ability to have anything of one’s own or any sense of belonging or safety or any permanence of place while growing up. It doesn’t take long before an unwanted and poor child to figure out all adults lie about things turning out well, or that this or that thing is ‘for their own good’. Survival is the only paradigm of existence which is Truth.
The character of Cash rang my internal bells of recognition for another seemingly similar to myself who is growing up (grew up) feeling only how empty the future is about their life. But Cash does have a sense of place - the empty plains of the Midwest, the Western farmer lifestyle, the jeans/t-shirt shitkicker life of a transient alcoholic laborer. Cash has grasped it with all of her being. I think Wheaton is trying to fix her, gently. He wants her to enroll in a local college, her only hope for a better life (as it was for me). He might succeed in weaning her from her dead-end path...if she survives the mysterious attempts on her life!
March 14, 2025
Take a shot every time Cash drinks or needs a cigarette (please don't!!). That's mostly what she does (along with playing pool), and yet, I really loved this book.
The mystery isn't that prominent in the story compared to everything else, but I enjoyed the way Cash was slowly absorbed into the case, and how she managed to help the Sheriff in her own way.
The audiobook was hard to put down, I think I got through 83 ish % yesterday when I started it, and I probably could've finished it if I didn't have to go out. I'll be jumping into the next one immediately, I can't wait to see what's next for Cash (and maybe we'll see Long Braids again?).
The mystery isn't that prominent in the story compared to everything else, but I enjoyed the way Cash was slowly absorbed into the case, and how she managed to help the Sheriff in her own way.
The audiobook was hard to put down, I think I got through 83 ish % yesterday when I started it, and I probably could've finished it if I didn't have to go out. I'll be jumping into the next one immediately, I can't wait to see what's next for Cash (and maybe we'll see Long Braids again?).
April 21, 2021
The title of this subtly constructed book is somewhat deceiving.Although there is a murder in the plot, there is only minimal suspense surrounding the discovery of the culprits. The murder is a launching point for an artfully articulated polemic that excoriates the systematic removal of Native American children from their families.
Renee “Cash” Blackbear is a nineteen year old Native American woman.She has been separated from her family at an early age and shuttled through the foster care system, moving from home to home in Fargo, North Dakota and Northern Minnesota. She now lives on her own and supports herself by driving truck in the wheat and beet fields during the day and hustling pool by night She smokes too much. She drinks too much.She can not visualize a future and only feels a bond to the land that she can never own. Her only true friend is Sheriff Wheaton, who has taken an interest in her from the time she has been forcibly separated from her family. He recognizes Cash’s intelligence and has tried to counterbalance the despair and lack of purpose that arise from the deliberate destruction of the family bonds.
An unidentified Indian migrant worker has been murdered.Sheriff Wheaton asks Cash to take a look with him in hopes that she might be able to identify either the man or his tribe.Cash thinks that he may be from the Red Lake reservation further North and travels to the reservation in an attempt to find out who this man was. Her journey and the subsequent repercussions unfold a narrative that portrays the racism and neglect that have been designed to dismantle a familial structure and a culture.
In an afterword, the author notes that the systematic removal of Native American children from their families began in 1819 and continued in some institutional form through 1978. This novel is set in 1971 and Cash is a fictional depiction of the possible consequences of these policies.She is an artfully drawn character who embodies both the tragedy and hope of these damaged children. She is by no means a totally tragic figure. The arc of her story hints at the possibility of expanding her life’s boundaries .Her story,and the story of generations of these children, is told gradually and its totality will leave the reader pondering the direction of our society. I would not categorize this book as a mystery. The allure of this work extends beyond any single genre.
Renee “Cash” Blackbear is a nineteen year old Native American woman.She has been separated from her family at an early age and shuttled through the foster care system, moving from home to home in Fargo, North Dakota and Northern Minnesota. She now lives on her own and supports herself by driving truck in the wheat and beet fields during the day and hustling pool by night She smokes too much. She drinks too much.She can not visualize a future and only feels a bond to the land that she can never own. Her only true friend is Sheriff Wheaton, who has taken an interest in her from the time she has been forcibly separated from her family. He recognizes Cash’s intelligence and has tried to counterbalance the despair and lack of purpose that arise from the deliberate destruction of the family bonds.
An unidentified Indian migrant worker has been murdered.Sheriff Wheaton asks Cash to take a look with him in hopes that she might be able to identify either the man or his tribe.Cash thinks that he may be from the Red Lake reservation further North and travels to the reservation in an attempt to find out who this man was. Her journey and the subsequent repercussions unfold a narrative that portrays the racism and neglect that have been designed to dismantle a familial structure and a culture.
In an afterword, the author notes that the systematic removal of Native American children from their families began in 1819 and continued in some institutional form through 1978. This novel is set in 1971 and Cash is a fictional depiction of the possible consequences of these policies.She is an artfully drawn character who embodies both the tragedy and hope of these damaged children. She is by no means a totally tragic figure. The arc of her story hints at the possibility of expanding her life’s boundaries .Her story,and the story of generations of these children, is told gradually and its totality will leave the reader pondering the direction of our society. I would not categorize this book as a mystery. The allure of this work extends beyond any single genre.
June 27, 2017
سال 1970، کـَش 19 ساله دنبال زندگی در شمال مینه سوتا هستش. با اینکه 19 سالشه اما تجربه های خیلی متفاوتی نسبت به افراد همسنش داشته. بعد از اینکه کلانتر محلی، اونو که به عنوان یه بچه سر راهی پیدا کرد، کش در طول زندگیش بین یتیم خانه ها سرگردان بود. هیچ وقت نتونسته رابطه طولانی ای با کسی داشته باشه به جز ویتون، همون کلانتر محلی. با اینکه هیچ وقت مشخص نمیشه که دلیل این رابطه نزدیک چیه، به نظر میرسه که کلانتر چیز خاصی در کش میبینه. کش هم بعضی اوقات به کلانتر کمک میکنه که کیس های جنایی رو حل کنه. بعد از اینکه جسد یه کشاورز که با چاقو کشته شده، پیدا میشه، کلانتر حدس میزنه که کش میتونه با صحبت با محلی ها، اطلاعاتی در این زمینه کسب بکنه. با اینکه حل این جنایت خوب نوشته شده و جذابه، نکته جذاب ترش اینه که کش چطور با شرایطی که پشت سر گذاشته، هر روزش رو سر میکنه و یجورایی فقط زنده ست و زندگی نمیکنه. وقایع ترسناک و دردناکی که پشت سر گذاشته، و همچنین اتفاقات روزمره ای که براش میوفته، مثل نژاد پرستی و گیر دادن افراد مست بهش موقع بیلیارد بازی کردن، همچنان شرایط سخت رو براش زنده نگه داشته. توصیفات محلی، شرایط زندگی و جزئیات طبیعت، زیبا و دقیق بیان شدند. توصیف شرایط سخت زندگی کش و اینکه چطور این اتفاقات باعث شدن اون به یک جنگجو تبدیل بشه خیلی خوب و زیبا بیان شدند.
نثر کتاب ساده س و خوب نوشته شده. نکات اخلاقی کتاب هم خوب بیان شدند که باعث میشه به شرایطی که شخصیت اصلی ازش عبور کرده فکر کنیم.
نثر کتاب ساده س و خوب نوشته شده. نکات اخلاقی کتاب هم خوب بیان شدند که باعث میشه به شرایطی که شخصیت اصلی ازش عبور کرده فکر کنیم.
July 2, 2017
I loved this book and I could not put it down after I started reading it. It is only 200 pages so it is quite a quick read. I have been wanting to read more books about my First Nations culture and read more books written by First Nations authors.
I don't think I have related to a protagonist more then I have to Cash. Cash is a First Nations woman who spent a majority of her life in the foster care system and I myself am a First Nations woman that had spent 16 years in the foster care system. We both have had to deal with racism, more her then me. We have both lived in small towns and have suffered the effects of residential schools and the effects it had for generations after.
The novel takes place in Fargo in the 1970s and follows Cash as she tries to help the county sheriff solve the murder of a First Nations man.
The novel also deals with loss,grieving, suicide, guilt and growing up. I really liked seeing Cash progress throughout the novel and how she went from someone who drank and smoked and played pool to someone who wanted to get an education.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone. I think this book will make the reader think and hopefully shed some light on what the Native American/ First Nations people went though and still to this day what they have to go through.
I don't think I have related to a protagonist more then I have to Cash. Cash is a First Nations woman who spent a majority of her life in the foster care system and I myself am a First Nations woman that had spent 16 years in the foster care system. We both have had to deal with racism, more her then me. We have both lived in small towns and have suffered the effects of residential schools and the effects it had for generations after.
The novel takes place in Fargo in the 1970s and follows Cash as she tries to help the county sheriff solve the murder of a First Nations man.
The novel also deals with loss,grieving, suicide, guilt and growing up. I really liked seeing Cash progress throughout the novel and how she went from someone who drank and smoked and played pool to someone who wanted to get an education.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone. I think this book will make the reader think and hopefully shed some light on what the Native American/ First Nations people went though and still to this day what they have to go through.
June 22, 2019
I wanted to like this debut novel by an 'enrolled' member of the White Earth Anishinabe, but the delivery fell flat. Rendon does an amazing job of bring her character to life, no doubt drawing on life experiences. Her skill at crafting a mystery, however, is weak. Much of the book repeats a few scenes: ordering/opening/drinking beer; buying/opening/smoking cigarettes; playing pool; driving around the harvest-in-progress landscape near Fargo, ND; and--significantly--experiencing overt racism from a bunch of hayseed farm boys and girls. So much of the book is filler because it's mostly repeated scenes. I desperately wanted her to do something other than drink beer and play pool. How about doing something with a friend? No, that won't work, she only has one friend and he's busy.
Cash, the protagonist solves the murder by eavesdropping on a couple of dumb farm boys who have decided to sit in their truck in the middle of nowhere and discuss the murder they just committed. Investigation is not necessary, the sheriff does nothing except ask Cash for updates, since he obviously knows the author is going to give Cash any new clues first. It's a mystery arc a nine-year-old could write. She's a much better writer than that, but there has to be a mystery in a murder mystery. Making things minutely worse, at one point Cash uses what the movie 'Code Talkers' called 'mystical Indian horseshit' to find things out--that is, she has a vision that happens to be accurate. To have a supernatural element requires a lot more work than throwing it out there. I see the Anishinabe as my relatives, separated by 20,000 years by way of the land bridge from Siberia. I do NOT see them as magical people who, through a special relationship with the land, can defy the physical world.
Cash, the protagonist solves the murder by eavesdropping on a couple of dumb farm boys who have decided to sit in their truck in the middle of nowhere and discuss the murder they just committed. Investigation is not necessary, the sheriff does nothing except ask Cash for updates, since he obviously knows the author is going to give Cash any new clues first. It's a mystery arc a nine-year-old could write. She's a much better writer than that, but there has to be a mystery in a murder mystery. Making things minutely worse, at one point Cash uses what the movie 'Code Talkers' called 'mystical Indian horseshit' to find things out--that is, she has a vision that happens to be accurate. To have a supernatural element requires a lot more work than throwing it out there. I see the Anishinabe as my relatives, separated by 20,000 years by way of the land bridge from Siberia. I do NOT see them as magical people who, through a special relationship with the land, can defy the physical world.
March 24, 2024
Reading Murder on the Red River by Marcie R. Rendon felt like such a gift not only because of the intriguing plot but also because its Ojibwe authored.
This was my first time really delving into Rendons writing. I had received the second book in the Cash Blackbear Mystery series (Girl Gone Missing) in a literary box and set it aside until I’d read the first novel Murder on the Red River (which was the October book for @indigenousreadingcircle )
Mystery isn’t a genre I read often but Rendons writing style had me hooked. The plot progressed in a way that kept me turning the (digital) page even though it was well past my bedtime.
I also really enjoyed Cash Blackbear as a character and appreciated all of the important issues touched upon throughout.
Rendon does a phenomenal job of keeping us entertained with a well paced mystery plot while also demonstrating the negative impacts that the foster care system and being removed from one’s community has on many Indigenous youth.
There were so many “small” moments that stood out to me as Ojibwekwe and it once again displays the importance of Indigenous authors holding space across all genres.
This was my first time really delving into Rendons writing. I had received the second book in the Cash Blackbear Mystery series (Girl Gone Missing) in a literary box and set it aside until I’d read the first novel Murder on the Red River (which was the October book for @indigenousreadingcircle )
Mystery isn’t a genre I read often but Rendons writing style had me hooked. The plot progressed in a way that kept me turning the (digital) page even though it was well past my bedtime.
I also really enjoyed Cash Blackbear as a character and appreciated all of the important issues touched upon throughout.
Rendon does a phenomenal job of keeping us entertained with a well paced mystery plot while also demonstrating the negative impacts that the foster care system and being removed from one’s community has on many Indigenous youth.
There were so many “small” moments that stood out to me as Ojibwekwe and it once again displays the importance of Indigenous authors holding space across all genres.
February 18, 2025
Rendon introduces me to Cash and to her Fargo which is different than the Fargo I've seen from the eponymous film and tv series.
Apart from the crime detection plot we also see how Renee came to be Cash, her past trauma which effects her present and will also effect her future. We see how the American policy of taking away Indian children from their parents and families has created a lost nation, maybe that was the intention. Divide someone from his or her roots, cause trauma, then blame that person for any resultant choices. Choices which distinctly lack a whiff of freedom.
Apart from the crime detection plot we also see how Renee came to be Cash, her past trauma which effects her present and will also effect her future. We see how the American policy of taking away Indian children from their parents and families has created a lost nation, maybe that was the intention. Divide someone from his or her roots, cause trauma, then blame that person for any resultant choices. Choices which distinctly lack a whiff of freedom.
August 21, 2024
Cash Blackbear is a teenager in the early 70's who was placed into a series of foster homes after her mother had a car accident. Sheriff Wheaton became a type of surrogate guardian figure. She has a gift that Wheaton can use in that she can see the circumstances around death. This is a mystery where she helps solve a series of deaths starting with a Native American man of whom she 'sees' some of his backstory and is able to forewarn his family. She can relate to other Native American's as she has been through some horrible foster homes and bears the generational scars of Natives removed from their families and placed in horrible boarding schools, and the residuals of the reservations they were forced into. She has siblings who were with her when her mother had the car accident that ended up separating all of them so hopefully in later books she will get to reconcile. Wheaton will have an interesting backstory, and this will probably come out too. I enjoyed this mystery and will continue with this series.
November 11, 2024
4 stars
Renee Blackbear - AKA Cash - is a Native American girl - out on her own. Coming from a rough childhood - with many foster care placements in the white mans world - she works like a man, shoots pool better than most men, with her only friend and caregiver a local sheriff a few counties over. Taken under Sheriff Wheaton's wing she was privy to more legal and illegal information than anyone not law enforcement should have been. Therefore she was involved in all three murders that take place in the story.
This is the first book of series, based on Cash Blackbear and the people who surround her. Even to those that come to her in dreams.
I enjoyed this first book and plan to read more into the series - with the next book being Girl Gone Missing.
Good book choice for November - Native American Heritage Month.
Renee Blackbear - AKA Cash - is a Native American girl - out on her own. Coming from a rough childhood - with many foster care placements in the white mans world - she works like a man, shoots pool better than most men, with her only friend and caregiver a local sheriff a few counties over. Taken under Sheriff Wheaton's wing she was privy to more legal and illegal information than anyone not law enforcement should have been. Therefore she was involved in all three murders that take place in the story.
This is the first book of series, based on Cash Blackbear and the people who surround her. Even to those that come to her in dreams.
I enjoyed this first book and plan to read more into the series - with the next book being Girl Gone Missing.
Good book choice for November - Native American Heritage Month.
April 29, 2021
I heartily recommend this compelling Indigenous-wise coming-of-age mystery with emphasis on historical injustices endured by Native Americans and an irrepressible & liminally-fluent heroine!
Oh, and upon finishing this book I am motivated to pick up the 2nd book in this series asap, Girl Gone Missing.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...
Oh, and upon finishing this book I am motivated to pick up the 2nd book in this series asap, Girl Gone Missing.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...
February 15, 2017
Cash is an unforgettable lead in Rendon's debut mystery. Taken from her mother at a young age and passed around fosters homes, she has grown up trusting no one except the local sheriff. When the body of a murdered Native American is found, Cash decides to sniff around for clues, using her powerful dreams to guide her.
This story is deeply rooted in time and place, which suits me just fine. You can feel the wind in the trees and smell the Budweiser spilled on the bar floor. But even more than that you feel Cash's hurt and anger and hope for the future.
This story is deeply rooted in time and place, which suits me just fine. You can feel the wind in the trees and smell the Budweiser spilled on the bar floor. But even more than that you feel Cash's hurt and anger and hope for the future.
May 22, 2019
I enjoyed this debut novel from poet and children’s author, Marcie Rendon – with reservations. In Murder on the Red River (which takes place during the Vietnam War), we meet 19-year-old Renee Blackbear known as Cash , orphaned in a car crash at age 3, fostered in many homes who needed either extra money or an extra hand, and now living on her own in an apartment in Fargo, North Dakota. Her guardian angel is Sheriff Wheaton who came upon the accident all those years ago and has watched out for her over the years. She now “drives truck” hauling crops for farms in northwest Minnesota and basically spends all her free time drinking beer, playing pool and occasionally sleeping with a married white man. When an Indian is found dead in a field near where she works, Wheaton calls her in to help. She gets involved and faces many harrowing situations in the lead-up to the solve.
What I liked about this novel is that it felt authentic in many ways to the Indian culture here in the Upper Midwest. Rendon is a member of the White Earth Nation of the Ojibwey, so has first-hand knowledge of not only her area, but that of others. I appreciated that she portrayed the challenges and triumphs of her people through Cash, who has “sight” which helps her in her crime-fighting role. I also love an amateur sleuth.
What didn’t work for me as much was the mystery. I think the “dead Injun” just served as a way for Rendon to develop her characters and their relationships with each other and to introduce the Native culture here in Minnesota. It also surprised me that Rendon reinforced many of the stereotypes of Indians, but I guess there is an element of truth in all stereotypes. Lastly, this book could have used an editor, not just for the writing but for inaccuracies that threw this Minnesota reader off! For example, pickled beet factories were mentioned when the type of beets grown in this area are used to make sugar. Cash describes the Red Lake Nation, where the murdered Indian is from, as 250 miles northwest of Fargo/Moorhead when it’s 250 miles northeast. These would maybe not be picked up on if you aren’t from the area, but still . . .
The book ends with Wheaton encouraging Cash to go to college, with the argument that she is too smart to be living the life she is. Rendon has written a second book featuring Cash, Girl Gone Missing. It will be interesting to see how Cash fares in college and what the next murder is that she'll get involved in.
Why I’m reading this book: This month the Mystery, Crime and Thriller group called for nominations of mysteries featuring Native Americans, accompanied by a long list of novels featuring same from Barnes & Noble. What struck me is that 99% of the dozens of books listed were written by white people, mostly men but also a couple of women. I scoured the list for Native American authors and found this one, which won the poll for the May group read. (I’ll confess I love Tony Hillerman’s mystery series set in the Navajo Nation, but it was a delight to read this Native-penned novel.)
What I liked about this novel is that it felt authentic in many ways to the Indian culture here in the Upper Midwest. Rendon is a member of the White Earth Nation of the Ojibwey, so has first-hand knowledge of not only her area, but that of others. I appreciated that she portrayed the challenges and triumphs of her people through Cash, who has “sight” which helps her in her crime-fighting role. I also love an amateur sleuth.
What didn’t work for me as much was the mystery. I think the “dead Injun” just served as a way for Rendon to develop her characters and their relationships with each other and to introduce the Native culture here in Minnesota. It also surprised me that Rendon reinforced many of the stereotypes of Indians, but I guess there is an element of truth in all stereotypes. Lastly, this book could have used an editor, not just for the writing but for inaccuracies that threw this Minnesota reader off! For example, pickled beet factories were mentioned when the type of beets grown in this area are used to make sugar. Cash describes the Red Lake Nation, where the murdered Indian is from, as 250 miles northwest of Fargo/Moorhead when it’s 250 miles northeast. These would maybe not be picked up on if you aren’t from the area, but still . . .
The book ends with Wheaton encouraging Cash to go to college, with the argument that she is too smart to be living the life she is. Rendon has written a second book featuring Cash, Girl Gone Missing. It will be interesting to see how Cash fares in college and what the next murder is that she'll get involved in.
Why I’m reading this book: This month the Mystery, Crime and Thriller group called for nominations of mysteries featuring Native Americans, accompanied by a long list of novels featuring same from Barnes & Noble. What struck me is that 99% of the dozens of books listed were written by white people, mostly men but also a couple of women. I scoured the list for Native American authors and found this one, which won the poll for the May group read. (I’ll confess I love Tony Hillerman’s mystery series set in the Navajo Nation, but it was a delight to read this Native-penned novel.)
March 21, 2018
I was expecting this to be more of a mystery novel, but that wasn't really the focus--it was more just about life as a young Native American woman in the Fargo-Moorhead area in the 70s. For such a short book, it really dragged in places, for me at least, but I did enjoy reading about Cash and her life. I love reading books set in Minnesota, which this book partially was, and this is one of the few I've read about a part of my state that I've never been to, or even anywhere near, so that aspect was fascinating to me. Don't pick this up expecting a mystery or thriller, but I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys quiet slice-of-life or character study books.
June 24, 2022
Unread shelf project 2022: book 32.
I wanted to like this one, but it didn’t quite work for me.
Pros: characterization is strong, and her writing style really evoked the desperation, poverty, inequality, and depression of being Indigenous in the 1960s.
Cons: plot was VERY weak. Scenes were repeated constantly — drinking and playing pool. Poorly managed anger. Loneliness. Hookups. Another beer. Rinse and repeat. Which is fine to a point — but too many of the same scenes ends up being filler rather than expressing the desperation of poverty and inequality. Also, why were we given a multi-page description of Cash doing her laundry? There are parts of the book I want more info and then… parts when I want way less.
I wanted to like this one, but it didn’t quite work for me.
Pros: characterization is strong, and her writing style really evoked the desperation, poverty, inequality, and depression of being Indigenous in the 1960s.
Cons: plot was VERY weak. Scenes were repeated constantly — drinking and playing pool. Poorly managed anger. Loneliness. Hookups. Another beer. Rinse and repeat. Which is fine to a point — but too many of the same scenes ends up being filler rather than expressing the desperation of poverty and inequality. Also, why were we given a multi-page description of Cash doing her laundry? There are parts of the book I want more info and then… parts when I want way less.
December 9, 2022
I do not understand the rave reviews. I wanted to like this book and stayed with it until the end. The main character’s endless cycle of smoking, drinking beer, and playing pool became boring and tedious to read. Her character did nothing to engage me and it was a slog to keep reading. I have read many Native American authors and this one fell flat. The story went nowhere and each page was a repeat of cigarettes, driving through small towns, and looking for beer, or just somewhere to drink it. The supernatural shadow seems contrived and forced. Overall, the writing was amateurish and dull.
December 9, 2023
'Murder On The Red River' is vivid, realistic and beautifully written. It's a personal story of trauma and survival, disclosed around the investigation of a killing. The focus of the storytelling is not on the killing or even on finding the people who did the killing but on immersing the reader into the world of Renee "Cash" Blackbear, a nineteen-year-old Ojibwe woman making her living driving trucks for farmers in the Red River Valley in the 1970s.
We get to see the world as Cash sees it. We learn how she deals with the world and what she expects from it and, as she informally investigates the killing of an unidentified Native American man who was a long way from home, we learn about the childhood she had, being shifted from white foster home to white foster home and of the friendship she built with the local Sherriff, the only person who took any real interest in her welfare when she was a child.
The first thing we learn about Cash is that she's doing more than surviving. Her mind and her imagination are engaged with the world. We meet her as she walks into a local bar at the end of a long shift and her mind is as much on poetry as it is on the drinks she'll soon be winning as she dominates the pool table in the bar she thinks of as her evening home.
Here are the opening paragraphs:
"Sun-drenched wheat fields. The refrain ran through Cash's mind as she pulled open the Cashah's screen door. She stood still. Momentarily blinded, she waited for her eyes to adjust to the darkened barrio,. Outside, the sun rested on the western horizon Inside the Casbah it was always night. The wooden door thunked behind her. The bar smells- stale beer, cigarette smoke, sawdust and billiard chalk- welcomed her to her evening home.
Sun-drenched wheat fields, healing rays of god's love wash gently over me. Cash didn't like the word god. Even in her own mind it was written in lowercased letters. What had he ever done for her? Sun-drenched wheat fields, healing rays of sun's love... nah, didn't work. Healing rays of god's love- now thatworked."
I loved this storytelling style. It was immersive, visual and emotional. There is no separation between Cash and the story. The plot isn't just character-driven, the plot exists only as the trellis that the vine of Cash's personality blossoms on.
There is a plot and it's a good one. It shows not just how a native man from a long way away might come to be killed but how the people who did it might be fairly sure that they'd get away with it.
I liked that the killing and killers are treated as part of the landscape of Cash's world, as expected as a sunrise and as unsurprising as a familiar horizon. Cash throws her energy into solving the crime but not because she has a need to solve a puzzle or because she wants to be at the centre of the action but because this killing and these killers are part of her world and she can't let that pass.
Cash is tough but not callous. She's angry but she doesn't let that anger consume her. She does what she needs to do and she does it well. Yet she's aware that most of her life is still ahead of her and she's still thinking about what she should do with it, other than drive trucks, play pool and drink a lot of beer.
I was completely absorbed by this book. When it ended, it took a while for me to step back out of Cash's world and he way of seeing it.
'Murder On The Red River' was Marcie Rendon's debut novel. It was published in 2017, when she was sixty-five and already recognised as a playwright, a poet and a political activist. I think her maturity and her experience shine through in the novel. 'Murder On The Red River' is a remarkable book and a stunning debut novel.
I've already downloaded the second book in the series, 'Girl Gone Missing' (2019) and I'm looking forward to spending more time with Cash.
We get to see the world as Cash sees it. We learn how she deals with the world and what she expects from it and, as she informally investigates the killing of an unidentified Native American man who was a long way from home, we learn about the childhood she had, being shifted from white foster home to white foster home and of the friendship she built with the local Sherriff, the only person who took any real interest in her welfare when she was a child.
The first thing we learn about Cash is that she's doing more than surviving. Her mind and her imagination are engaged with the world. We meet her as she walks into a local bar at the end of a long shift and her mind is as much on poetry as it is on the drinks she'll soon be winning as she dominates the pool table in the bar she thinks of as her evening home.
Here are the opening paragraphs:
"Sun-drenched wheat fields. The refrain ran through Cash's mind as she pulled open the Cashah's screen door. She stood still. Momentarily blinded, she waited for her eyes to adjust to the darkened barrio,. Outside, the sun rested on the western horizon Inside the Casbah it was always night. The wooden door thunked behind her. The bar smells- stale beer, cigarette smoke, sawdust and billiard chalk- welcomed her to her evening home.
Sun-drenched wheat fields, healing rays of god's love wash gently over me. Cash didn't like the word god. Even in her own mind it was written in lowercased letters. What had he ever done for her? Sun-drenched wheat fields, healing rays of sun's love... nah, didn't work. Healing rays of god's love- now thatworked."
I loved this storytelling style. It was immersive, visual and emotional. There is no separation between Cash and the story. The plot isn't just character-driven, the plot exists only as the trellis that the vine of Cash's personality blossoms on.
There is a plot and it's a good one. It shows not just how a native man from a long way away might come to be killed but how the people who did it might be fairly sure that they'd get away with it.
I liked that the killing and killers are treated as part of the landscape of Cash's world, as expected as a sunrise and as unsurprising as a familiar horizon. Cash throws her energy into solving the crime but not because she has a need to solve a puzzle or because she wants to be at the centre of the action but because this killing and these killers are part of her world and she can't let that pass.
Cash is tough but not callous. She's angry but she doesn't let that anger consume her. She does what she needs to do and she does it well. Yet she's aware that most of her life is still ahead of her and she's still thinking about what she should do with it, other than drive trucks, play pool and drink a lot of beer.
I was completely absorbed by this book. When it ended, it took a while for me to step back out of Cash's world and he way of seeing it.
'Murder On The Red River' was Marcie Rendon's debut novel. It was published in 2017, when she was sixty-five and already recognised as a playwright, a poet and a political activist. I think her maturity and her experience shine through in the novel. 'Murder On The Red River' is a remarkable book and a stunning debut novel.
I've already downloaded the second book in the series, 'Girl Gone Missing' (2019) and I'm looking forward to spending more time with Cash.
March 17, 2021
This is a character-driven mystery set along the Red River, one side in Minnesota one side in North Dakota, in 1970. Nineteen-year-old Chippewa woman Renee Blackbear, known as Cash, is tough because she’s had to be. After a car accident when she was a toddler she has spent her life mistreated and abused in white foster care homes and learned to work the farms doing the jobs assigned to men as a means for money and independence. Sheriff Wheaton, who dealt with the car accident case, has always looked out for her and calls her in to help him with a murder case.
A man’s body is found stabbed to death and Cash finds herself between her time as a pool shark and working the field looking into who the man was, and who would have killed him. While she tries to figure that out, and stay alive, we also see the history of her life, her relationship with Wheaton, and his attempt to get Cash to enroll in college.
I love that Cash’s character is tough, not because a writer just wrote that adjective for a woman character but because she’s had a difficult life and this has been her way to survive, and because of her refusal to take any more crap from people. I had actually started with the sequel in this series, Girl Gone Missing, which starts just at the end of this one; I was never lost while reading it, but I am glad I got to start at the beginning. I’d really like this to be a series that continues as Cash is a character I randomly think of and wonder about how she’s doing (characters are real!). And while I’ll read any amount of pages about Cash, I like that the novels so far are just over 200 pages, letting me curl up for an afternoon and get an entire story read that completely transports me to another place and time.
(TW alcoholism/ past suicidal thoughts briefly mentioned, detail/ past child abuse)
--from Book Riot's Unusual Suspects newsletter: https://link.bookriot.com/view/56a820...
A man’s body is found stabbed to death and Cash finds herself between her time as a pool shark and working the field looking into who the man was, and who would have killed him. While she tries to figure that out, and stay alive, we also see the history of her life, her relationship with Wheaton, and his attempt to get Cash to enroll in college.
I love that Cash’s character is tough, not because a writer just wrote that adjective for a woman character but because she’s had a difficult life and this has been her way to survive, and because of her refusal to take any more crap from people. I had actually started with the sequel in this series, Girl Gone Missing, which starts just at the end of this one; I was never lost while reading it, but I am glad I got to start at the beginning. I’d really like this to be a series that continues as Cash is a character I randomly think of and wonder about how she’s doing (characters are real!). And while I’ll read any amount of pages about Cash, I like that the novels so far are just over 200 pages, letting me curl up for an afternoon and get an entire story read that completely transports me to another place and time.
(TW alcoholism/ past suicidal thoughts briefly mentioned, detail/ past child abuse)
--from Book Riot's Unusual Suspects newsletter: https://link.bookriot.com/view/56a820...
November 27, 2022
It dates me to say that my favorite characters in mysteries remind me of Kinsey Milhone, but I can’t think of a more perfect way to describe Cash Blackbear than this. The time period may help, as this is set in 1970 so it also has that pre-tech vibe from Grafton’s work. Fiercely independent, Cash is a 19 yo Ojibwe woman living and working on farms in the Fargo, ND region, while drinking and shooting pool at night. This may be a mystery on the surface, but the real story here is that of Native American children being forcibly removed from their homes and the trauma that creates for generations. My favorite mysteries are character and place-driven with simple crimes to solve, and this book fits that perfectly. Cash quickly won my heart and I’m eager to continue this series.
Source: purchased Kindle book
Source: purchased Kindle book
April 27, 2021
I really expected to like this book. Unfortunately, I was disappointed. This is not the mystery I was expecting. I found it had very little to do with the story. I know I am the minority, but I did not particularly like the main character. I understand so much comes from her childhood of loss, deprivation and abuse. The tragedy brought about by the inconceivable policies of the government was hard to read. I found the cycle of smoking, drinking and pool so repetitive. The first 4 times was more than enough to make the point that she is addicted to cigarettes, alcohol, and pool. I got it. I don't want to include spoilers, so I'll just say, was she really intending to do that at the hospital.It made no sense to me.It was all too depressing . Just my opinion, so wouldn't discourage anyone from taking a chance on it because the positive reviews are overwhelming.
September 26, 2017
A little bit mystery novel, a little bit magical realism, a little bit social realism. Set in 1970 in the Fargo-Moorhead area, featuring a young women from the White Earth reservation who was removed from her mother's care at a young age and sent to live with an endless string of white foster parents -- a common form of state-sanctioned violence, unfortunately. Very vivid and realistic place descriptions and character development. I sat down to read a few chapters and ended up finishing the whole thing at once. I'm not sure if it's a standalone or the beginning of a series. Works well either way, but I'll say I would be very happy to read more about Cash!
January 2, 2020
Not a really a murder mystery. Yes, 2 guys are killed, but The book doesn’t fit the mystery procedural formula. The characters and settings are compelling and that’s why I kept reading.
August 20, 2022
3.5 rounded up
June 1, 2017
Marcia Rendon's debut mystery begins with a great opening chapter full of setting and place. She writes with authority with describing characters, the 70's and rural cultures with detail.
The main character is 19-year-old Renee Blackbear, called Cash for her ability to work hard and her need to be paid in cash. Cash has had a difficult childhood, passed around fosters homes, and had to work farm labor jobs from a young age. As a teenager, she drives grain trucks, keeps a .22 in her car and pool hustles. She trusts no one except the local sheriff, Wheaton, her long time friend. (I imagined him to look like Longmire from the series).
When the body of a murdered Native American is found, Wheaton enlists Cash's help. She decides to sniff around and in the process gets more deeply involved in the crime, which is followed by two more deaths. This investigation gives us a lot of detail into her past and several issues faced by rural natives, past and present.
I enjoyed reading the story because of the atypical 19 years old, in a different setting, and of course the 1970's (a favorite era). What I found distracting was the overabundance of 'stage directions' in the writing: 'she turned, she stood ...' followed by details that were unnecessary. Sometimes it took a whole paragraph to say Cash struck a match.
Overall, I'd read other novels by Marcia Rendon because I enjoyed the settings and how she was able to write about place, other cultures, and important issues.
The main character is 19-year-old Renee Blackbear, called Cash for her ability to work hard and her need to be paid in cash. Cash has had a difficult childhood, passed around fosters homes, and had to work farm labor jobs from a young age. As a teenager, she drives grain trucks, keeps a .22 in her car and pool hustles. She trusts no one except the local sheriff, Wheaton, her long time friend. (I imagined him to look like Longmire from the series).
When the body of a murdered Native American is found, Wheaton enlists Cash's help. She decides to sniff around and in the process gets more deeply involved in the crime, which is followed by two more deaths. This investigation gives us a lot of detail into her past and several issues faced by rural natives, past and present.
I enjoyed reading the story because of the atypical 19 years old, in a different setting, and of course the 1970's (a favorite era). What I found distracting was the overabundance of 'stage directions' in the writing: 'she turned, she stood ...' followed by details that were unnecessary. Sometimes it took a whole paragraph to say Cash struck a match.
Overall, I'd read other novels by Marcia Rendon because I enjoyed the settings and how she was able to write about place, other cultures, and important issues.
April 30, 2023
The problem with the book is that I read it. Maybe if I didn’t read it, I would have liked it.
I think the title is wrong. Yes, there is a murder, but not a title-worthy one, that’s just a side story. There are much more important things that could be the title. For example, CASH’S CIGARETTE PACK or CASH’S BEER BOTTLE or CASH’S CUE STICK. And its category shouldn’t be Mystery, it could be THE MOST BORINGEST DIARIES EVER. But if you like reading how a girl looks for her cigarettes, pushes the lighter thing in her car, and the lighter thing pops out, and she smokes her cigarette, and also how she folds her laundry, and how she smokes another cigarette, and how she goes somewhere while smoking her cigarette she pulled out of her cigarette pack, this one’s just for you.
I think the title is wrong. Yes, there is a murder, but not a title-worthy one, that’s just a side story. There are much more important things that could be the title. For example, CASH’S CIGARETTE PACK or CASH’S BEER BOTTLE or CASH’S CUE STICK. And its category shouldn’t be Mystery, it could be THE MOST BORINGEST DIARIES EVER. But if you like reading how a girl looks for her cigarettes, pushes the lighter thing in her car, and the lighter thing pops out, and she smokes her cigarette, and also how she folds her laundry, and how she smokes another cigarette, and how she goes somewhere while smoking her cigarette she pulled out of her cigarette pack, this one’s just for you.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,024 reviews