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Murder on the Red River
- The Cash Blackbear Mysteries, Book 1
- Narrated by: Siiri Scott
- Length: 6 hrs and 3 mins
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Murder on the Red River
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Publisher's Summary
A murdered man in a field. The sheriff needs Cash - a 20-something tough, smart Indian woman with special seeing powers.
Cash and Sheriff Wheaton make for a strange partnership. He pulled her from her mother's wrecked car when she was 3. 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 13 was working farms. She's tough as nails, 5 feet, 2 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. Maybe 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 Long Braids, the Indian guy headed for Minneapolis to join the American Indian Movement.
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What listeners say about Murder on the Red River
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 2022-04-28
Did I miss the ending
It was a great book, but the story ended suddenly with no ending - what did I miss?
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Langer MD
- 2022-07-07
Strikingly Atmospheric.. but 'Meh'
Marcie R. Rendon paints a dreary picture of life in rural North Dakota/Minnesota during the Vietman era. Itinerant workers compete for the few day-laborer jobs that are available.. alcoholism, meaningless bored revenge sex & infidelity run rampant.. nonchalantly accepted racism pervades the setting. Everyone - from local aristocracy to cops to physicians - are jaded, dishevelled, and nicotine stained. Everything is crusted with shit in Rendon's world for some reason.
'Cash Blackbear' is a 19-year-old Native woman - raised by a series of cruel White Foster Parents after her alcoholic single mother crashed while driving drunk - who discovered she was psychic whilst being punished by being locked in a closet for hours. She uses those powers (visions, dreams, and self-taught astral projection) to help the ambitious 'Sheriff Wheaton' to solve the off-reservation murder of a Chippewa man presumably before the institutionally uninterested FBI can "screw it up".
The atmosphere is incredibly gritty (almost leaving a bad taste in readers/listeners mouths), the characters are flawed & interesting, and Rendon plots a passably interesting crime.. but the book has serious deficiencies:
• First, the dialogue is invariably overdramatic and/or unrealistic.
• Second, the mind's-eye vivid setting is spoiled by a too-heavyhanded approach - I felt like I was being hit over the head with the despair.
• Finally, what motivation there is to solve the crime (for both Cash & the Sheriff) is far too implausible.. I couldn't suspend disbelief enough to really enjoy the story.
That said, the book isn't terrible.
The narration from Siiri Scott is likewise "acceptable". Her indisputably professional diction and cadence are complemented by a great emotive tone and genuinely praiseworthy voice-acting. Sadly, she reads waaaay too slowly (set playback speed at 1.20X for this one) and her subdued whispery timbre gets annoying after awhile.
Altogether, 'Murder On The Red River' rates a disappointing 4.5 stars out of 10. If you can get it included with your subscription (as a 'Plus' option), it's a reasonable distraction for a long drive or a quiet night shift.. but if Audible asks for a Credit, better audiobooks beckon.
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