Margie Robineau fights to protect family land from development in A Song Over Miskwaa Rapids by Linda LeGarde Grover. The land—known as Sweetgrass—is part of an Ojibwe reservation in Minnesota, where Margie came of age. Determined to prevent the construction of a casino on Sweetgrass, Margie prepares to face a tribal council even as she makes a shocking discovery about events that took place on the reservation decades before. Her quest to unravel the mysteries of the past provides a compelling foundation for this intricate, sensitively rendered narrative of community and belonging.
William Kent Krueger’s The River We Remember takes place in Jewel, Minnesota, in 1958, as Sheriff Brody Dern looks into the murder of a prominent local man whose body was discovered in a river. A top suspect in the crime is Noah Bluestone, a war veteran of Sioux descent. Once Dern’s investigation gets underway, tensions ripple through Jewel, drawing the attention of dedicated journalist Sam Wicklow and fierce female attorney Charlie Bauer. Krueger creates an atmosphere of menace and mystery in this unsettling yet deeply satisfying novel.
Fear and confusion transform a remote Russian town after two sisters vanish in Julia Phillips’ Disappearing Earth. Leaving a mystery in their wake, 11-year-old Alonya and 8-year-old Sophia disappear from a beach on the Kamchatka Peninsula. The novel spans a year as it focuses on women in the community and how the disappearance impacts them. Phillips’ portrayal of loss is rendered with remarkable compassion, and she brings the inhabitants of a distant corner of Russia to vivid life. Explorations of gender, justice and memory will give reading groups plenty to talk about.
Set in the 1970s, Marcie R. Rendon’s Murder on the Red River features Renee “Cash” Blackbear, an Ojibwe teen whose psychic abilities help her solve crimes. With Sheriff Wheaton, a longtime friend, Cash tackles the chilling murder of a Native American man in the Red River Valley. After Cash has visions about the man’s home on the Red Lake Reservation, she finds herself caught up in a tragedy involving prejudice and discrimination. With its smart, gutsy heroine and expertly constructed plot, Rendon’s novel is a rewarding book club pick.