Marcie Rendon’s thriller, ‘Where They Last Saw Her,’ tracks Indigenous women missing in

That comes through in “Where They Last Saw Her,” although the three amateur detectives do solve the disappearance they’re investigating.

Along the way, they face the kind of complications that confront real-life activists who put up flyers or sponsor fundraisers for missing women: It’s assumed victims are sex workers or runaways or are dealing with addiction and, whether or not that’s true, that makes it difficult for investigations to gather steam. And many of the crimes occur in the vicinity of “man camps” set up near mining operations, where the population is often transient.

“Where They Last Saw Her” balances sadness with the joyful camaraderie of the three women, especially in an inspiring sequence when they participate in a charity run in Duluth. The run emphasizes that Native women were the first to speak up for missing and murdered Indigenous women, and spotlights Ojibwe culture.

Respect for tradition is a big theme in the book, which presents the women’s culture from their perspective, rather than filtering it through a “white gaze.” That means practices such as tobacco offerings and characters such as the spiritual Elder Who Smudges are presented matter-of-factly. Context clues help readers unfamiliar with Ojibwe customs. Because the women wouldn’t be explaining them to each other in real life, however, Rendon’s book doesn’t explain them to us.

Rendon said “Where” is for everyone, yet she hopes Native readers will see themselves in it.

“Quill uses her middle finger as her fingerprint on her phone, and that, to many of us, is funny. And I can’t even explain why,” said Rendon. “The other thing that is true is that as Native people we face tremendous and horrendous oppression, but one thing that is also true about us is that Native people have really, really good senses of humor. They will find something funny about just about anything.”