Minnesota, 1970s: It's spring in the Red River Valley and Cash Blackbear is doing fieldwork for a local farmer-until she finds him dead on the kitchen floor of the property's rented farmhouse. The tenant, a Native field laborer, and his wife are nowhere to be found, but Cash discovers their young daughter, Shawnee, cowering under a bed. The girl, a possible witness to the killing, is too terrified to speak. In the wake of the murder, Cash can't deny her intuitive abilities: she is suspicious of the farmer's grieving widow, who offers to take in Shawnee temporarily. While Cash is scouring White Earth Reservation for Shawnee's missing mother-whom Cash wants to find before the girl is put in the foster system-another body turns up. Concerned by the escalating threat, Cash races against the clock to figure out the truth of what happened in the farmhouse. Broken Fields is a compelling, atmospheric read woven with details of American Indian life in northern Minnesota, abusive farm labor practices and women's liberation.
