Top Mystery Writers Honored at the 77th Edgar Awards

This is a great genre mix of mystery/heist (second half) and YA contemporary (first half), that is set in the same universe as Firekeeper’s Daughter where Daunis is Perry Firekeeper-Birch’s aunt!

Perry, who has a twin sister with an opposite personality, is planning on doing nothing with her summer but fishing. Except she ends up in a car accident after dropping her twin off at her internship and has to pay her aunt for the repairs. So it’s working at a tribal museum for her instead, which is how she learns about the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act and the way some people and organizations are getting around returning items, including ancestral remains, back to their rightful tribes. The museum is currently holding onto 13 Anishinaabe ancestors and while Perry is doing her best to try and locate sacred items being sold and bought on eBay to recover them, she needs something bigger to return her ancestors. And so a heist it will have to be, but things do not go as planned and Perry isn’t the only one in great danger…

I loved this book, especially Perry and her snarky and caring personality, the juxtaposition with her twin sister, and the past and current Native history explored. Highly recommend the audiobook narrated by Isabella Star LaBlanc.

(TW victims of sexual assault name assaulter, brief general idea of what happened/ mentions past sexual assault, not graphic/ trichotillomania, anxiety)

For readers of true crime that focuses on a case to look at the broader issue.

Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind disappeared in Fargo, North Dakota during the summer of 2017 at the age of 22 while eight months pregnant. Savanna, a member of North Dakota Spirit Lake Nation, would be found murdered and her baby alive in her upstairs neighbor’s apartment. Gable uses this case to show the long history of violence targeted at Native Americans and the lack of police response.