This just popped out at me when I discovered it was set in along the Red River in North Dakota and Minnesota especially in Fargo and in Bemidji, near the White Earth Reservation. 

Murder on the Red River
by Marcie  R. Rendon (2020)
Read by Siiri Scott 6h 3m 
Rating: B- / Native American crime 
#1 of The Cash Blackbear Series 

There were parts of this book which were fascinating but other parts which seemed dated and then other things which stretched credibility.  But I see it’s also set in the 1970s and that would make dial phones appropriate. 

Cash Blackbear is a 19-year old Native American woman whose parents are deceased or missing. She’s lived almost her whole life in Fargo and since since she graduated high school and was released from the foster home system she’s done farm work in the highly agricultural area.  She has a friend named Wheaten who is in law enforcement in a tiny town and acts as a kind of guardian.  Cash hangs out at a couple of local bars shooting pool, which earns her a bit more money, and drinking beer. She has her share of resentments about the white caste system and is kind of lost in the world. 

One day another resident of the White Earth reservation is killed in a field near where she works. Cash is hypersensitive to dream-like messages and senses she should go find the man’s wife. She heads up to White Earth Reservation.  

While I wasn’t overwhelmed with the plot I was very drawn to the characters as they’re unfolding in the series. A huge drawback for me is the apparent dependence Cash has on cigarettes and beer.