SINISTER GRAVES

The discovery of a nameless corpse gives Ojibwe college student Renee "Cash" Blackbear another excuse to slack off from her studies.

Norman County Sheriff Dave Wheaton may have rescued Cash from the car crash that claimed her mother’s life and taken her under his wing years ago, but that doesn’t mean she has to like every one of his ideas for her life. When North Dakota’s spring floods lead to the discovery on Little Lake of a pregnant woman who’s been bashed and smothered to death, it’s a godsend for Cash, because Wheaton once again calls on her for unofficial aid. Soon after the victim is identified as Edie Birch, a second body is washed up by the floodwaters: that of Lori White Eagle, from Devils Lake. Cash, who sees portents and feels emotional vibrations that pass other people by, is convinced that the two women can be traced to the church led by Pastor John Steene, whose wife, Lillian, is the organist. The Steenes are more than receptive to her appearance at the church, inviting her for meals and urging her to return. But her questions about the two child-sized graves on the church grounds are met with a stony silence that convinces her their cordial hospitality is only one aspect of their relationship with local young women. Rendon’s clipped style perfectly complements the laconic dialogue of Cash and her cavalier indifference to her schoolwork, her friends, her neighbors, and virtually everything else except for those two graves.

Not much mystery but lots of menace in this hyperunderstated character piece.