Looking for Smoke
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5.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK
In her powerful debut novel, Looking for Smoke, author K. A. Cobell (Blackfeet) weaves loss, betrayal, and complex characters into a thriller that will illuminate, surprise, and engage readers until the final word. A must-pick for readers who enjoy books by Angeline Boulley and Karen McManus!
When local girl Loren includes Mara in a traditional Blackfeet Giveaway to honor Loren’s missing sister, Mara thinks she’ll finally make some friends on the Blackfeet reservation.
Instead, a girl from the Giveaway, Samantha White Tail, is found murdered.
Because the four members of the Giveaway group were the last to see Samantha alive, each becomes a person of interest in the investigation. And all of them—Mara, Loren, Brody, and Eli—have a complicated history with Samantha.
Despite deep mistrust, the four must now take matters into their own hands and clear their names. Even though one of them may be the murderer.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
This mystery set on a Native reservation in majestic Montana gracefully explores themes of Indigenous grief and belonging. New to the reservation and with only one Native parent, teenage Mara is struggling to fit in. When a local girl tragically dies, it’s revealed that Mara was one of the last people to see her, unexpectedly drawing her into a murder investigation. K. A. Cobell uses a gripping fictional tale to draw attention to the very real tragedy of missing and murdered Indigenous women in North America. Heightening the suspense with an innovative structure, she tells the story from the different perspectives of four key suspects who were each close to the victim. If you like mysteries grounded in crucial real-life issues, Looking for Smoke is essential reading.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Not seen for months, Blackfeet teen Rayanne "Charging at Night" Arnoux seems to be another missing Indigenous girl amid a series of disappeared teens gone uninvestigated. Rayanne leaves behind her Blackfeet Reservation peer group, including her young sister Loren "Different Black Bird," Eli First Kill, Samantha White Tail, Brody Clark, and Mara Racette (who is of white and Blackfeet ancestry). But when Samantha is murdered during a celebration, and the group are the last to see her, they each become suspects. The teens soon realize, however, that there's something worse than being under suspicion; as the case progresses, connections to Rayanne's disappearance become apparent, prompting fear that Samantha's death will become another instance of unsolved crimes against Indigenous girls. Her killer must be apprehended, even if it means they're forced to solve the case themselves, and even if it means condemning one of their own. Via four alternating POVs informed by the intricacies of reservation life, Cobell highlights the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women crisis and delivers a gut-punch of an ending in this timely debut thriller that is by turns spine-tingling and emotionally raw. Ages 13–up.
