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Evil Dead Center: A Mystery
An Ojibwa woman has been found dead on the outskirts of the Minnesota Red Earth Reservation. The coroner ruled the death a suicide, but after an ex-lover comes back into her life saying foul play was involved, Renee LaRoche wants to prove otherwise. As the events begin to unfold, Renee conducts a presumably normal welfare check on a young Ojibwa boy in foster care. After she learns the boy has suffered abuse, Renee finds herself amid an investigation into the foster care system and the deep trauma it has inflicted on the Ojibwa people. As Renee uncovers horrible truths, she must work through her own childhood issues to help shine a light on the dark web she has stumbled into.
224 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 1, 1997
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189 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
November 15, 2021
The book is different in tone to most of white American writers, as it is not hard boiled or of the Noir genre.
The main sleuth Renee LaRoche is Ojibwe and the landscape and her interaction with the landscape is very important. The employment of Native American cultural and religious practices is a strong part of the plot.
The book touches on numerous issues faced by Native Americans in the US. However, the white male protagonists are rather stereotyped as the "evil" culprits.
It remains a book well worth reading and I am sorry that laFavor never managed to write more in this series.
The main sleuth Renee LaRoche is Ojibwe and the landscape and her interaction with the landscape is very important. The employment of Native American cultural and religious practices is a strong part of the plot.
The book touches on numerous issues faced by Native Americans in the US. However, the white male protagonists are rather stereotyped as the "evil" culprits.
It remains a book well worth reading and I am sorry that laFavor never managed to write more in this series.
November 3, 2019
This chilling mystery set in northern Minnesota, among the Ojibwa, on Red Earth Reservation. Renee LaRoche walks the edge of the blade between white and Ojibwa culture to find a killer. She gets more than she bargained for. This book covers so many topics (prejudice, child abuse, same sex relationship), yet it still tells a really good story! Would make an excellent cop TV series! #mnauthor #readin24
January 6, 2025
It was fun to try something a little bit different, but this one wasn't for me.
April 9, 2025
Has nothing to do with the Evil Dead movies
April 28, 2025
Couldn't finish it. Took forever to get to the point.
June 19, 2020
About a year has passed since Renee LaRoche helped solve a murder on her Ojibwa reservation. She is still teaching part time in an elementary school and “helping out” at the Tribal Police station, although without official status. She is also still living with her Chinook girlfriend Samantha, who has gained a small degree of success by writing a book about a woman on the rez. It’s a cozy, comfy situation, kind of like being by a fire on a snowy day.
Then trouble comes. Caroline Beltrain, Renee’s first girlfriend, who she dated in their shadowy Movement days almost two decades earlier—contacts Renee about a friend of hers that has just been found dead. The coroner has pronounced it a suicide by exposure to the elements, but Caroline tells Renee that it was murder. And of course it was. And in the course of the investigation, Renee not only uncovers the murderer, but also a child pornography ring aided by people in local government. Another problem Renee uncovers is the tendency of social workers to place Native foster children with white families outside the reservation.
Racism abounds. For instance, it is racism that causes a white coroner to simply assume a cause of death based on his preconceptions on Native-American alcoholism. It is racism that puts Native children in white homes when other solutions are available. It is racism that makes people turn their heads whenever Renee walks into a white establishment. Yet it seems that it is always Renee that is called on to do the dirty work.
Truthfully, the mystery is little more than laFavor’s essay on how her Native-American community has been taken advantage of by people outside the tribe who think they know better that those who are in it: social workers, police, government agents, and pretty much everybody else. And it is also a forum for the author to recount a number of traditional tribal stories—almost as if laFavor—aware of her AIDS diagnosis—wants to get down as many of them as she can.
For instance, here’s one on conservation:
“It is important we learn to walk lightly, because the faces of our unborn ancestors are looking up at us, relying on us to care respectfully for their inheritance.”
And on harmony in nature:
“When a bird picks up some of your hair and includes it in their nest . . .all the little birds wake up every morning with your scent and remember you forever.”
But I think that her reference to the Movement—Native-American activism on racial injustice that sometimes took a violent turn—is both the most interesting and the most disappointing motif in the novel. It is interesting because it was started partially due to broken treaties with the U.S. Government. One “broken treaty” had to do with Native Americans being kicked off their land because of gold mining; another because of uranium extraction on tribal lands. Sound like DAPL? Well, that’s because they are exactly the same. Under the present government administration—20 years after the time of this novel—what Big Oil wants, Big Oil gets. The Movement is ongoing.
My disappointment stems from the fact that laFavor gives us only tantalizing hints about Renee’s and Caroline’s involvement in the Movement. We know that it was often dangerous and involved covert operations, but we are never given any details; never given even a single flashback scene to make Renee’s memories vivid or even believable. This becomes even more of an obvious omission when, toward the end of the novel, Renee gets involved in one of the most harrowing and dangerous situations in lesbian mystery fiction.
Because laFavor is still the only Native-American to write lesbian mysteries, Evil Dead Center must be ranked among the important books in the genre. But that doesn’t mean that it is a very enjoyable one. As I did for her earlier book, I am going to give this one just enough of a rating—2.6 or so—to jump it up to 3 on the Goodreads scale.
Note: I read the first printing of the Firebrand Books edition.
Another Note: This review is included in my book The Art of the Lesbian Mystery Novel, along with information on over 930 other lesbian mysteries by over 310 authors.
Then trouble comes. Caroline Beltrain, Renee’s first girlfriend, who she dated in their shadowy Movement days almost two decades earlier—contacts Renee about a friend of hers that has just been found dead. The coroner has pronounced it a suicide by exposure to the elements, but Caroline tells Renee that it was murder. And of course it was. And in the course of the investigation, Renee not only uncovers the murderer, but also a child pornography ring aided by people in local government. Another problem Renee uncovers is the tendency of social workers to place Native foster children with white families outside the reservation.
Racism abounds. For instance, it is racism that causes a white coroner to simply assume a cause of death based on his preconceptions on Native-American alcoholism. It is racism that puts Native children in white homes when other solutions are available. It is racism that makes people turn their heads whenever Renee walks into a white establishment. Yet it seems that it is always Renee that is called on to do the dirty work.
Truthfully, the mystery is little more than laFavor’s essay on how her Native-American community has been taken advantage of by people outside the tribe who think they know better that those who are in it: social workers, police, government agents, and pretty much everybody else. And it is also a forum for the author to recount a number of traditional tribal stories—almost as if laFavor—aware of her AIDS diagnosis—wants to get down as many of them as she can.
For instance, here’s one on conservation:
“It is important we learn to walk lightly, because the faces of our unborn ancestors are looking up at us, relying on us to care respectfully for their inheritance.”
And on harmony in nature:
“When a bird picks up some of your hair and includes it in their nest . . .all the little birds wake up every morning with your scent and remember you forever.”
But I think that her reference to the Movement—Native-American activism on racial injustice that sometimes took a violent turn—is both the most interesting and the most disappointing motif in the novel. It is interesting because it was started partially due to broken treaties with the U.S. Government. One “broken treaty” had to do with Native Americans being kicked off their land because of gold mining; another because of uranium extraction on tribal lands. Sound like DAPL? Well, that’s because they are exactly the same. Under the present government administration—20 years after the time of this novel—what Big Oil wants, Big Oil gets. The Movement is ongoing.
My disappointment stems from the fact that laFavor gives us only tantalizing hints about Renee’s and Caroline’s involvement in the Movement. We know that it was often dangerous and involved covert operations, but we are never given any details; never given even a single flashback scene to make Renee’s memories vivid or even believable. This becomes even more of an obvious omission when, toward the end of the novel, Renee gets involved in one of the most harrowing and dangerous situations in lesbian mystery fiction.
Because laFavor is still the only Native-American to write lesbian mysteries, Evil Dead Center must be ranked among the important books in the genre. But that doesn’t mean that it is a very enjoyable one. As I did for her earlier book, I am going to give this one just enough of a rating—2.6 or so—to jump it up to 3 on the Goodreads scale.
Note: I read the first printing of the Firebrand Books edition.
Another Note: This review is included in my book The Art of the Lesbian Mystery Novel, along with information on over 930 other lesbian mysteries by over 310 authors.
October 21, 2008
Okay lesbian sleuth mystery set on the Ojibwa Red Earth Reservation.
February 21, 2015
I enjoyed learning Ojibwa words of wisdom. The mystery was exciting, and the dialogue on point. I will always remember the community.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews