Evil Dead Center

A Mystery

2017
Author:

Carole laFavor
Foreword by Lisa Tatonetti

Renee is back at it, this time uncovering a dark web with far reaches and implications

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 some suggest foul play was involved, Renee LaRoche wants to prove otherwise, uncovering horrible truths and working through her own childhood issues to help shine a light on the dark web she has stumbled into.

Ultimately the re-release of Carole laFavor’s novels serves to underscore the significance of her writing to the Indigenous literary canon, to remind us of the power of her activism for HIV-positive Native peoples, and to return her important claims for the centrality of Two-Spirit peoples, bodies, and histories to the public eye.

Lisa Tatonetti, from the Foreword

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.

Carole laFavor (1948–2011) was a Two-Spirit Ojibwa novelist and activist who lived and worked in Minnesota. She was a member of the President’s Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS in the 1990s and worked with organizations that supported Native American people with HIV/AIDS. She is also author of Along the Journey River: A Mystery (Minnesota, 2017).

Lisa Tatonetti is associate professor of English at Kansas State University. She is author of The Queerness of Native American Literature (Minnesota, 2014).

Theresa Lafavor is the daughter of Carole laFavor and teaches at Pacific University.

Ultimately the re-release of Carole laFavor’s novels serves to underscore the significance of her writing to the Indigenous literary canon, to remind us of the power of her activism for HIV-positive Native peoples, and to return her important claims for the centrality of Two-Spirit peoples, bodies, and histories to the public eye.

Lisa Tatonetti, from the Foreword