KA Cobell Releases Her Debut Thriller Novel Looking For Smoke

“If you want to get away with murder, do it on an Indian reservation”so writes debut author, K,A, Corbell in her YA thriller, LOOKING FOR SMOKE, a sensitive look at the historic issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.   The Indigenous communities of the US and Canada face a prevailing issue in Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, or #MMIWG2S.  The numbers speak for themselves: 84 percent of Native women have experienced violence and 56 percent have experienced sexual violence. The murder rate of Native women is three times more than that of white women, and in some locations the rate is more than ten times the national average.  While Native women, girls, and two-spirit people are drastically more likely to be killed or go missing than any other group, these tragedies have typically not received the necessary attention from news media, law enforcement, or wider society. With deft talent and a fresh voice, K.A. Cobell carefully folds this epidemic into a fast-paced story of grief and secrecy, in a high-stakes whodunnit. When local teen 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, turns up murdered. The last four people to see Samantha alive—Mara, Loren, Brody, and Eli—become the persons of interest in the investigation, and every one of them has a complicated history with the victim and each other. To clear their names, they’ll have to take matters into their own hands—and find the murderer among them. LOOKING FOR SMOKE will shine a light on not only this timely issue, but on the strength and hope of the Native communities affected by it.