Red River Girl, Joanna Jolly
Red River Girl, Joanna Jolly
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Red River Girl
The Life and Death of Tina Fontaine

Author: Joanna Jolly

Narrator: Penelope Rawlins

Unabridged: 9 hr 2 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Viking

Published: 09/24/2019


Synopsis

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

A gripping account of the unsolved death of an Indigenous teenager, and the detective determined to find her killer, set against the backdrop of a troubled city.

On August 17, 2014, the body of fifteen-year old runaway Tina Fontaine was found in Winnipeg's Red River. It was wrapped in material and weighted down with rocks. Red River Girl is a gripping account of that murder investigation and the unusual police detective who pursued the killer with every legal means at his disposal. The book, like the movie Spotlight, will chronicle the behind-the-scenes stages of a lengthy and meticulously planned investigation. It reveals characters and social tensions that bring vivid life to a story that made national headlines.

Award-winning BBC reporter and documentary maker Joanna Jolly delves into the troubled life of Tina Fontaine, the half-Ojibway, half-Cree murder victim, starting with her childhood on the Sagkeeng First Nation Reserve. Tina's journey to the capital city is a harrowing one, culminating in drug abuse, sexual exploitation, and death.

Aware of the reality of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, Jolly has chronicled Tina Fontaine's life as a reminder that she was more than a statistic. Raised by her father, and then by her great-aunt, Tina was a good student. But the violent death of her father hit Tina hard. She ran away, was found and put into the care of Child and Family Services, which she also sought to escape from. That choice left her in danger.

Red River Girl focuses not on the grisly event itself, but on the efforts to seek justice. In December 2015, the police charged Raymond Cormier, a drifter, with second-degree murder. Jolly's book will cover the trial, which resulted in an acquittal. The verdict caused dismay across the country.

The book is not only a true crime story, but a portrait of a community where Indigenous women are disproportionately more likely to be hurt or killed. Jolly asks questions about how Indigenous women, sex workers, community leaders, and activists are fighting back to protect themselves and change perceptions. Most importantly, the book will chronicle whether Tina's family will find justice.

About The Author

JOANNA JOLLY is an award-winning BBC reporter based in London. She began her journalism career at the Japanese newspaper Sankei Shimbun, moving on from there to freelance in India and Australia before covering the fight for independence in East Timor. During the past decade, she's worked as a BBC producer and reporter in Jerusalem, South Africa, Brussels, Washington, and India as well as spending two years as the BBC correspondent in Kathmandu, Nepal. During that time Jolly specialised in stories of sexual violence against women. Jolly has won several awards, including the 2007 BBC Onassis Bursary. In 2015, she won the Association of International Broadcaster's best current affairs documentary award for her in-depth look at the prosecution of rape in India. Red River Girl is her first book.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Valerity (Val) on July 28, 2019

This is author Joanna Jolly’s debut book on the death of Tina Fontaine. Tina was a Canadian girl, one of a number of aboriginal females who had gone missing and later turned up dead in the Red River. It’s written about as part of a larger problem of sexual exploitation with so many aboriginal young......more

Goodreads review by Nigel on October 29, 2019

In brief - Not an easy one to review for me. The overarching story of institutional racism needed telling and came across well. The individual case I'm less sure about. In full The basic idea of this book appealed to me a lot. Essentially it looks at the way native indigenous people and particularly......more

Goodreads review by Brooke on April 20, 2019

4.5 stars. Red River Girl: The Life and Death of Tina Fontaine tells the tragic true story of Tina Fontaine, a fifteen-year-old Indigenous girl whose body was found in Winnipeg’s Red River on August 17, 2014. The book focuses primarily on the murder investigation conducted by the Winnipeg Police Hom......more

Goodreads review by Louise on November 05, 2019

This is a true crime story. We learn of the murder of fifteen year old indigenous schoolgirl, Tina Fontaine. This is mostly a police procedural that's trying to determine who killed this young schoolgirl. Vulnerable indigenous girls have been murdered with their cases being unsolved. Tina had been a......more

Goodreads review by Deb on January 24, 2020

I could not put this book down. When the body of 15-year-old Tina Fontaine was found in the Red River in Winnipeg, Canada. A spotlight shone on Homicide Detective O'Donovan and brought with it the glare of the issue regarding hundreds of missing, murdered, exploited and abused Indigenous women. The......more


Quotes

“Tina Fontaine brought international attention to the tragedy of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirit folks. This retelling of her life and the investigation into her death is a breathtaking account of the fight to find justice for Tina.”
—Wab Kinew, author of The Reason You Walk