Book Review: Shutter, by Ramona Emerson
Jan. 4th, 2023 10:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
inverarityA Navajo crime photographer sees dead people.
Soho Crime, 2022, 296 pages
Being a crime photographer, whose job it is to take pictures of dead people, usually people who've just been gruesomely murdered, seems like a terrible career choice for a Navajo. The Navajo believe that death and dead bodies are unclean, and that the spirits of the dead are the malignant residue of the deceased. Unfortunately, Rita Todacheene has the "gift" of being able to see dead people, and they won't leave her alone.
This debut novel by Ramona Emerson, who is a Navajo and former forensic photographer herself, drew me in because I've long had an interest in the Navajo, mostly inspired by Tony Hillerman's novels. Shutter is nothing like the Leaphorn/Chee novels, though. Hillerman's stories frequently featured the beliefs and religion of the Navajo as part of the plot, but he never actually introduced any supernatural elements, while we know right from the beginning that Rita Todacheene can see ghosts.
The book alternates between the present day, in which Rita works as a civilian crime photographer for the Albuquerque Police Department, and the past, with flashbacks to Rita growing up on the reservation, raised sometimes by her doting grandmother and sometimes by her loving but troubled and peripatetic mother who gravitated towards toxic relationships with white men. Even as a child, Rita saw ghosts, which earned her a reputation as the weird girl with other kids and caused great concern among adults, especially her grandmother, who brought in a medicine man to try to shoo away her spirits. It didn't work.
In the present day, Rita takes photographs of a woman who fell/jumped or was pushed off a freeway overpass and wound up being smeared across the highway by traffic. The woman's ghost appears to Rita, realizes that Rita can see her, and demands that Rita obtain justice.
She is not the only ghost who harasses and demands things of Rita. Ghosts seem to be very unreasonable, trapped and miserable in the afterlife and forever wanting things that are out of reach, and they take a psychic toll on Rita. This book is more a crime thriller than a supernatural mystery, but the ghosts are a constant presence. It was actually a little frustrating reading Rita's grandmother and the medicine man demanding over and over that Rita "stop messing around with dead people" when it's pretty clear that she doesn't actually have a choice; the dead won't leave her alone.
Rita is pulled into a much larger case involving Mexican drug cartels and corrupt cops. The ghosts, of course, are never any help, and the climax felt a little rushed and convenient.
This was clearly a debut novel and at times it seemed unclear whether the author wanted to fully commit to the supernatural elements or keep that as a side plot. Rita herself is still somewhat flat as a character; we know she had a difficult childhood, she is not entirely comfortable either on the Reservation or among white people, and her feelings about the dead are ambiguous. She's a rather closed person, but I wouldn't mind seeing a sequel, or a series, continuing her cases as the Navajo crime photographer who sees dead people.
My complete list of book reviews.
Soho Crime, 2022, 296 pages
This blood-chilling debut set in New Mexico’s Navajo Nation is equal parts gripping crime thriller, supernatural horror, and poignant portrayal of coming of age on the reservation
Rita Todacheene is a forensic photographer working for the Albuquerque police force. Her excellent photography skills have cracked many cases—she is almost supernaturally good at capturing details. In fact, Rita has been hiding a secret: she sees the ghosts of crime victims who point her toward the clues that other investigators overlook.
As a lone portal back to the living for traumatized spirits, Rita is terrorized by nagging ghosts who won’t let her sleep and who sabotage her personal life. Her taboo and psychologically harrowing ability was what drove her away from the Navajo reservation, where she was raised by her grandmother. It has isolated her from friends and gotten her in trouble with the law.
And now it might be what gets her killed.
When Rita is sent to photograph the scene of a supposed suicide on a highway overpass, the furious, discombobulated ghost of the victim—who insists she was murdered—latches onto Rita, forcing her on a quest for revenge against her killers, and Rita finds herself in the crosshairs of one of Albuquerque’s most dangerous cartels. Written in sparkling, gruesome prose, Shutter is an explosive debut from one of crime fiction's most powerful new voices.
Being a crime photographer, whose job it is to take pictures of dead people, usually people who've just been gruesomely murdered, seems like a terrible career choice for a Navajo. The Navajo believe that death and dead bodies are unclean, and that the spirits of the dead are the malignant residue of the deceased. Unfortunately, Rita Todacheene has the "gift" of being able to see dead people, and they won't leave her alone.
This debut novel by Ramona Emerson, who is a Navajo and former forensic photographer herself, drew me in because I've long had an interest in the Navajo, mostly inspired by Tony Hillerman's novels. Shutter is nothing like the Leaphorn/Chee novels, though. Hillerman's stories frequently featured the beliefs and religion of the Navajo as part of the plot, but he never actually introduced any supernatural elements, while we know right from the beginning that Rita Todacheene can see ghosts.
The book alternates between the present day, in which Rita works as a civilian crime photographer for the Albuquerque Police Department, and the past, with flashbacks to Rita growing up on the reservation, raised sometimes by her doting grandmother and sometimes by her loving but troubled and peripatetic mother who gravitated towards toxic relationships with white men. Even as a child, Rita saw ghosts, which earned her a reputation as the weird girl with other kids and caused great concern among adults, especially her grandmother, who brought in a medicine man to try to shoo away her spirits. It didn't work.
In the present day, Rita takes photographs of a woman who fell/jumped or was pushed off a freeway overpass and wound up being smeared across the highway by traffic. The woman's ghost appears to Rita, realizes that Rita can see her, and demands that Rita obtain justice.
She is not the only ghost who harasses and demands things of Rita. Ghosts seem to be very unreasonable, trapped and miserable in the afterlife and forever wanting things that are out of reach, and they take a psychic toll on Rita. This book is more a crime thriller than a supernatural mystery, but the ghosts are a constant presence. It was actually a little frustrating reading Rita's grandmother and the medicine man demanding over and over that Rita "stop messing around with dead people" when it's pretty clear that she doesn't actually have a choice; the dead won't leave her alone.
Rita is pulled into a much larger case involving Mexican drug cartels and corrupt cops. The ghosts, of course, are never any help, and the climax felt a little rushed and convenient.
This was clearly a debut novel and at times it seemed unclear whether the author wanted to fully commit to the supernatural elements or keep that as a side plot. Rita herself is still somewhat flat as a character; we know she had a difficult childhood, she is not entirely comfortable either on the Reservation or among white people, and her feelings about the dead are ambiguous. She's a rather closed person, but I wouldn't mind seeing a sequel, or a series, continuing her cases as the Navajo crime photographer who sees dead people.
My complete list of book reviews.
