Shutter
Longlisted for the National Book Award
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.
"A haunting thriller, written with exquisite suspense . . . This is a story that won't let you go long after you finish, and you won't want it to end even as you can't stop reading to find out how it does."
—Tommy Orange, author of There There
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.
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.
"A haunting thriller, written with exquisite suspense . . . This is a story that won't let you go long after you finish, and you won't want it to end even as you can't stop reading to find out how it does."
—Tommy Orange, author of There There
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.
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Community Reviews
This is not a ghost story. That being said, this book is filled with ghosts. They are souls that cling to Rita Todacheene, begging her to solve their deaths. She is a forensic photographer and is almost too good at her job. If she doesn’t solve this murder, she may be next. I love the details about her Navaho family and life on her reservation. I hope we will hear more from Rita and from Ramona Emerson.
This book is a five star novel and a one star novel mushed together. The book follows two timelines in the protagonist's life. The first is present day, where Rita is a forensic photographer who happens to be able to see ghosts. She's working to solve the murder of one particularly angry ghost who won't stop haunting Rita until her murderer is brought to justice. The descriptions in the opening crime scene create an attention grabbing hook... but the rest of the crime-solving part of the plot is a let down. It definitely isn't an edge-of-your seat kind of mystery. It feels lackluster and predictable, and it stands in stark contrast to the other timeline in the book.
The second timeline is the coming of age story of a young Navajo girl, struggling with her supernatural gift in the context of Navajo cultural taboos surrounding death -- and struggling with her Navajo identity in a white suprematist world. The characters were tenderly written, the relationships are precious, and Rita is a compelling narrator. This part of the book was excellent.
Perhaps the author felt that she *had* to write a crime novel because the character she was working with was a forensic photographer. But this character could have followed a million different storylines that didn't involve a cardboard mystery I didn't care about solving. A good crime novel is thrilling, evoking anticipation and delivering unexpected twists. This mystery was predictable and flat, and the ghost associated with it was one of the least interesting characters in the novel.
Ramona Emerson can definitely write -- it will be interesting to see if, for future books, she doubles down on crime writing or moves on to literary drama, which she's clearly quite skilled at.
The second timeline is the coming of age story of a young Navajo girl, struggling with her supernatural gift in the context of Navajo cultural taboos surrounding death -- and struggling with her Navajo identity in a white suprematist world. The characters were tenderly written, the relationships are precious, and Rita is a compelling narrator. This part of the book was excellent.
Perhaps the author felt that she *had* to write a crime novel because the character she was working with was a forensic photographer. But this character could have followed a million different storylines that didn't involve a cardboard mystery I didn't care about solving. A good crime novel is thrilling, evoking anticipation and delivering unexpected twists. This mystery was predictable and flat, and the ghost associated with it was one of the least interesting characters in the novel.
Ramona Emerson can definitely write -- it will be interesting to see if, for future books, she doubles down on crime writing or moves on to literary drama, which she's clearly quite skilled at.
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