Shutter (Soho Crime)
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.
--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
Rita is a Navajo crime scene photographer who can see and communicate with ghosts. Erma is a recent victim who latches herself onto Rita and is bound and determined to have her prove that her death was not a suicide. Rita is led to mafia/drug involvement and crooked cops and must push through her own family’s beliefs in order to bring justice to these victims while simultaneously trying to understand her own gift. With Navajo traditions and cultures mixed in throughout, this book combined education with horror and paranormal fiction that really left me appreciating Rita and all that she went through spiritually and mentally.
Content warning for graphic descriptions, murder, violence, and related topics. I read this as an audiobook and I think it was a detriment to the book. The narrator overemphasized every word she said, making it a sound that was difficult to listen to. I thought there was a fair bit of reliance on tropes, and I saw the twist coming from a mile away. I liked the relationship that Rita, her mother, and her grandmother had with film, I would have liked to see more of that and less of the magical realism/ghost scenes. Overall an interesting read, but not my favorite.
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