I’m so glad Sandie Herron read and reviewed Shutter by Ramona Emerson. I even have a copy of the debut mystery sitting beside the couch, but just haven’t had a chance to get to it. I just wish my formatting on the blog looked as good as the document Sandie sent. Oh, well. That’s the problem with a blog sometimes. Thank you, Sandie, for the review.

I do want to mention that Shutter is on the longlist for the National Book Award. Great choice, Sandie!

Shutter
Written by Ramona Emerson 
Narrated by Charley Flyte
Unabridged Audiobook
Recorded Books (8/2/2022)
Listening Length: 8 hrs, 53 min
ASIN:  B0B1QVRDGJ

Shutter
By Ramona Emerson
Kindle edition
Soho Crime (8/2/2022)
313 pages
ASIN:  B09KWZG2XJ

Rita Todacheene is a skilled photographer.  As a young child, Rita’s grandmother taught her about picture taking.  When one of her earliest photos caught the light of her grandfather near his widow, Rita was shuffled off to the Navajo medicine man who sung and prayed over her.  He urged Rita to never disclose that she could see ghosts.

In alternating chapters, we learn more about Rita as she grew up.  As a young adult she is living in Albuquerque and working for the police department as a crime scene photographer.  She is very skilled in portraying the dead in their final moments, capturing details many other photographers might miss.  Her secret is that she is sometimes guided by the very same people grasping for her who often do not yet realize they are dead.

Erma is the first of many cases she tackles this day.  Erma is a very strong spirit who was killed because she fought her attacker who dropped her from a bridge into oncoming traffic.  With her body spread across the highway, Rita needed over 1000 photos to capture it all.  All the while Rita snapped photos, Erma yelled in her ear, prodding her to go after the guy.  In the many cases Rita works as her week goes on, Erma follows her.  Erma haunts her incessantly, even to her bed where Rita desperately needs rest after collapsing from exhaustion.  She usually does not engage the ghosts that grab for her, and they move on.  But Erma will not let go.  So Rita makes a deal.  If Erma will let her rest, Rita will go after her killer.

From then on, Erma is a constant reminder of that promise, sometimes quietly and sometimes vociferously.  The two concurrent storylines, Rita growing up and maturing across from Rita’s life today, merge with the crisis Rita faces now.  They flow together seamlessly.  By then, I’d come to care about Rita and what was going to happen to and with her.  I did not see how she was going to get out of this one without dire consequences.  Ultimately, she had help, and all sorts of help, no longer alone.

This was a very intriguing mystery that delved into a field not often studied in fiction, the life of the crime scene photographer.  Not only that, this one was Navajo, a people who typically avoid things to do with death.  She may have been experienced in photography, but she was not so experienced in life.  But Rita pulled it all together using her wits and her smarts and her unique talents.  The author has brought us a compelling, unique story well worth the time to read.

I read this both on my Kindle and as an audiobook.  The narrator was excellent.  She pronounced the Navajo words expertly and brought life to the words on the screen. The pictures painted with the author’s words were both beautiful and brutal.  Either format is quite satisfying.