Fans of Tony Hillerman's Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee Navajo crime novels have a new direction for their reading, as Diné writer and filmmaker Ramona Emerson offers SHUTTER, a thriller set in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
The book offers a forensic photographer, Rita Todacheene, whose childhood with her grandmother on the Navajo reservation included a gift that nobody around her wanted her to have: She's an access portal for the dead. When contributing to an investigation, that gives Rita an occasional lift toward what's important in the crime evidence that she captures with her beloved cameras. But in her personal life, it's a harrowing experience, one that puts her at risk and even distances her from her grandmother and other support.
Consider Rita's grandmother's explanation:
"But what always confused me was that death was so evil. It was as if when we died, we went to hell. I didn't want my mom to go there, so I cried and cried to keep her here. I watched in the moonlight as my mom parted this world in the summer night."As a crime novel, SHUTTER is first rate: effective trains of evidence, rapid twists of the plot, and highly believable motivations and process. As a replacement for the Hillerman series, Emerson's work has the very necessary plus of being written from within tribal experience, rather than alongside it. The Leaphorn/Chee mysteries conveyed a maturing serenity that Rita Todacheene can't yet reach, although the intergenerational affection displayed is potent. Some readers may also feel torn between accepting the haunting here as a cultural reality, versus questioning whether Emerson is trying to build a set of metaphors to help non-Native listeners into her narrative.
SHUTTER is well worth reading as both crime novel and cultural exploration. It's good to see this kind of writing skill applied to the tangled history and present grief of the American West.
PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.
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