Brief Mention: SHUTTER, a Haunted Crime Novel by Ramona Emerson

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.

Clever New Mexico Mystery, LESS THAN A MOMENT, Steven F. Havill (Posadas County Mystery #24)

This is number 24 in the Posadas County Mystery series from Steven F. Havill, but the first of his books crossing the desk here. Hurrah for Poisoned Pen Press, which sent along a copy of LESS THAN A MOMENT. The book released on March 17, and since the press is now an imprint of Sourcebooks, it should be readily available despite our stumbling economy. Good news for seasoned mystery readers, indeed!

Long-time readers of the series will know that it has featured Sheriff Bob Torrez, who knows everyone (more or less) in this county along New Mexico's southern border. But in LESS THAN A MOMENT, Undersheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman takes the lead on a pair of cases that look linked -- and that have deeply disturbed the region's relative peace. 

The first case is a drive-by shooting, with multiple rounds, of the town's newspaper office. Just a quirk of fate that two people were still working that evening, and injured, one of them badly. The other takes place halfway through the book, so it would be a spoiler to get too specific here. Still, it's no surprise that it involves a recent real estate deal that might threaten what's bringing the region its fresh prosperity: a set of mega telescopes gathering research data but also hosting public programs and visits, the chance to see deep into space, with a developer who's gradually won over most of the community, thanks to his generosity with jobs—except maybe no job for the sheriff's immature nephew, who's still drinking way to much. When a murder takes place, Estelle takes over the initial site survey and forensics:

The view downward wasn't so grand. The victim lay on his face, arms and legs spread-eagled as if he'd been determined to fly. Instead he'd plunged face-first the forty feet to the rocks below. The artfully eroded sandstone under his head was blood-soaked.

"Was Luke down there?" Estelle asked. The deputy had been with the Sheriff's Department less than a year, and Estelle was not yet confident that Deputy Luke Miller could resist galumphing his size thirteens through a potential crime scene before calling for assistance.

"Nope. He stopped right where we're standin' and called it in." He pointed south with his chin. "I took one climb down over there, stayin' on the hard rocks, and checked his wallet. It's in his left back pocket." ...

Estelle set her camera bag down and unzipped the main compartment, selecting a wide-angle lens. "Ay, this is going to be so bad." She took a deep breath and held it, then let it out as if she were exhaling a jet of smoke."

Likeable investigators, a plot nicely complicated with intriguing clues and sidetracks, enough risk in the final scenes to make it exciting -- this is a really well-written mystery, a police procedural of the Southwest that puts trustworthiness at front and center.

Now it's time to read the other 23.

 PS:  Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.