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.
