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Rita Todachee's Navajo culture holds strong taboos against interacting with the dead. So Rita, a forensic photographer who has long straddled the worlds between the living and dead, has gained hard-won expertise at hiding her spirit interactions. Then she encounters Esme Singleton, who fell into traffic from an Albuquerque overpass and was immediately declared a suicide by Garcia, the lead detective. Esme's enraged spirit insists she was murdered, however, and demands justice, summoning a stream of unsettled spirits that Rita can't suppress. When Esme's onslaught raises concerns about her mental health, prompting her suspension, Rita realizes that her only hope of escaping Esme's wrath is to expose the cartel heavies (and the compliant Garcia), whom Esme claims caused her death. Emerson infuses depth in the story with flashbacks elucidating Rita's connections with the dead and with details about her complex relationships with her mother, grandmother, and a Navajo shaman, all of whom provide strength as the impositions of the spirit world stretch Rita's competing identities. This debut trilogy-starter showcases top-notch storytelling.

Rita Todacheene, the narrator of Emerson's strong debut, has excelled at her job with the Albuquerque (N.Mex.) PD's Crime Scene Specialist Unit for the past five years, exposing valuable clues through her meticulous photography. Flair and technical expertise aside, much of her success is due to a unique ability to communicate with the ghosts of crime victims. It's a gift she discovered during childhood, but these unusual powers come at a price--her peculiar behavior and obsession with "imaginary friends" alienated her from her classmates and drove her out of her Navajo community. Ever since, damaged spirits, desperate for her help, plague her, pushing her to the edge of sanity and making her friends and colleagues question her psychological competence. After photographing a grisly highway suicide, she's coerced into investigating members of the police force with connections to the victim and major players in a Mexican drug cartel, ultimately drawing her into a perilous quest for truth and justice. Rich, expressive prose matches the suspenseful storytelling. Only the predictable finale disappoints. Crime fiction fans will relish this keenly balanced paranormal page-turner and piquant coming-of-age yarn. (Aug.)

Emerson's debut, narrated by Oglala Lakota/Mohawk actor Charley Flyte, features Rita Todacheene, a Diné woman living and working in Albuquerque, NM, as a forensic photographer. Rita is gifted at her job, but she has been hiding an ability that aids her work-- she can see ghosts. One such ghost, Erma, was thought to have died by suicide, but she insists that she was murdered and wants Rita to solve the case. In her search, Rita comes across ghosts, murderers, and corrupt police officers. While the paranormal plot is occasionally wearying, the descriptions of the crime scenes and investigatory process is riveting. Listeners will appreciate Flyte's sensitive narration of flashbacks, depicting Rita's experiences growing up with her grandmother on reservation. He believably brings out Rita's stress and exhaustion, although his depiction of other characters is more one-dimensional. VERDICT Emerson, herself a Diné writer and filmmaker, delivers an intriguing supernatural thriller. Recommend to those seeking thrillers written by Indigenous authors such as David Heska Wanbli Weiden, Carol LaFavor, and Marcie Rendon.--Danielle Arpin

Emerson's striking debut follows a Navajo police photographer almost literally to hell and back. Rita Todacheene sees dead people. Since most of her attempts to talk to someone about her special power while she was growing up on the reservation ended in disaster, she's tried to keep it to herself during her five years with the Albuquerque Police Department. Her precarious peace is shattered by the death of Erma Singleton, manager of a bar owned by Matias Romero, her common-law husband. Although lazy Detective Martin Garcia has ruled that Erma fell from a highway bridge, her body shattered by the truck that hit her on the roadway below, Erma insists that she was pushed from the bridge. "Help me get back to my baby," she tells Rita, "or I'll make your life a living hell." Since Rita, a civilian employee, has few resources for an investigation, Erma opens a portal that unleashes scores of ghosts on her, all clamoring for justice or mercy or a few words with the loved ones they left behind. The nightmare that propels Rita forward, from snapping photos of Judge Harrison Winters and his wife and children and dog, all shot dead in what Garcia calls a murder-suicide, to revelations that link both these deaths and Erma's to the drug business of the Sinaloa cartel, is interleaved with repeated flashbacks that show the misfit Rita's early years on her Navajo reservation and in her Catholic grade school as she struggles to come to terms with a gift that feels more like a curse. The appeal of the case as a series kickoff is matched by the challenges Emerson will face in pulling off any sequels. A whodunit upstaged at every point by the unforgettably febrile intensity of the heroine's first-person narrative. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Rita Todachee's Navajo culture holds strong taboos against interacting with the dead. So Rita, a forensic photographer who has long straddled the worlds between the living and dead, has gained hard-won expertise at hiding her spirit interactions. Then she encounters Esme Singleton, who fell into traffic from an Albuquerque overpass and was immediately declared a suicide by Garcia, the lead detective. Esme's enraged spirit insists she was murdered, however, and demands justice, summoning a stream of unsettled spirits that Rita can't suppress. When Esme's onslaught raises concerns about her mental health, prompting her suspension, Rita realizes that her only hope of escaping Esme's wrath is to expose the cartel heavies (and the compliant Garcia), whom Esme claims caused her death. Emerson infuses depth in the story with flashbacks elucidating Rita's connections with the dead and with details about her complex relationships with her mother, grandmother, and a Navajo shaman, all of whom provide strength as the impositions of the spirit world stretch Rita's competing identities. This debut trilogy-starter showcases top-notch storytelling. Copyright 2022 Booklist Reviews.

Diné forensic photographer Rita Todacheene doesn't just take good pictures, she helps solve cases for the Albuquerque police force with insights gleaned from the ghosts of crime victims, whom she can see and hear. More curse than gift, her ability to confer with the otherworld has driven her from the reservation, where it's regarded with suspicion, and has wrecked her personal life. Now an especially angry ghost won't leave Rita alone, sending her on a mission of vengeance that could get her killed. Diné writer/filmmaker Emerson's debut is at once a thriller, a horror story, and a portrait of growing up on the reservation; a big push at PLA and ALA.

DEBUT The debut novel by New Mexico-based Diné filmmaker Emerson is an atmospheric, haunting thriller that spans genres and introduces a fascinating character. Rita Todacheene was raised by her grandmother in the Navajo Nation in the American Southwest, but she's since left the reservation and become a forensic photographer for the Albuquerque police. Rita is known for her skills as a photographer (she captures details in her shots that no one else can) but she also has a secret gift: Rita has been able to see ghosts since birth. This supernatural ability aids her forensic photography, as the ghosts of crime victims point her toward clues that investigators have overlooked, but it also wreaks havoc in her personal life. Then, on the scene of a suspected suicide, the victim's angry ghost tells Rita she's been murdered and demands revenge, which soon puts Rita's life in danger from a vicious cartel. Emerson's novel jumps between the present and moments in Rita's childhood and early adulthood, setting a menacing undertone that weaves through the pages. VERDICT The arid New Mexico landscape and Emerson's stark prose add layers of bone-chilling believability to the story. Fans of thrillers with supernatural elements will enjoy this great first novel.—Laura Hiatt

DEBUT The debut novel by New Mexico-based Diné filmmaker Emerson is an atmospheric, haunting thriller that spans genres and introduces a fascinating character. Rita Todacheene was raised by her grandmother in the Navajo Nation in the American Southwest, but she's since left the reservation and become a forensic photographer for the Albuquerque police. Rita is known for her skills as a photographer (she captures details in her shots that no one else can) but she also has a secret gift: Rita has been able to see ghosts since birth. This supernatural ability aids her forensic photography, as the ghosts of crime victims point her toward clues that investigators have overlooked, but it also wreaks havoc in her personal life. Then, on the scene of a suspected suicide, the victim's angry ghost tells Rita she's been murdered and demands revenge, which soon puts Rita's life in danger from a vicious cartel. Emerson's novel jumps between the present and moments in Rita's childhood and early adulthood, setting a menacing undertone that weaves through the pages. VERDICT The arid New Mexico landscape and Emerson's stark prose add layers of bone-chilling believability to the story. Fans of thrillers with supernatural elements will enjoy this great first novel.—Laura Hiatt

Rita Todacheene, the narrator of Emerson's strong debut, has excelled at her job with the Albuquerque (N.Mex.) PD's Crime Scene Specialist Unit for the past five years, exposing valuable clues through her meticulous photography. Flair and technical expertise aside, much of her success is due to a unique ability to communicate with the ghosts of crime victims. It's a gift she discovered during childhood, but these unusual powers come at a price—her peculiar behavior and obsession with "imaginary friends" alienated her from her classmates and drove her out of her Navajo community. Ever since, damaged spirits, desperate for her help, plague her, pushing her to the edge of sanity and making her friends and colleagues question her psychological competence. After photographing a grisly highway suicide, she's coerced into investigating members of the police force with connections to the victim and major players in a Mexican drug cartel, ultimately drawing her into a perilous quest for truth and justice. Rich, expressive prose matches the suspenseful storytelling. Only the predictable finale disappoints. Crime fiction fans will relish this keenly balanced paranormal page-turner and piquant coming-of-age yarn. (Aug.)