Read This Book . . .

Rita Todacheene is a Diné woman working for the Albuquerque police department as a forensic photographer when she comes across one of the worst cases she’s ever seen: a woman has fallen over the side of an overpass to her death. Rita is one of the best photographers in the business, but she has a secret: she can see ghosts. Seeing the spirits of the dead has given her an edge in her career, but it’s also incredibly dangerous.

Rita was raised by her grandmother on the Navajo reservation. Her grandmother knew of her gifts, but tried to instill in Rita a deep respect for the dead. Now Rita must figure out what happened to the dead woman before her angry spirit causes Rita harm.

Emerson does a great job of setting up our protagonist. I’ve read a lot of mysteries around someone solving crime, but I’d never read a book centered around a forensic photographer before. Plus, the fact that Rita can see ghosts throws an interesting wrench into the mix. The mystery itself takes some surprising turns, playing with readers’ assumptions about the suspects.

The novel jumps back and forth between the present, when Rita is trying to solve the case of the murdered woman, and the past, when Rita was a young girl living with her grandmother on the reservation. We learn more about when Rita first discovered her gift, and how her grandmother taught her to have a healthy respect for the spirits of the dead.

If you listen to audiobooks, this one would be a great one to pick up in that format. The audiobook is narrated by Lakota Mohawk actress Charley Flyte, who plays Aunt Sue on Rutherford Falls. She does an excellent job of capturing Rita’s state of mind as she searches for the murderer and gets herself into some dangerous situations.