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.

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.

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

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.)