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Rita sees and hears the spirits or ghosts of the deceased, especially those who are troubled, angry, or for some other reason want her to help them. That's a tough skill to have, nearly impossible to control, and as a Navajo, whose traditions/superstitions regarding death and the afterlife are not conducive to embracing such communications and those who are the conduit for them, it even distances you from the tribe. While Rita has learned how to block them, mostly, they still appear and demand. Especially since Rita is a forensic photographer for Albaquerque's Office of the Medical Investigator and for the police department.

We meet Rita at a very grizzly scene along a highway, where she's photographing the remains of a murder/suicide (still to be determined). As she finishes up, the ghost of the victim appears to her and she is strong and powerful and loud - but only to Rita. Her name is Erma and she insists she was murdered, that Rita has to find the murderer so that her daughter remains safe, and she will haunt her until she does.

I can't really say more without spoilers other than we follow Rita to other scenes, where it soon becomes clear that this involves drug running and a big drug cartel, potential police corruption, and murder, and Rita finds herself a target. But the heart of the novel is not the crime or its resolution, it's Rita's life journey with the dead and her need to learn how to turn this curse that is limiting her living a full life to a gift that doesn't control her, but is just 'there'. It's compelling.

The novel is wonderfully written and constructed. It's told in alternating chapters - Rita's present then sequential Ritas at different ages from when she first sees ghosts forward to the two merging. Throughout the link is photography with each chapter heading is a camera or lens pertinant to that chapter. It's just amazing how effective that is. You learn a lot about indigenous culture, especially the Navaho and their relationship to the dead and death. You learn a lot about forensic photography too. This is a debut novel; I really hope the author continues to write.

I have had this on my TBR since the 2023 Edgars read alongs. It was nominated for Best First Novel (and for many many other awards too. So glad BWF pushed me to read it finally!

BWF - Letter S - Authors of Color 8x

I really enjoyed it when I read it last year. I hope to see this become a series.

Did you read about the author, by chance?

Not yet. Or rather not much yet. I will.

BTW Juliet Grimes, her editor at Soho Crime, is the editor for some of their most stellar series and has started publishing her own work. I met her some years ago - she attends all her author events in NYC - at least Cara Black and Sujata Massey and one or two others I've gone to. She started quite young and has quite the resume for finding and nurturing wonderful crime fiction authors. Juliet won a special Edgar for her editing work in either 2022 or 2023 - deservedly. This book is one of the many reasons.

Ramona once worked as a crime scene photographer in Albuquerque. So she had real experience for her book. Here is a link:

https://www.npr.org/2022/11/02/113345...

One of the things which I almost dinged the book for was the opening scene, until I read that.

For those who read it, and do NOT open the spoiler if you have not, what do you think about the ending?

(view spoiler)[ I thought there was something wonderful about how her near death and standing on the brink of being a ghost brought her peace and acceptance of her gift along with embracing living while living with it. Plus Erma taking with her the violennce and evil - closing that portal. Loved the use of 'portal'. (hide spoiler)]