Emerson, Ramona

Ramona Emerson is a Diné writer and filmmaker from Tohatchi, New Mexico. She started in forensic videography before embarking upon a career as a photographer, writer, and editor. She is an Emmy nominee, a Sundance Native Lab fellow, a Time-Warner Storyteller fellow, a Tribeca All-Access grantee, and a WGBH producer fellow. Shutter (Soho Crime) is her first novel. Set in New Mexico’s Navajo Nation, Shutter follows Rita Todacheene, a forensic photographer working for the Albuquerque police force. Her skills have cracked many cases, and she is almost supernaturally good at capturing details. In fact, Rita sees the ghosts of crime victims who point her toward the clues other investigators overlook. As a lone portal back to the living for traumatized spirits, Rita is terrorized by ghosts who won’t let her sleep and who sabotage her personal life. Her psychologically harrowing ability has isolated her from friends, gotten her in trouble with the law, and pushed her away from the Navajo reservation where she was raised. Now, as the angry ghost of the victim of an apparent suicide insists she was murdered, it might also get her killed.