The first few pages of Shutter had me scared that the badass heroine would prove to be simply reckless and impulsive. I've encountered a few of these protagonists in other books, women and men who are characterized as heroic for behavior that lacks planning. I'm not sure it's bravery if one is ignorant of a situation but chooses to throw oneself into it anyway.

Although Micheline Helsing's decision to charge into the hospital at the beginning of Shutter still strikes me as ill-informed, the author did a great job of giving the reader Micheline's backstory as the Helsing heir.

I loved the world Alameda created, one in which characters with the surnames of Helsing, Stoker, and Harker can trace their lineages back to author Bram Stoker and the people mentioned in [b:Dracula|17245|Dracula|Bram Stoker|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1387151694s/17245.jpg|3165724]. It's a world in which ghosts and demons are acknowledged to exist. Priests can perform exorcisms, but one calls a reaper from the Helsing Corps to put down the reanimated dead. The descriptions of battle techniques could be a little clunky, but I appreciated all the details Alameda included on ghosts—how they manifest in our world, how to capture them, how to interact with the ghost world.

I could have done without the almost-love triangle, but at least it fit into the narrative of the Corps' history. The mystery isn't difficult to see through, but it was still neat to see how it would be resolved.

Shutter was a fast-paced, thrilling read. I thought it was an excellent debut novel, and I look forward to reading more in this series.