Murder Under Redwood Moon by Sherri Dodd; A Realistic Mystery Thriller Starring a Modern Witch
By Julie Sara Porter
Spoilers: Sherri Dodd’s murder mystery, Murder Under Redwood Moon is a Supernatural Murder Mystery that doesn’t feel like one. Many Supernatural Murder Mysteries that star witches or similar people, for lack of a better term, Harry Potter the book. They depict witches using superpowers like clairvoyancy, precognition, telekinesis and often depicts them going against paranormal characters like other witches, ghosts, demons, vampires and the like. The emphasis is less on mystery and more on the fantasy-like setting in which they live. Muder Under a Redwood Moon is a realistic Murder Mystery that happens to star a witch.
Arista lives in Boulder Creek, California near her Aunt Bethie who raised her and works at a New Age shop called Earth and Ocean. A former high school acquaintance, Michelle is missing and later her body is found. She has been murdered so Arista, Bethie, Arista’s best friend Maddie, boyfriend Shane and their other friends try to find out what happened to her. Could the new Goth couple, Jaxon and Yelena have anything to do with it? How does this correlate to another missing woman? Why is there a strange connection to Arista’s own past and those of her missing parents?
Murder Under a Redwood Moon is the closest many fiction writers can get to portraying what it’s like to be a witch in the real world. They may have different rituals, traditions, and invoke the names of gods, goddesses, or an unnamed deity. But the magic is very understated and not fanciful. It is based not on amazing magical things physically happening but on the power of belief over what witches can do.
We don’t see magic spells work except in situations that could be interpreted as magical or mundane. Arista has flashes of insight that could be examples of psychic powers but could just as easily be signs of her being a good judge of character. There are communications with the dead mostly via Ouija board, but they are not set up as unspeakable demonic horror. It's depicted as a ritual to cleanse the mind of confusion and hopefully get some solid leads and answers.
When Arista and her aunt chant to their gods, it’s treated like prayer, something that they believe in but is not noticeable by anyone else. It's a means to open their mind to possibilities and release tension during stressful and tense times. When they use magical objects like crystals and Tarot cards, the only power is what they put into them through their belief and intentions.
The protagonists’ Pagan path is portrayed authentically and so is the antagonists’ path. In many Occult/Supernatural Based Mysteries, the antagonist is often something or someone magical. It could be a demon, a more powerful witch or wizard, or another fantastic creature that defies expectation. Here they are human, all too human. They have a sick perverted mind over how they think that the world should be and who they have to hurt to make it happen.
The opening chapter which is a flashback to Arista’s childhood shows the kind of enemy the characters are stacked against. Someone who will hurt anyone, even those close to them, if it means their goals are met. It’s an all too real action, one we are exposed to every day through the myriad of true crime stories involving people with destructive violent impulses, no respect for those around them, and an outlook that dehumanizes their victims.
Murder Under Redwood Moon is not the type of Supernatural Mystery that one reads for escape. It is the type that one reads when they want to find a path that helps them face the darkness that surrounds them every day.
