Bookish Thursday - Murder Under Redwood Moon by Sherri L. Dodd

December will be a fun-filled month will all kinds of book reviews. (I am temporarily ignoring my HUGE stack of books I have in my bedroom to read I have bought!) 

To start off the month, I am reading Murder Under Redwood Moon by Sherri L. Dodd as part of a book blog tour for WOW-Women on Writing. Please note, if you head over to their site there is a giveaway for the book and more!

As usual, let's get the business of the review out of the way...

Book Summary

At the age of eight, Arista Kelly was frantically swept up by her parents and whisked off to an isolated town in the California redwoods. Two days later, her parents were gone.

Now at the age of twenty-three, she has settled quite nicely into an eclectic lifestyle, much like her great aunt, and guardian since childhood, Bethie. She enjoys the use of herbs and crystals to help her commune with the energy and nature around her and finds pleasure in the company of her beloved pet, Royal. Usually quite satisfied with her mundane life high in the Santa Cruz Mountains, life becomes unsettling when a new recurring vision of an ominous tattoo as well as increased activity from the ghostly presence within her own cottage invade her once-harmonious existence.

But life in this mountain sanctuary takes an even darker turn when the body of Arista's former classmate is found in the nearby river. As other young young women fall prey to a suspected serial killer, Arista realizes that the terror is coming to her.

Publisher: Independently Published(March 20, 2024)

AISN:  B0CTKPM863

ISBN: 1685133886

ISBN-13: 978-1685133887

Print length:  289 pages

Purchase a copy of Murder Under Redwood Moon

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Murder-Under-Redwood-Moon-Paranormal/dp/1685133886

Barnes & Noble:  https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/murder-under-redwood-moon-sherri-l-dodd/

Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/p/books/murder-under-redwood-moon-a-thrilling-paranormal-murder-mystery-sherri-l-dodd/21145506

You can also add this to your GoodReads reading list 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/206022905-murder-under-redwood-moon

About the Author, Sherri Dodd

Sherri was raised in southeast Texas. Walking barefoot most days and catching crawdads as they swam the creek beds, she had a love for all things free and natural. Her childhood ran rampant with talk of ghosts, demons, and backcountry folklore. This inspired her first short story for sale about a poisonous flower that shot toxins onto children as they smelled it. Her classmate bought it for all the change in his pocket. It was not long after that her mother packed the two of them up and headed to the central coast of California. She has ping-ponged throughout the area ever since.

Her first real step into writing was the non-fiction fitness book, Mom Looks Great – The Fitness Program for Moms published in 2005, and maintaining its accompanying blog. Now, transmuting the grief of her father's passing, she has branched into Fiction, specifically the genre of Paranormal Thriller with generous dashes of Magick Realism! Her Murder, Tea & Crystals Trilogy released book one - Murder Under Redwood Moon - in March 2024. Book two - Moonset on Desert Sands - released in March 2025, and the final book in the series – Hummingbird Moonrise – became #1 New Release in Occult Supernatural on Amazon in October 2025!

You can follow the author at:

Website: www.sherridodd.com

Instagram: @Sherri.Dodd.Author https://www.instagram.com/sherri.dodd.author/

Book Giveaways

Don’t miss this amazing book giveaway! TWO winners will receive the full Murder, Tea & Crystals trilogy. Enter at The Muffin from November 24 to December 14.

Now my opinion...

I was hooked pretty much from page 1. But when I got pass the opening chapter and Arista was drinking her morning tea - green rooibos, hibiscus, rosehips, lavender, and blackberry leaves, I was in. Then she had a 'pitcher' of it...so she must be drinking it as an iced tea (warms my Southern heart). And she had made it the night before, letting it steep in the light of the moon, drawing feminine energy - well, all I can say is my hibiscus tea is brewing now!

Another thing I really like about the book is obviously Dodd actually has her own altar and uses it. I found myself reading not only for the story, but for all the hints and tips sprinkled in the book for her practices with her altar. There was a lot of highlighting going on in this book. 

While I have nothing against 'cozy' mysteries, they often gloss over some of the elements which are the basis of the books. In this case it's the magical realism. Often, since these books are not epic fantasies, we only get the barest mentions of any 'magic'. I appreciate all the references where Arista is at her altar and how it is set up and how she uses it.

All the 'magical realism' aside, the story is interesting and held my attention. So much so, I am going to read the remaining books in the trilogy.

A side note - I consider myself a green witch - or hedge witch or kitchen witch or just a witch in general. One of my beliefs is magic is essentially benign. It's your intentions which make it 'good' or 'bad', black or white. And since I also believe in karma and 'harm none'...it makes it easy to keep my practice/usage on the 'good' side of magic (I hope).

Anyway...

While I am looking at celebrating the 12 Days of Yule this year, check out the other opinions below.