Murder Under Redwood Moon Blog Tour #SherriDodd

WOW! WOMEN ON WRITING TOUR

of

Murder Under Redwood Moon

By Sherri Dodd

 

 

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

 

Guest Post: My Favorite Crime Reads by Sherri L. Dodd 

I have read that people watch horror movies to make their own lives feel more manageable. For instance, your boss may belittle you, but the guy on the screen is getting chased by an ax-wielding maniac, making him much worse off than you. Likewise, your co-worker may have just under minded your promotion, but doubtful they served you up as sacrifice to a Satanist cult. If horror draws this kind of viewer, I am willing to believe that True Crime is not far off the mark. True crime has long been a genre that interests me. While I have watched far more documentaries and movies than read books on the topic, there are three reads that left a lasting impression on my psyche.

The first True Crime book I read was Helter Skelter. My dad had a copy sitting on his nightstand and, ever the snoop, I started reading it. At that time, the extent of violence on page for me was Roger murdering Piggy in Lord of the Flies. So, when Vincent Bugliosi delved into the gruesome, unheard-of details of the Tate and LaBianca murders, my immature and impressionable mind was mortified and repulsed, yet immediately hooked. Of course, I knew murder existed, but the specified brutal slayings of those living on the prestigious border of Beverly Hills, especially a beautiful, pregnant movie star, showed that vigilance is always necessary regardless of money or celebrity.

Having a new taste for gory details, my second book in True Crime followed another California atrocity that journeyed into South America. In Tim Reiterman’s Raven, Jim Jones’s, the charismatic cult leader, descends into madness. Unfortunately, his followers did not foresee this. In fact, once he established himself in California, his flock mightily grew. With that growth came legal scrutiny of fraud, abuse, etc., leading Jones and his most loyal followers to hightail it to the Jonestown compound in Guyana. A few years later, a congressman and investigative reporters arrived on scene prompting Jones to have them killed and initiate mass suicide. When devotees saw other members enduring the “Kool-Aid” death, they tried to escape but were shot or stabbed.  This horrific account of the nine hundred people killed that fall of ’77 became my sophomore book report. I still wonder what my teacher thought of the topic, despite the ‘A.’

My third choice is a combination of True Crime and Paranormal. Before I watched the Amityville Horror, I read Jay Anson’s paperback about Ronald DeFeo’s murder of his family in Long Island, New York and the aftermath when the Lutz Family purchased DeFeo’s home. The bulk of the book pertains to the Lutz family’s twenty-eight-day experience which somewhat validated DeFeo’s story of a haunting. The paranormal elements in this book kept me electrified. At bedtime, I was terrified to bear the dark. Even more eerie was when I woke up just past 3AM a couple of nights. DeFeo killed his family at 3:15AM, and George Lutz started waking up at 3:15AM during their time at the home. The power of persuasion!

While I still watch serial killer movies, my reading on the topic greatly slowed. It is more unsettling for me to read about True Crime than to watch a canned version of it. While a few more reads trickled in—Women Who Kill and even Gavin DeBecker’s The Gift of Fear (recommended by my Quanjinim)—my Top Three made a lasting impression that fully satisfied my literary interest in the subject.

 

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

 

 

Subscribe to Chapter Break posts.