The Wind Witch Murders by Casey Dunn — A haunting coming-of-age in southern gothic

The whole town was just waiting for the death of the Wind Witch before moving forward, and it held Raven back all along. In The Wind Witch Murders by Casey Dunn, that tension becomes the engine of a story about inheritance, fear, and the struggle to claim your own life when everyone around you believes they have a right to it.

Raven has grown up under the heavy hand of her devout Christian grandmother, the woman who took her in after her mother, Deanne, was convicted of the ritualistic murders of two boys. Deanne never confessed, never explained, and never stopped haunting the edges of Raven’s identity. Now that she’s dead, the town seems to exhale—almost as if it had been waiting for permission to move on. But Raven doesn’t get that luxury. Not when a stranger places a single feather on her mother’s casket, a quiet signal that whatever Deanne was mixed up in is still alive.

The novel positions Raven at a crossroads: the church she was raised in on one side, and on the other, the infamous Hill where her mother once lived among a cult-like community. What Dunn does so well is showing how similar those forces feel to a teenage girl who has never been allowed to think for herself. Raven begins realizing that her grandmother’s household—rigid, watchful, and demanding—has shaped her just as profoundly as any cult ever could. The danger isn’t only on The Hill; it’s in the people who believe they know what’s best for her and are willing to do anything to keep her in their grasp.

This is very much a coming-of-age novel wrapped in a mystery, and Raven’s voice reflects that. Though the book is marketed as adult fiction, it leans toward a young adult tone: direct, searching, and emotionally immediate. Writing an adult novel with a YA-aged POV is notoriously difficult, and Dunn handles that tension thoughtfully. Raven feels young because she is—because she has been shaped by fear, by secrecy, by a town that decided who she was long before she could figure it out herself.

A major thread in the story is the idea of masks—how people present themselves, and how those presentations become their own kind of prison. Raven has worn one for so long that she barely knows where the surface ends and her real self begins. Ruby Jane, by contrast, seems to switch masks effortlessly, sometimes so quickly that you question whether anything about her is solid. The result is a novel filled with people who are both products of their environment and architects of their own illusions.

The mystery unfolds slowly, relying on atmosphere and tension rather than spectacle. The small-town Arkansas setting hums with suspicion, old grudges, and buried history. Dunn blends southern gothic unease with grounded emotional stakes, and the danger that circles Raven feels chilling because it’s human. People want things from her—her loyalty, her obedience, her silence—and the novel’s questions about who she can trust become more urgent as the truth about her mother’s past comes into focus.

It’s a compelling, moody read that lingers, especially if you enjoy stories about identity, control, and the long shadow of family secrets. And if you find yourself drawn to those themes, you might also enjoy my novel Demons of the Night, which explores similar territory through a darker supernatural lens.

If you’ve read The Wind Witch Murders, I’d love to hear what you thought. Did the ending give you the answers you wanted, or did it leave you with more questions? Share your thoughts in the comments!

An advance reader copy of this book (ARC) was provided to me by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Related Content

• Reading Gillian Flynn’s women, I found a dark, complex truth—and my new sanctuary (CrimeReads)
• Casey Dunn: Finding the voice of a killer (Book Page)
• Book Review: Silence on Cold River by Casey Dunn (Romantic Parvenu)

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