Craig's review - 11 november 2008
The ‘Sensing Murder' text (20 November 2008, Hodder Moa, Nicola McCloy ed.) is the companion piece to the New Zealand television show of the same name. For anyone who has not watched the show, it takes a team (usually two out of three) of psychics to a location in New Zealand in which they channel their skills to help solve cold cases. The first part of the text explains this procedure well, with information on the psychics and how they were selected, how the readings were conducted, how the crew work on the show, how police react to the resulting information, and so on, capped with ‘frequently asked questions' that are so guided a five year-old could have asked them, eg. Why do you think Sensing Murder is so popular?
Forgive my scepticism. You see, I just can't in to such shows because 1) it is a franchise, a spin-off from other countries with the exact same format, just set in New Zealand, and 2) I am a big fan of Spiritualism and I want to believe these people have the best intentions, but the spiritualism movement was ruined by shysters conducting false readings. Even the best psychics were known to have given false readings because it was demanded of them – I don't believe for a second that someone can immediately nor always channel the spirit they are expected to, and that is what the people on this show do (channel the spirits every time, usually straight away, without fail).
But this is a review of the text, not a personal opinion on the topic. And the text is, for its part, very intriguing. Reading like a typical unsolved or ‘worst' murders text that plagues the bookshelves, the psychic element gives a twist that others can't. Ten cases from the television series are documented – each murder or crime is described, followed by the psychics' attempt to draw out information on the case. There is then a ‘Behind the Scenes' section on the making of each episode, followed by a section on the results of the information with the police or public, or a strange parting story to accompany the psychic's work. It is especially interesting to see how some authorities act on the information gathered – either acting on it or disregarding it entirely.
Whether or not I believe the show is genuine, the text highlights some very strange moments as the psychics channel particular spirits. They are able to describe entire scenes that once unfolded, down to the smallest details, some of which were never recorded. They are able to pinpoint the location a body was found amongst overgrown scrub. They are able to identify killers' identities and even note traits of the spirits' family members that no police report would usually document. Truth or not, it makes for an interesting read.
Ultimately, details included in the text could possibly further help the admirable point of the television show – to have viewers and now readers that could know anything about the cold cases, no matter how trivial, to finally be prompted to step forward and help with closure. In New Zealand it seems there is no cold case unit, so such mysteries are unfortunately pushed to the bottom of a never-ending pile of paperwork. So if something like ‘Sensing Murder' can help, so be it.
