Question & Answer
In the idyllic mountaintop town of Serena, two seemingly accidental deaths send Police Chief Jeff Farley into the dense forest on a chilling investigative journey, where he finds a legacy of property ownership, illegal moonshining, and the ancient art of hoodoo practice that have kept intruders at bay since the early settlers made claim to the land.
What happened next? I got a call from the National Peace Foundation and they knew everything about me and asked me if I would take this job to go into the northern Urals of Russia to set up clinics because there was a heroin and AIDS epidemic going on there. This was in the mining region run by the SUAL Corporation. Our government had supported the mining region since WWII and Roosevelt had sent money to keep it going because it’s the second largest aluminum producer in the world. For military, that’s crucial. They found me because I have an article out there about high-risk youth and they wanted somebody who knew something about addictions. I told them, you don’t understand, I can’t even get out of this chair. The lady said she would call me back in an hour. She did and asked me if I ever studied the Chinese calendar and I said no. It’s used not only in China but in Russia as well, and she said it was the Year of the Snake, which meant if your whole world is turned upside down during the Year of the Snake, your next 12 years is destined. She said we would like your next 12 years. I thought, well, they might as well have it because I couldn’t see my future. The week of 9/11 I was on a plane for the northern Urals. Gerwe spent nine of those 12 years in Russia and returned to the U.S. in 2010. She then published the first mystery novel in her 10-part series called “The Strange Case of the Doyle Diary Murders” in 2014. “Murder in a Moonlit Mason Jar” was published in 2016. Both can be purchased on Amazon or through her website www.corinnefgerwe.com. • LIFE IN OUR FOOTHILLS January 2017
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