How could such a thing happen in Corvallis, of all places?....As if nine Christian churches must certainly be enough to save a mere two thousand souls from such doings. As if tidy picked fences alone could keep the female population contentedly at home. As if lacing us tightly enough in our corsets must surely guarantee protection from all evil…. In our defense, I can say only that nothing seemed so terribly strange in the beginning. There were no portents of doom, no angel at the gate warning us of the perils that lay beyond… In this true, stranger-than-fiction tale set at the turn of the 20th Century, sixteen-year-old Eva Mae tells of the excitement and horror of being swept up in a group bearing an uncanny resemblance to contemporary “End time” cults. Her gripping story reminds us that no one is entirely immune to the power of a single charismatic voice heard at a vulnerable time.

As a native of Corvallis, Linda Crew has long been aware of the story of Joshua and the “Holy Roller” cult, a part of the town’s lore which is often reprinted in the local papers when some new cult tragedy makes headlines elsewhere in the world. Her first novel was the award-winning Children of the River and her most recent titles include A Heart for Any Fate: Westward to Oregon 1845, and Accidental Addict: a True Story of Pain and Healing….also Marriage, Real Estate, and Cowboy Dancing. Crew still lives with her husband at Wake Robin Farm in Corvallis, where they were married under the oak trees in 1974.