IN THE PRESENCE OF WOLVES – THE ORIGIN OF THE NOVEL

Back in 2001, just after the attack on 9/11, a number of kidnap and ransom incidences were occurring in the Russian community in West Hollywood. Prominent Russians were reported missing that eventually lead local and federal law enforcement to look into the matter. In the end after an exhaustive and frustrating investigation that took investigators to foreign lands, the case revealed one of the most violent attacks ever known to this West Hollywood Russian community.  

It wasn’t that long since I had spent six difficult months in Yosemite, chasing a killer that was eventually caught but not until four innocent people were brutally killed. The case had a profound effect on me and it took some time to find my way out of that darkness. But I did.

Then I got that call.

Now, as the Violent Crime Supervisor in the Sacramento Division, I was contacted by the Los Angeles FBI case agent advising me they had a break in their case. The bodies of their victims would be located in the deep waters of the New Melones Reservoir in Yosemite, five in all. The case took me back to the place that consumed my mind and body for those six months and now I was asked to go back and face another brutal case where the innocent would have to be retrieved in the dark cold waters of probably one of the most majestic places on earth. A place that only reminds me of the tragedies that had occurred behind its beauty.

I wrote this crime novel loosely based on this investigation. I took the events and placed a young Russian immigrant in the middle of a Russian crime group and making him one of the primary points of view. There are several voices in this novel but his is the most prominent in that I wanted the reader to see his viewpoint as he straddles between the victims, the criminal organization, and the law.

PRAISE FOR GEORGE FONG

“In the Presence of  Wolves is the real thing. It snaps, crackles and pops with authenticity while its characters are deeply drawn in the gray areas of life and law enforcement. George Fong knows this turf and knows these people the way only someone who has been there can know.”