The Red-Headed Cook of the Desert by Cheri Mathews

When journalist Judy Muller first met Cheri Mathews, a woman serving "lifetime parole" for murder, she knew immediately that Cheri had a story worth sharing. But she could not have foreseen how their year-long collaboration would have such a profound impact on both of their lives. Despite their disparate pasts, they learned that they shared the common bond of alcoholism and addiction, a bond that would be both enriched and strained during Cheri's deep dive into a brutal past. "The Red-Headed Cook of the Desert" follows Cheri from an abusive childhood, where her alcoholic father taught her to live by a brutal "code," to an outlaw lifestyle in the California desert. When Muller first sat down with Mathews at a diner in their rural Colorado community, she said, "Why don't you just begin by telling me about the murder?" Mathews replied, "Which one?" And Muller was hooked. Get ready to experience this roller-coaster tale of a talented, smart woman who gets hooked on the outlaw world of meth and hits one bottom after another. This is the story of a woman who says her life was saved by prison, where she became a drug and alcohol counselor, and a person determined to make amends to her children. If only it were that simple.