Killer in a White Coat
The True Story of New York's Deadliest Pill Pusher and the Team that Brought Him to Justice
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4.3 • 7 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
“A taut exploration of America’s deadly battle with opioid addiction—an unnerving and inspirational firecracker of a book.” —Karen Abbott, New York Times bestselling author
For fans of Dopesick and Bad Blood, the shocking story of New York’s most infamous pill-pushing doctor, written by the prosecutor who brought him down.
In 2010, a brave whistleblower alerted the police to Dr. Stan Li’s corrupt pain management clinic in Queens, New York. Li spent years supplying more than seventy patients a day with oxycodone and Xanax, trading prescriptions for cash. Emergency room doctors, psychiatrists, and desperate family members warned him that his patients were at risk of death but he would not stop.
In Killer in a White Coat, former prosecutor Charlotte Bismuth meticulously recounts the jaw-dropping details of this criminal case that would span four years, culminating in a landmark trial. As a new assistant district attorney and single mother, Bismuth worked tirelessly with her team to bring Dr. Li to justice. Killer in a White Coat is a chilling story of corruption and greed and an important look at the role individual doctors play in America’s opioid epidemic.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this dramatic true crime debut, attorney Bismuth recounts her role as a member of New York City's Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor in helping to convict doctor Stan Li of manslaughter in 2014. With the help of a homicide detective, Bismuth spent four years building the case with testimony from former patients describing how they got opioid prescriptions for cash at Li's pain clinic in Queens. Meanwhile, Bismuth's personal life was in shambles as she headed for divorce and single parenthood. Interspersing her blow-by-low rundown of the investigation and trial with vivid flashbacks and flash-forwards, and evidence that opioid prescriptions doubled in New York between 2007 and 2010, Bismuth illustrates the unique difficulties in holding unscrupulous doctors to account for fostering the nationwide opioid epidemic. In one of the book's most memorable trial scenes, the father of a heroin addict recounts his fruitless efforts to persuade Li to stop overprescribing fentanyl, morphine, Vicodin, and Xanax to his daughter. Bismuth builds tension expertly, and offers hope that the tools of law enforcement can be used to reign in the worst abuses of the medical industry. This gritty page-turner offers a unique perspective on America's opioid crisis.
