Bad Medicine
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15
Ratings1
Average rating3
“Charlotte Bismuth gives us a bold and cinematic true crime story about her work at the intersection of medicine and greed. Bad Medicine is a gripping memoir that toggles deftly between the personal and prosecutorial.” —Beth Macy, New York Times bestselling author of Dopesick “Bismuth has written a brilliant account of prosecuting a doctor who became a drug dealer in a white coat. She is haunted by the voices of the dead and listening closely to the voices of the living.” —Nan Goldin, artist, activist, and founder of P.A.I.N. “Bad Medicine is 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 of The Ghosts of Eden Park 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 Bad Medicine, 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. Bad Medicine is a chilling story of corruption and greed and an important look at the role individual doctors play in America’s opioid epidemic.
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Before I start my review, I want to say I am sorry to NetGalley and the publisher and author for my delayed review. I downloaded it on my kindle early and then for some odd reason it didn't show up until I reloaded it. That being said this was a very different read for me. I always enjoy a good edge of your seat true crime, but I sadly had a tough time getting into this book. Now I will say that I felt that the case was presented well and that by the end of the book I hated Dr. Li. Not only did I hate him I was thrilled with the sentence he received for his part in the deaths of the people in the story and also in his part for making things so much worse for the opioid crisis. What I enjoyed about this book is the passion for getting the conviction that every member of that team had. While the legal system isn't perfect it was refreshing to see a group of people put everything they had into something to get the desired outcome.
On the other side of the coin, however, is what I didn't enjoy. I had a very hard time keeping up with the chapter transitions and headings. Unlike many of my fellow reviewers, however, I did not mind the bits and pieces that were included about the author's life. It gave me the reader a chance to process some of the harder parts I had read while I received a better understanding of the life that the author was trying to lead while trying to put an evil man behind bars. I was actually surprised by some of this read it was very well explained. My only downfall and why it's getting a three-star rating from me is because the headings with how many days before and after the trial made things confusing where I found there were parts I had to go back and reread.
