John Temple (1) (1969–)

forensics, detective, politics

Disclaimer : in my fifty years as a nurse in venues from birthing to hospice and more, I came to view death differently than most. And I did do some of them both in ER and jails.
I was intrigued and riveted by the system used in Pittsburgh as well as the people who are tasked with caring for the dead before sending them to the morticians as well as finding the necessary details to present to the legal system to seek justice for the victim if the death is caused by another person. By following the deputy coroners, forensic pathologists, and interns for a year, we come to appreciate their work and give thanks for their dedication.
Not for the squeamish, but a reality check for devotees of forensic tv shows.
Highly recommend!
Tim Lundeen performs the narration in a no nonsense manner that works very well.
Bought this on sale at Audible.… (plus d'informations)

The first thing I will note is that I found the characters a little difficult to keep straight - they all seemed very similar to each other in attitude and behaviour so when they referred to each other, it would take me a second to figure out which was the head guy and which the 'muscle', etc.

The second thing of note is that the 'vignette' stories chosen to demonstrate just how bad this Oxy issue is were a bit scattered, or perhaps the better word is thin... the author spent 80% of the book looking at the main characters and their drug marketing process but the 20% which looked at (real) people's issues with the drug, or the company, seemed randomly inserted. Sure, they were interesting, but the flow was not really logical - we read 4 chapters about the business, then a vignette chapter about an addict dying from a drug overdose, then 2 chapters of business, then a chapter with another set of characters drug addiction, etc. There didn't seem to be a pattern, unless it was meant to be a time-scale thing, but that was not clear.

I did, however, Google this organization when I finished the book and it seems the story was based on real characters, and real addicts so perhaps the weird addition of certain addicts' details was because those one were the ones whose information was public due to lawsuits, or whatever... and the rest of the addicts' story were just a conglomeration of stories blended together.

Anyway, all that being said, I couldn't put the book down. I don't understand how they were allowed to run this business this way, and/or why they had to go so far with it that they got arrested... because until some (unclear) tipping point, what they were doing was legal (which is sad in and of itself). Though I suppose once you start making so much money each day that you have to put it into garbage cans, you might realize you probably crossed a line somewhere.… (plus d'informations)