This haunt­ing and propul­sive debut fol­lows a journalist’s years-long inves­ti­ga­tion into his father’s old class­mate: for­mer high school vale­dic­to­ri­an Paul Volk­man, who once seemed des­tined for great­ness after earn­ing his MD and his PhD from the pres­ti­gious Uni­ver­si­ty of Chica­go, but is now serv­ing four con­sec­u­tive life sen­tences at a fed­er­al prison in Ari­zona. Volk­man was the cen­tral fig­ure in a mas­sive ​“pill mill” scheme in south­ern Ohio. His pain clin­ics accept­ed only cash, employed armed guards, and dis­pensed a tor­rent of opi­oid painkillers and oth­er con­trolled sub­stances. For near­ly three years, Volk­man remained in busi­ness despite raids by law enforce­ment and com­plaints from patients’ fam­i­ly mem­bers. Pros­e­cu­tors would ulti­mate­ly link him to the over­dose deaths of 13 patients, though inves­ti­ga­tors explored his ties to at least 20 oth­er deaths. This ground­break­ing book is based on 12 years of cor­re­spon­dence and inter­views with Volk­man. Eil trav­eled to 19 states, inter­viewed more than 150 peo­ple, and filed a Free­dom of Infor­ma­tion Act law­suit against the Drug Enforce­ment Admin­is­tra­tion that led to the release of near­ly 20,000 pages of tri­al evi­dence. The Amer­i­can opi­oid epi­dem­ic is, like this book, a true crime sto­ry. Through this one doctor’s sto­ry, an era of unfath­omable tragedy is brought down to a tan­gi­ble, and dev­as­tat­ing, human scale.