Introduction

An award-winning investigative journalist's horrifying true crime story of America's deadliest drug contamination outbreak and the greed and deception that fueled it.

Two pharmacists sit in a Boston courtroom accused of murder. The weapon: the fungus Exserohilum rostratum. The death count: 100 and rising. Kill Shot is the story of their hubris and fraud, discovered by a team of medical detectives who raced against the clock to hunt the killers and the fungal meningitis they'd unleashed.

"Bloodthirsty" is how doctors described the fungal microbe that contaminated thousands of drug vials produced by the New England Compounding Center (NECC). Though NECC chief Barry Cadden called his company the "Ferrari of Compounders," it was a slapdash operation of unqualified staff, mold-ridden lab surfaces, and hastily made medications that were injected into approximately 14,000 people. Once inside some of its human hosts, the fungus traveled through the tough tissue around the spine and wormed upward to the "deep brain," our control center for balance, breath, and the vital motor functions of life.

Now, investigative journalist Jason Dearen turns a spotlight on this tragedy—the victims, the heroes, and the perpetrators—and the legal loopholes that allowed it to occur. Kill Shot forces a powerful but unchecked industry out of the shadows.

Editorial Review

No Editorial Review Currently Available

Excerpt

October 2012
ALBANY, KENTUCKY

The gravedigger arrived just after sundown, the night already full of the trills of crickets and katydids. He headed to the top of the cemetery’s hill and pushed his shovel into the earth quietly, chunk- ing out the grass and weeds on top before hitting soil. He was careful not to attract the attention of the residents of the small homes adjoining the site or of those in cars traveling along North Cross Street, the town’s nearby thoroughfare. ... view entire excerpt...

Discussion Questions

1. How would you categorize this book?
2.What do you think should happen to the pharmacists?
3. Do you feel more or less confident in the oversight of drugs in our country after reading Kill Shot?
4. If you could ask Jason Dearen any question about his investigation into this case, what would it be?
5. What is your elevator pitch for this book?
6. If you didn't know this was a work of non-fiction, do you think you would have believed this to be true?

Weblinks

»	Publisher's book info

Book Club Recommendations

Recommended to book clubs by 0 of 0 members.

Member Reviews

There are no user reviews at this time.
Rate this book