{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20261010T034321Z-reviewed-full-unique-works","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/1982105321?tag=bookfrontie00-20","asin":"1982105321","authors":["Eric Eyre"],"book_id":"9781982105327","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/death-in-mud-lick-9781982105327","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781982105327.jpg?v=0fe36f1b1e0297bb","description":"A New York Times Critics’ Top Ten Book of the Year * 2021 Edgar Award Winner Best Fact Crime * A Lit Hub Best Book of The Year From a Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative reporter at the Charleston Gazette-Mail , a “powerful,” ( The New York Times ) urgent, and heartbreaking account of the corporate greed that pumped millions of pain pills into small Appalachian towns, decimating communities. In a pharmacy in Kermit, West Virginia, 12 million opioid pain pills were distributed in just three years to a town with a population of 382 people. One woman, after losing her brother to overdose, was desperate for justice. Debbie Preece’s fight for accountability for her brother’s death took her well beyond the Sav-Rite Pharmacy in coal country, ultimately leading to three of the biggest drug wholesalers in the country. She was joined by a crusading lawyer and by local journalist, Eric Eyre, who uncovered a massive opioid pill-dumping scandal that shook the foundation of America’s largest drug companies—and won him a Pulitzer Prize. Part Erin Brockovich , part Spotlight , Death in Mud Lick details the clandestine meetings with whistleblowers; a court fight to unseal filings that the drug distributors tried to keep hidden, a push to secure the DEA pill-shipment data, and the fallout after Eyre’s local paper, the Gazette-Mail , the smallest newspaper ever to win a Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting, broke the story. Eyre follows the opioid shipments into individual counties, pharmacies, and homes in West Virginia and explains how thousands of Appalachians got hooked on prescription drugs—resulting in the highest overdose rates in the country. But despite the tragedy, there is also hope as citizens banded together to create positive change—and won. “A product of one reporter’s sustained outrage [and] a searing spotlight on the scope and human cost of corruption and negligence” ( The Washington Post ) Eric Eyre’s intimate portrayal of a national public health crisis illuminates the shocking pattern of corporate greed and its repercussions for the citizens of West Virginia—and the nation—to this day.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9781982105327","publication_date":"20210406","publisher":"Scribner","slug":"death-in-mud-lick","subtitle":"A Coal Country Fight Against the Drug Companies That Delivered the Opioid Epidemic","title":"Death in Mud Lick"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"BUS070130","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Pharma & Biotech Industry","score":0.7792,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"TRU002020","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Mass Murder Cases","score":0.72,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"TRU002010","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Serial Killers","score":0.7093,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"BUS070130","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Pharma & Biotech Industry","score":0.7792,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"TRU002020","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Mass Murder Cases","score":0.72,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"TRU002010","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Serial Killers","score":0.7093,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"LAW118000","confidence_band":"high","label":"LAW / Drugs & the Law","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"SOC026020","confidence_band":"high","label":"Rural Life","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"TEC072000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Pharmaceutical Technology","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"Pharma & Biotech Industry","score":0.7792,"slug":"pharma-biotech-industry"},{"label":"Mass Murder Cases","score":0.72,"slug":"mass-murder-cases"},{"label":"Serial Killers","score":0.7093,"slug":"serial-killers"}],"reader_fit":["Good for readers interested in investigative accounts of the opioid crisis","Readers drawn to corporate accountability and public-health reporting"],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Beth Macy"],"book_id":"9780316551304","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780316551304.jpg?v=6935509dfae0b0e8","score":0.7957,"title":"Dopesick","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780316551304"},{"authors":["Scott Higham","Sari Horwitz"],"book_id":"9781538737200","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781538737200.jpg?v=af98d6c9f56c7f32","score":0.7771,"title":"American Cartel","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781538737200"},{"authors":["Nick Reding"],"book_id":"9781608192076","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781608192076.jpg?v=6d53731fbe500ee8","score":0.7257,"title":"Methland","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781608192076"},{"authors":["Patrick Radden Keefe"],"book_id":"9780385697569","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780385697569.jpg?v=7ee138efcc063c75","score":0.7142,"title":"Empire of Pain","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780385697569"},{"authors":["Beth Macy"],"book_id":"9780316430203","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780316430203.jpg?v=df38c53ae91fb7c8","score":0.6812,"title":"Raising Lazarus","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780316430203"},{"authors":["Gardiner Harris"],"book_id":"9780593229873","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780593229873.jpg?v=955515e8350b661c","score":0.6794,"title":"No More Tears","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780593229873"}],"topics":[{"evidence_refs":["keyword:tell your children"],"label":"Children","score":0.2129,"slug":"children"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:sackler family"],"label":"Family","score":0.0921,"slug":"family"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:cardinal health"],"label":"Health","score":0.0682,"slug":"health"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:edgar award"],"label":"Award","score":0.0359,"slug":"award"}],"what_you_get":["Themes: Opioid epidemic, Corporate greed, Justice and accountability.","Themes: Children, Family, Health.","Reading lane: Pharma & Biotech Industry and Mass Murder Cases."]},"llm_signals":{"confidence":0.94,"pacing":"unknown","reader_fit":["Readers interested in investigative accounts of the opioid crisis","Readers drawn to corporate accountability and public-health reporting"],"themes":["Opioid epidemic","Corporate greed","Justice and accountability"],"tropes":[]},"source_presence":{"amazon":true,"book_detail":true,"goodreads":true,"llm_signals":true,"similarity_seed":true},"stats":{"amazon_ratings_count":471,"goodreads_ratings_count":2413,"goodreads_reviews_count":393,"quality_score":0.95}}