The Good Nurse

A True Story of Medicine, Madness, and Murder

Contributors

By Charles Graeber

Formats and Prices

On Sale
Apr 15, 2013
Page Count
320 pages
Publisher
Twelve
ISBN-13
9781455506125

Price

$8.99

Price

$11.99 CAD

This New York Times bestselling book is the mesmerizing basis for the movie starring Eddie Redmayne and Jessica Chastain that takes you inside the mind of America's most prolific serial killer, whose 16-year long "nursing" career left hundreds dead.

“The best book(s) I read this year” (top ten books, EW) —Stephen King

Registered nurse Charlie Cullen was dubbed "The Angel of Death" by the media. But Cullen was no mercy killer, nor was he a simple monster. Implicated in the deaths of as many as 400 patients, he was also perhaps the most prolific serial killer in American history. Now, in a riveting piece of investigative journalism nearly ten years in the making, Charles Graeber gives us the unbelievable true story.

The Good Nurse weaves an urgent and terrifying tale of madness, humanity and heroism, utilizing previously unseen police records, wire-trap recordings, interviews, and jailhouse conversations with Cullen himself—all provided by the homicide detectives who worked around the clock, and the nurse who had to choose between protecting her colleague and stopping a potential serial killer.

For years Cullen continued to work and kill, shielded by a hospital system that, by accident or design, successfully protected the institution while failing to protect patients. The Good Nurse is a searing indictment of a crushing and dehumanizing for-profit medical system, and an inspiring human story of the previously unknown individuals who chose to risk their jobs and lives to do the right thing.

Mesmerizing and irresistibly paced, this book will make you look at hospitals and the people who work in them in an entirely different way.

Edgar Award Nomination, Mystery Writers of America BBC (Top Ten Books of the Year)

“The Best Journalism of the Year." —The Daily Beast

“The most terrifying book published this year. It is also one of the most thoughtful … call it literary true crime …” —Kirkus Reviews ("Best Books of the year")

  • "A stunning book...that should and does bring to mind In Cold Blood....the story appeals to prurient interests, as does any graphic tale of true crime. But THE GOOD NURSE succeeds in being about much more than Mr. Cullen's murderous kinks. The causes of his pathology are not interesting. But the eagerness of ambitious hospital administrators to cover up his misdeeds is revelatory. And the police investigation that brought him down is a thriller in every sense of that word."
    Janet Maslin, New York Times
  • "The most terrifying book published this year. It is also one of the most thoughtful.... From a long series of conversations with Cullen, the detectives who solved the case and Amy, a nurse who once was Cullen's best friend and eventually got him to confess, among many other sources, Graeber has crafted a book that is a revelation. THE GOOD NURSE is gripping, sad, suspenseful, rhythmic and beautifully documented (the endnotes to this book are impressive)."

    Kirkus Reviews
  • "Graeber doesn't pull punches... A deeply unsettling addition to the true crime genre."
    Publishers Weekly

Charles Graeber

About the Author

Charles Graeber has been honored with an Overseas Press Club award for Outstanding International Journalism, an Edgar nomination, and a citation of merit by the British Medical Association. He has contributed to publications including The New Yorker, New York Magazine, GQ, Bloomberg Businessweek, Vogue, The Cambodia Daily, The Phnom Penh Post, The Budapest Sun, The Nantucket Beacon, MIT Technology Review and The New York Times, and been anthologized in The Best American Crime WritingThe Best American Science WritingThe Best American Business WritingThe Best of 10 Years of National Geographic AdventureThe Best of 20 years of Wired and other collections. Born in Iowa, he now lives closer to saltwater.

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