An intriguing work of true-crime nonfiction but one that lacks a detailed prescription for the problems it raises.
Anderson, an Australia-based physician specializing in obstetrics and gynecology, offers an exhaustive report on deceptive and destructive doctors.
In this posthumously published book, the author details instances of health care fraud, deceptive practices, and other frightening behaviors of physicians around the world. These stories tell of medical doctors who claimed an unproven link between vaccines and autism, who performed unnecessary surgeries to line their pockets, or who freely prescribed medications that allowed the opioid crisis to take hold in the United States. Other stories highlight doctors who used their medical licenses to play God, such as the “Egg Thief,” who allegedly removed eggs from women without their consent or knowledge and then implanted them in other women, or another who, Anderson says, put patients with psychological issues in medically induced comas, used electric-shock treatment on them, and then fraudulently billed them. Then there’s the shocking story of an Australian obstetrician whom local media called the “Butcher of Bega,” who was brought up on charges of sexual abuse and genital mutilation of women. Anderson’s end-noted research is impressive, and each chapter is meticulously detailed. What’s missing however, is a vivid narrative style that might have made his subjects feel more fleshed-out. Readers of other medical true-crime works, such as John Carreyrou’s Bad Blood (2018) or Jon Ronson’s The Psychopath Test (2011), will find this volume relatively dry in its reportage. Chapters on more notorious cases offer the most compelling reads, as they use quotes from previously published sources to paint richer pictures of greed, deceit, and evil; at one point, for instance, the author quotes an official commission calling a doctor “two-faced, devious, dissembling and unprincipled.” He leaves readers with his thoughts on how to prevent similar situations in the future, looking at the system holistically. However, the work as a whole barely scratches the surface of how deep changes could be made.
An intriguing work of true-crime nonfiction but one that lacks a detailed prescription for the problems it raises.Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-66980-583-0
Page Count: 322
Publisher: Xlibris US
Review Posted Online: July 5, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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A dauntless, moving account of a kidnapping and the horrors that followed.
Enduring the unthinkable.
This memoir—the first by an Israeli taken captive by Hamas on October 7, 2023—chronicles the 491 days the author was held in Gaza. Confined to tunnels beneath war-ravaged streets, Sharabi was beaten, humiliated, and underfed. When he was finally released in February, he learned that Hamas had murdered his wife and two daughters. In the face of scarcely imaginable loss, Sharabi has crafted a potent record of his will to survive. The author’s ordeal began when Hamas fighters dragged him from his home, in a kibbutz near Gaza. Alongside others, he was held for months at a time in filthy subterranean spaces. He catalogs sensory assaults with novelistic specificity. Iron shackles grip his ankles. Broken toilets produce an “unbearable stink,” and “tiny white worms” swarm his toothbrush. He gets one meal a day, his “belly caving inward.” Desperate for more food, he stages a fainting episode, using a shaving razor to “slice a deep gash into my eyebrow.” Captors share their sweets while celebrating an Iranian missile attack on Israel. He and other hostages sneak fleeting pleasures, finding and downing an orange soda before a guard can seize it. Several times, Sharabi—51 when he was kidnapped—gives bracing pep talks to younger compatriots. The captives learn to control what they can, trading family stories and “lift[ing] water bottles like dumbbells.” Remarkably, there’s some levity. He and fellow hostages nickname one Hamas guard “the Triangle” because he’s shaped like a SpongeBob SquarePants character. The book’s closing scenes, in which Sharabi tries to console other hostages’ families while learning the worst about his own, are heartbreaking. His captors “are still human beings,” writes Sharabi, bravely modeling the forbearance that our leaders often lack.
A dauntless, moving account of a kidnapping and the horrors that followed.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780063489790
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Harper Influence/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
A powerful reiteration of principles—and some fresh ideas—from the longest-serving independent in congressional history.
Another chapter in a long fight against inequality.
Building on his Fighting Oligarchy tour, which this year drew 280,000 people to rallies in red and blue states, Sanders amplifies his enduring campaign for economic fairness. The Vermont senator offers well-timed advice for combating corruption and issues a robust plea for national soul-searching. His argument rests on alarming data on the widening wealth gap’s impact on democracy. Bolstered by a 2010 Supreme Court decision that removed campaign finance limits, “100 billionaire families spent $2.6 billion” on 2024 elections. Sanders focuses on the Trump administration and congressional Republicans, describing their enactment of the “Big Beautiful Bill,” with its $1 trillion in tax breaks for the richest Americans and big social safety net cuts, as the “largest transfer of wealth” in living memory. But as is his custom, he spreads the blame, dinging Democrats for courting wealthy donors while ignoring the “needs and suffering” of the working class. “Trump filled the political vacuum that the Democrats created,” he writes, a resonant diagnosis. Urging readers not to surrender to despair, Sanders offers numerous legislative proposals. These would empower labor unions, cut the workweek to 32 hours, regulate campaign spending, reduce gerrymandering, and automatically register 18-year-olds to vote. Grassroots supporters can help by running for local office, volunteering with a campaign, and asking educators how to help support public schools. Meanwhile, Sanders asks us “to question the fundamental moral values that underlie” a system that enables “the top 1 percent” to “own more wealth than the bottom 93 percent.” Though his prose sometimes reads like a transcribed speech with built-in applause lines, Sanders’ ideas are specific, clear, and commonsensical. And because it echoes previous statements, his call for collective introspection lands as genuine.
A powerful reiteration of principles—and some fresh ideas—from the longest-serving independent in congressional history.Pub Date: Oct. 21, 2025
ISBN: 9798217089161
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2025
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