I read this nonfiction, true crime story as it was highly recommended in Entertainment Weekly. One of the recommenders was Stephen King.

This is a truly horrifying account of Charlie Cullen, everybody's notion of a "good nurse." Only he wasn't. He was killing people in ways that caused them to suffer horribly - it was no mercy killing. He used his access to critically ill patients in Pennsylvania and New Jersey in the 1990's and early 2000's.

He worked at at nine (I think) hospitals because the hospitals would always give him decent references and the nurses were in demand and short supply. Good old Charlie was always willing to work the shifts no one else was. He had a certain sneaky charm, according to the book.

I quarrel with the book's focus on Charlie's mundane existance. I would have liked to hear a little more about his victims.

The hospitals covering up for him did not totally surprise me. I think hospitals still lie and cheat and are all about the bottom line. I thought the people at the last hospital who drug their feet while people died should have been indicted as co-conspirators with their buddy, Charlie, the biggest mass murderer in U.S. history thanks to the inaction of a bunch of criminal hospital administrations.

anyone who wants to be scared to death about going in the hospital. It is not the patient's interest that is important. It is moola.

the woman who blew the whistle on Charlie. He would still be killing people if not for her. I also liked his good buddy who decided to turn on him and record him. She was brave in doing that.

the focus on Charlie. He is not as interesting to me as the complicit morons at the hospitals. And, of course, the innocent victims he tortured are of interest.

not go near a hospital or have anyone in my family go near a hospital. I think this sort of b.s. still goes on.

nauseated.

it is interesting how hospitals and big organizations rationalize things, hide things and look the other way. If you think they are on the up and up, this book will disabuse you of that naive belief pretty quickly. Charlie was doing this stuff for nearly 16 years.

I didn't think the writing was that great so I was surprised at Stephen King's recommendation of the the book. Maybe he is more focused on exposing hospitals since he went through some agony of his own. I do not know. That is a mystery to me.

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Created Jan 15, 2014 at 10:18am • Submit your own review...