(One Signal, July 2024)

A taut exploration of America’s deadly battle with opioid addiction—an unnerving and inspirational firecracker of a book.” —Karen Abbott, New York Times bestselling author

For fans of Dopesick and Bad Blood, the shocking story of New York’s most infamous pill-pushing doctor, written by the prosecutor who brought him down.

In 2010, a brave whistleblower alerted the police to Dr. Stan Li’s corrupt pain management clinic in Queens, New York. Li spent years supplying more than seventy patients a day with oxycodone and Xanax, trading prescriptions for cash. Emergency room doctors, psychiatrists, and desperate family members warned him that his patients were at risk of death but he would not stop.

In Killer in a White Coat, former prosecutor Charlotte Bismuth meticulously recounts the jaw-dropping details of this criminal case that would span four years, culminating in a landmark trial. As a new assistant district attorney and single mother, Bismuth worked tirelessly with her team to bring Dr. Li to justice. Killer in a White Coat is a chilling story of corruption and greed and an important look at the role individual doctors play in America’s opioid epidemic.

Charlotte Bismuth started her legal career at the firm of Debevoise & Plimpton, LLP, and joined the New York County District Attorney’s Office in 2008 as an appellate attorney. In 2010, she transferred into the Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor, which prosecutes felony narcotics crimes within the City’s five boroughs. She is a graduate of Columbia University, Columbia Law School, and the Instituts d’etudes politiques in Paris. She lives in New York with her husband and children. For more on Bismuth, please visit charlottebismuth.com.