Death in Mud Lick (Eyre) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
Powerful …. [Eyre] writes with candor and gravity…. [Death in Mud Lick] is the work of an author who understands that objectivity is not the same as bland neutrality. I expect it will be taught to aspiring reporters for many years to come. It's the story of an epidemic; it's also the story of a newspaper.
Dwight Garner - New York Times


Death in Mud Lick is a product of one reporter’s sustained outrage: a searing spotlight on the scope and human cost of corruption and negligence."
Washington Post


At the Gazette-Mail, Eyre’s career has been the stuff of quiet legend…. Eyre served his community in a time of need. With his new book, he took the death of a coal miner, William (Bull) Preece, found dead in a trailer in Mud Lick amid a residue of crushed pills, and told the how and the why. His reporting led to restrictions on prescriptions, greater tracking, more transparency. He shamed an industry and saved lives. Working at a small newspaper, Eyre made a big difference.
NewYorker.com


[An] important new book …. Death in Mud Lick is more than a takedown of the out-of-state predators who exploited West Virginians for obscene profit; it’s a 300-page rebuttal to those who dismiss honest reporting as #fakenews, or claim that journalism doesn’t matter… [and] a real-life legal thriller that barrels along like a runaway coal truck on Horsepen Mountain.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette


(Starred review) [R]iveting…. As Eyre labored… to pry information from obfuscating drug firms… he was also contending with Parkinson’s disease…. Packed with colorful details…, this page-turning journalistic thriller shines a brilliant spotlight on a national tragedy.
Publishers Weekly


(Starred review) Eyre… exposes inadequate DEA oversight, blatant conflicts of interest…. The book ends with an unresolved question: Is the multimillion dollar settlement from drug companies enough?… Timely and well documented. —Antoinette Brinkman, formerly with Southwest Indiana Mental Health Ctr. Lib., Evansville
Library Journal


(Starred review) Compellingly told…. [A] tale of compassionate people deeply wronged and a dogged journalist who won't stand for it.
Booklist


[D]isturbing, moving, and heart-wrenching…. [H]ow time-consuming, budget-busting investigative journalism functions despite circumstances that mitigate against it. Timely, depressing, engrossing reportage on an issue that can't receive too much attention.
Kirkus Reviews