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After his December arrest registered nurse Charlie Cullen was quickly dubbed The Angel of Death by the media But Cullen was no mercy killer nor was he a simple monster He was a favorite son husband beloved father best friend and celebrated caregiver Implicated in the deaths of as many as patients he was also perhaps the most prolific serial killer in American history Cullens murderous career in the worlds most trusted profession spanned sixteen years and nine hospitals across New Jersey and Pennsylvania When in March of Charles Cullen was marched from his final sentencing in an Allentown Pennsylvania courthouse into a waiting police van it seemed certain that the chilling secrets of his life career and capture would disappear with him Now in a riveting piece of investigative journalism nearly ten years in the making journalist Charles Graeber presents the whole story for the first time Based on hundreds of pages of previously unseen police records interviews wire-tap recordings and videotapes as well as exclusive jailhouse conversations with Cullen himself and the confidential informant who helped bring him down THE GOOD NURSE weaves an urgent terrifying tale of murder friendship and betrayal Graebers portrait of Cullen depicts a surprisingly intelligent and complicated young man whose promising career was overwhelmed by his compulsion to kill and whose shy demeanor masked a twisted interior life hidden even to his family and friends Were it not for the hardboiled unrelenting work of two former Newark homicide detectives racing to put together the pieces of Cullens professional past and a fellow nurse willing to put everything at risk including her job and the safety of her children theres no telling how many more lives could have been lost In the tradition of In Cold Blood THE GOOD NURSE does more than chronicle Cullens deadly career and the breathless efforts to stop him it paints an incredibly vivid portrait of madness and offers a penetrating look inside Americas medical system Harrowing and irresistibly paced this book will make you look at medicine hospitals and the people who work in them in an entirely different way.