Somebody is Lying: The Story of Dr. X

By Myron Farber

Book Overview

Nonfiction account of medical malpractice This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385126182
• ISBN13: 9780385126182
• Release Date: January 1982
• Publisher: Doubleday
• Length: 367 Pages
• Weight: 1.75 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A detailed and, at times, fascinating story. 3.5 stars.

It's difficult to categorize this thorough account of New York Times' journalist Myron Farber's investigation into a series of unusual deaths at New Jersey's Riverdell Hospital. Curare--the famed "blowgun poison"--is the homicidal weapon of focus in this tale of several doctors who suspect one of their own may have murdered several patients back in the mid-1960s. The case was not initially made, but a decade later Farber looked into it, published a few articles and,finally, Dr. X (later revealed to be Dr. Mario Jascalevich) was brought to trial in the late 70s. Also, Myron Farber gets jailed for not handing over all of his notes, recordings, writings, etc., to the court. The first half of the book--in which Farber investigates the goings-on at Riverdell--is better than the second, which mostly reads like a series of court-transcript excerpts with a few free-speech and Farber-in-jail interludes. I learned quite a bit about curare and the forensic tests that were developed for it. I also learned that two lawyers and a wacky judge can make a murder trial drag on for half a year. The book, though written well, doesn't exactly move along at breakneck speed. Its dense with details, but there isn't much impetus propelling the story forward other than your own curiosity. At times, it reads like a long, dry report. I found I couldn't plod through much more than ten pages a night towards the end. One curious aspect of "Somebody is Lying" is the part involving Dr. X's purported nighttime experiments on dogs at Seton Hall and Pollak Hospital. I came away never really knowing if he performed those tests or not. It's worth a look if you're interested in curare, forensics, murder trials and/or journalist rights.