Pain Killer
- Author Barry Meier
- Narrator Ray Porter
- Publisher Hodder & Stoughton
- Publish Date 29 October 2020
- Run Time 6 hours and 43 minutes
- Format x-book®
- Genre Chemical, biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, Corporate crime / white-collar crime, Drugs trade / drug trafficking, Health, illness and addiction: social aspects, Reportage, journalism or collected columns, True crime.
Flexible Pricing & Rewards For Listening
At xigxag, the more you read, the less you pay* on select audiobook and x-book® titles, as in the table below. Pricing updates automatically in the app and resets one year after your first purchase. And you can always find a selection of brilliant titles available for only £3.99.
Titles Purchased
- 1-5
- 6-10
- 11-15
- 16-20
- Over 20
Price per title
- £8.99
- £7.99
- £6.99
- £5.99
- £4.99
*Only the full price titles you buy count toward your personal pricing tier. Full price titles don’t include Listen for Less or other books bought with a voucher or discount code.
Listen to a sample
What to expect
Every catastrophe has a beginning. For the opioid crisis in America, the seed was a drug called OxyContin.
First hailed as a miracle drug for severe pain in the early 1990s, OxyContin went on to ignite a plague of addiction and death across America, fuelled by the aggressive marketing of its maker, Purdue Pharma and the billionaire Sackler brothers who owned the company.
Investigative journalist Barry Meier was the first to write about the elusive Sackler family, their role in this catastrophic epidemic and the army of local doctors, law enforcement and worried parents that tried to bring them down. We meet Lindsay Meyers, proud of being the youngest Oxy user she knows at just 16, local doctor Art Van Zee who witnesses his community in the grip of a ferocious epidemic, the three billionaire Sackler brothers, and Laura Nagel, the government official who made it her mission to hold the company to account.
Equal parts crime thriller, medical detective story, and business exposé, Pain Killer is the origin story of the opioid crisis, a hard-hitting look at how a supposed wonder drug became the trigger for a national tragedy.
(P) 2020 Penguin Random House Audio
Critics Review
| Author | Barry Meier |
|---|---|
| Narrator | Ray Porter |
| Duration | 6 hours and 43 minutes |
| Release Date | |
| ISBN | 9781529356182 |
| Format | x-book® |
| Publisher | Hodder & Stoughton |
| Genre | Chemical, biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, Corporate crime / white-collar crime, Drugs trade / drug trafficking, Health, illness and addiction: social aspects, Reportage, journalism or collected columns, True crime |
| Availability | AU, GB, IE |
More from the same
Author
About xigxag and the x-book®
xigxag is an independent, UK-based audiobook platform and the UK’s only B Corp certified audiobook company. We offer nearly 150,000 audiobooks, all with professional human narration. No AI-generated voices. xigxag is rated an Ethical Consumer Best Buy for audiobooks and a top-rated ethical bookshop.
Our x-book® format is the only fully integrated listen-and-read experience available. See the text on screen as you listen, look up words, take notes, search within the book, and share quotes. It is especially useful for accessibility, language learning, and getting more from non-fiction. Look for the purple x-book® ribbon on the cover, or filter your search by “x-book” to find them.
There is no subscription. You buy the audiobooks you want, you own them permanently, and prices start at £8.99. The more you listen over the year, the less you pay per book, and there is always a selection in Listen for Less from £3.99. You can also send audiobooks as gifts using our audiobook gift cards or in-app gifting.
Every audiobook on xigxag has honest reviews covering both the book and the narration, and our community features make it easy to share what you are listening to, discover what others recommend, and find your next listen.
Download or stream on iOS, Android, or in your browser. Browse the full catalogue at xigxag.co.uk.