Bad City
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4.6 • 34 Ratings
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- $19.99
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
For fans of Spotlight and Catch and Kill comes a nonfiction thriller about corruption and betrayal radiating across Los Angeles from one of the region's most powerful institutions, a riveting tale from a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist who investigated the shocking events and helped bring justice in the face of formidable odds.
On a cool, overcast afternoon in April 2016, a salacious tip arrived at the L.A. Times that reporter Paul Pringle thought should have taken, at most, a few weeks to check out: a drug overdose at a fancy hotel involving one of the University of Southern California’s shiniest stars—Dr. Carmen Puliafito, the head of the prestigious medical school. Pringle, who’d long done battle with USC and its almost impenetrable culture of silence, knew reporting the story wouldn’t be a walk in the park. USC is the largest private employer in the city of L.A., and it casts a long shadow.
But what he couldn’t have foreseen was that this tip would lead to the unveiling of not one major scandal at USC but two, wrapped in a web of crimes and cover-ups. The rot rooted out by Pringle and his colleagues at The Times would creep closer to home than they could have imagined—spilling into their own newsroom.
Packed with details never before disclosed, Pringle goes behind the scenes to reveal how he and his fellow reporters triumphed over the city’s debased institutions, in a narrative that reads like L.A. noir. This is L.A. at its darkest and investigative journalism at its brightest.
A Macmillan Audio production from Celadon Books.
"Robert Petkoff is especially effective at narrating this account..."- AudioFile Magazine (Earphones Award Winner)
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
The real-life story of how this Pulitzer-winning journalist uncovered an epic scandal is more gripping than any police procedural. Dr. Carmen Puliafito was not only the dean of the University of Southern California’s medical school, he was also a high-profile mover and shaker who raised billions for the institution. So when Los Angeles Times investigative reporter Paul Pringle received a tip that Puliafito had provided drugs to his mistress—and was with her in a hotel room when she overdosed—it was worth checking out. Massive cover-ups soon followed, instigated by everyone from the cops to Pringle’s own employer, and when the story finally broke, the list of Puliafito’s misdeeds turned out to be even longer. Pringle writes with the intensity of the great shoe-leather reporter he is, diving deep into hard facts and fascinating backstories without ever losing momentum. And narrator Robert Petkoff definitely gets it, keeping the tension tight while making the details pop. Bad City is a sweeping story of power, corruption, and hard-fought justice.
