The action is enough to carry the story, but the main strength of this book is that it is intelligently written. As an avid reader, I have read my share of action/detective stories, and, unlike many, this one really holds together tightly.

Lady Gold tells the story of a female in a still-male world, and the subplots hold up as well as the main story line.

I read the book in an afternoon/evening--a classic case of "I couldn't put it down". I can't wait for the movie and the sequel!

This book differs from many of the true crime novels by the author writing a story in which you almost feel sorrier for the killer and his family than that of the victim. Also the setting differs from many of the others in this genre. The setting is in the Appalachian Mountains in the county seat of Pike County - Pikesville, Kentucky. Though the story isn't fast-paced, it does not drag either. Although, I've read more interesting stories; the names Ann Rule and Aphrodite Jones come to mind; this is a novel that you want to continue reading to find out what happens. As another reviewer says, it would be nice to find out what has happened to Mark, Kathy, and Danielle Putnam. If you like a book where the killer is not a sleezebucket with many problems, has a conscience and could easily be someone you know and trust, this book should be one you should look into.

Mark Putman, sworn to protect and serve. He did so but he is not above the law, Man's or God's. He became a victim out of the heat of passion, or maybe rage. That depends on how one looks at it. I really liked the book, and I'm trying to get a copy for myself to have at my home. I think there are a lot of people who haven't heard of the book, but would read it and find it a fine book to read twice, maybe more.

I like to read true crime books, and this one was very good. This book made me feel very sorry for the criminal and his family. After reading this book, I wanted to know so much more about Mark Putnam and his family. I could not find anything on the internet relating to the crime. Oh well, I am interested in reading another book by Joe Sharkey now. If anyone finds a website that has info on this subject, please email me.

This weekend marks the 10th anniversary of the murders of Carol DiMaiti Stuart and her unborn child. Carol and her husband, Charles were driving home from a birthing class at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Bosston on Oct. 23, 1989, when she was fatally shot. Charles Stuart, at first, fit the image as an heroic husband, fighting against his own injuries to contact police and summon help for his pregnant and seriously wounded wife.

The police, press and communities across the nation believed Stuart's tale of a black man who'd climbed into their car, tried to rob the Reading, MA couple, and shot Carol Stuart. Carol was rushed back to Brigham and Women's Hospital, where she died from the bullet wounds to her head. Her prematurely born son, Christopher died 17 days later.

Young black men in the Mission Hill District were summarily rounded up for questioning, and racial tensions in Boston were enflamed by Stuart's accusations, and the police handling of the investigation. While the accused Willie Bennett was innocent of the Stuart murders, and the allegations against him by Stuart were false, Bennett's prior crimimal record of violent assault with firearms, made him a prime target not only in the eyes of the police, but also in his community.

Meanwhile, Stuart began collecting insurance money from scams he'd been running for months. Even his own family started suspecting his involvement in Carol's shooting. The investigative work by Boston Globe reporter Michele Caruso, and by the authors, outlines how this case fell apart after Matthew, Charles' brother and partner in the scam, came forward to tell authorities what he knew.

Charles Stuart sought refuge in suicide, when it became clear he was a prime suspect in the crime. His body was retrieved from the Charles River in early January, 1990, under a cloud of suspicion. William Bennett was cleared of any involvement, and the DiMaiti family established a scholarship for residents of the Mission Hill District, in an effort to heal the wounds caused by their late son-in-law's hoax.

This is a riveting true account of a monumentally selfish man (Stuart) and the lengths he went to secure his "dream"--even at the expense of his wife and son. It's also a cautionary tale NOT to believe everything you hear, even when the tales carry the weight of truth.

Today many questions remain about the Stuart shooting; what was the extent of Matthew's involvement in the shooting; why were people so willing to believe Stuart's story of a black man robbing them; and how could Stuart have fooled even his own family about his involvement in his wife and son's murder?

With a minimal of original research, Sharkey relies extensively and primarily upon one of the biggest newspaper investigative projects in U.S. history, and gives it only a minimal acknowledgment. Dubbed "Profitable Addictions" and published in the Houston Chronicle, the investigative series comprised some 110 major stories over a two-year period and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Sharkey, the son-in-law of a psychiatrist who probably felt some pressure from the powerful for-profit psychiatric hospital chains, pens a near "apologia" for the industry, rather than laying out the full fascinating story as laid out by the Huston Chronicle, which impacted for-profit hospital regulation as far away as Australia, and resulted in the creation of a permanent healthcare fraud section within the FBI and a record (for the date) settlement of $375 million settlement for healthcare fraud..still the second highest fraud settlement in U.S. history. Unfortunately, the swift publication of Sharkey's book hurt the publication of other more thorough and less sappy books than Sharkey's, and thus did an actual disservice to menatal health and patient care and the reading public in telling a most fascinating yarn of pure corporate greed.

The focus of this book is on how corporate, for profit, mental hospitals put aside all ethical concerns and took advantage of distressed people that sought mental health, addiction treatment, or crisis counseling. As the author described it:

"These hospitals devised vast promotional programs -- aggressive advertising coupled with painstaking media manipulation and systematic kickbacks to counselors and others who might have access to troubled potential patients -- to create a whole new product niche: treatment in psychiatric wards for people who had never before been regarded as candidates for inpatient psychiatric care." (p. 11)

Much of the book is anecdotal. The accounts of various people that came into contact with corporate mental health hospitals is shocking. The reoccurring theme was that marketing was used to seek out as many people as possible and finder's fees were paid to those that referred people to the hospital. Then the hospitals would keep people in "treatment" for as long as their insurance would cover the expenses, even switching their diagnosis to extend their stay. Once the insurance money ran out, the patients were pronounced "cured." Occasionally, bounty hunters were used to "escort" people that were reported to be in need of mental health services, but only those with good insurance, of course.

One of the most important lessons this book provides is just how wrong the mental health system can get. This book serves as a reminder that even recently, psychiatrists can throw all ethical concerns out the window for money. Sadly, only treating those that had insurance coverage was a concern, and not those with genuine problems.

Joe Sharkey's view of the truth behind the medical insurance field is rivoting. I am proud to know this man