The Good Nurse

A True Story of Medicine, Madness, and Murder

By: Charles Graeber

Narrated by: Will Collyer

Length: 11 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

Coming to Netflix this fall starring Eddie Redmayne and Jessica Chastain⁠—a “stunning book...that should and does bring to mind In Cold Blood” and takes you inside the mind of America's most prolific serial killer, whose 16-year long "nursing" career left as many as 400 dead. (New York Times)

After his December 2003 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 300 patients, he was also perhaps the most prolific serial killer in American history.

Cullen's murderous career in the world's most trusted profession spanned sixteen years and nine hospitals across New Jersey and Pennsylvania. When, in March of 2006, 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.

Graeber's 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 Cullen's professional past, and a fellow nurse willing to put everything at risk, including her job and the safety of her children, there's no telling how many more lives could have been lost.

In the tradition of In Cold Blood, The Good Nurse does more than chronicle Cullen's deadly career and the breathless efforts to stop him; it paints an incredibly vivid portrait of madness and offers a penetrating look inside America's 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.

©2013 Charles Graeber (P)2013 Hachette Audio

Wow..

Eye-opening and crazy story. My feeling is all over the place, to think a nurse can do such horrific acts. Being a nurse for over 20 yrs, I am glad I have never met such a person.. Wow

Stick with it… a great read.

This builds and gets more and more interesting as it goes along. There may not be as many insights at the beginning from the “killer” (like in other books) but the second half of the book ties a lot together. In the last quarter of the book or so there are interviews with him. Everything ties together well and I appreciated the “after he was caught” part of the story.
As a medical professional, I especially appreciated the medical descriptions and drug names, etc.

Very Disjointed

I found I was confused by the author’s style. Also found the reading ‘choppy’ and unappealing

Interesting story...poor narration.

Would you recommend The Good Nurse to your friends? Why or why not?

I would not recommend the audio-book. I do recommend the text-version.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Will Collyer?

I think that the criteria for choosing the narrator of this book should have been an actor familiar with proper pronunciation of healthcare terminology and possibly experience in healthcare. I felt the narrator's discomfort with the subject matter, the characterizations and the medications so crucial to the story.

Any additional comments?

The short form of "Digoxin" is pronounced "didge" not "dig". A "Q.R.S." is not a "O.R.S." An injection of Xanax 8mg is unheard of as Xanax is not available as an injectable.

Angel of death. Wow

Would you listen to The Good Nurse again? Why?

I think I could listen again. Very intriguing book.

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

I don't know if I was on the edge of my seat, but wow this book pulled me in and kept me the whole time.

What does Will Collyer bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

He was very good.

Any additional comments?

I know it may just be me, but I love a crime novel and add medical to it and I'm in heaven. This book was very interesting. You could tell that a ton of research went into it . I can't believe this was the first time I heard of this case. Great story. If you like medical true crime this is a book for you.

story is great but narrator mispronounces ALOT!

I need to start by saying I'm a nurse in the area where Charlie worked so I know how things should be pronounced. There were a lot of mispronunciations in this book and it was VERY annoying. To the point that I would have returned the book if I had not been on a 12-hour road trip and needed an audiobook. Someone must have pointed out that Dig. (short for Digoxin) was pronounced incorrectly because in the middle of the story it describes how the word is said correctly but then goes on for another 4+ hours of repeated mispronunciation. I don't know how many times it was said, but I would say close to a thousand since it was the drug that got him caught.

If you are a nurse, I highly recommend reading this book, not listening to it. The story is intriguing and it was very enlightening to see the inner workings of the attempts to preserve the public view of hospitals. I was sucked in from the start. I would have appreciated it so much more had I not spent so much time being annoyed.

That being said, if you are not a nurse or from Bethlehem to know that Dig. and Muhlenberg are mispronounced, you might really enjoy it. Aside from the mispronunciations, the narrator had a very good reading voice.

Nurse Must Read

I am a nurse and appreciate the clinical details in the story. However, I had to keep reminding myself that this was not fiction.

Twists, Turns and It's True Life

Well written book. Some long winded and frequently used analogies but sparing those it was a good book.

Just wow

Beautifully written. Will as narrator is perfection. The story itself is gut wrenching. Disgusted by but captivating. You don’t want to put it away, even when you cringe at what is coming next.

Horrid

I know this is an interesting true crime story but in the hands of this author it is bogged down with brutally detailed descriptions of everything that go on and on and are supposed to be oh so poetic...along with way too many bad metaphors. Not everything need's to be described with a metaphor. The dialogue is worthy of any poorly written soap opera and includes a scene where one person just says "yeah" over and over again. The narrator just plain sucks when it comes to doing women's dialogue. All the women are made to sound like whining babies. "Oh honey, honey....blah blah blah...sniffle sniffle whine...". Gag.