Patrick Radden Keefe’s Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty (2021) is as remarkable, precise, well-written, measured, and ethical a book as Radden Keefe’s Say Nothing, my 2021 book of the year. And Empire of Pain may take it for 2023. It’s early days yet, but it’s not likely I’ll forget it.

What I appreciate the most about Radden Keefe is his ability to balance impeccably sourced and researched content AND a tone of banked righteous anger, a moral core, a sense of things not right. Radden Keefe, through careful, thorough research, interviews, and clear, penetrating prose brings the sins of the Sacklers to life in the lives of the people most hurt by their dishonest business practices in selling Oxycontin and bringing us to the opioid crisis as we know it today. (more…)