For fans of Spotlight and Bad Blood comes a journalistic thriller about corruption and betrayal at two of Los Angeles's most powerful institutions, from a Pulitzer-prize winning reporter who investigated the story and helped bring justice in the face of formidable odds.
In 2016, a salacious tip came into the L.A. Times's newsroom that journalist Paul Pringle thought would, at most, take a few weeks to check out: a minor drug incident 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, 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: all the way to the top of the paper's masthead.
Ultimately a story of investigative journalism winning the day, Pringle's tale of how he and his fellow reporters triumphed over the city's debased institutions reads like John Carreyrou with the grit of an L.A. noir thriller. This is L.A. at its darkest and investigative journalism at its brightest.
