Fatal Dosage

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Not to be confused with Joe McGinniss's bestseller Fatal Vision, Provost's work is an account of the first-degree murder investigation, trial and acquittal of Massachusetts nurse Anne Capute, who made national headlines in 1980 when she was accused of a ``mercy killing'' by injection of morphine. Overly partisan, Provost excuses her use of a falsified transcript to gain admission to nursing school and claims that it was the desperation of this innocent woman that made her carry a loaded gun into the courtroom to kill herself if the jury's verdict went against her. However, the legal details are of interest, particularly because the media focused less on the facts of the case than on the phenomenon of mercy killings. Those who don't mind the melodrama will enjoy the suspense leading to Capute's acquittal. December