Prescription for Pain: How a Once-Promising Doctor Became the “Pill Mill Killer” by Philip Eil delivers a haunting narrative that grips both true crime aficionados and those concerned with America’s opioid crisis. The saga of Dr. Paul Volkman, a once-brilliant physician whose career trajectory led him from the highest echelons of medical achievement to four consecutive life sentences in a federal prison, is a cautionary tale at the dark intersection of medicine, greed, addiction, and unchecked pain management practices. Volkman ran a network of cash-only pain clinics in rural southern Ohio, becoming, by government estimates, the largest single prescriber of oxycodone in the country from 2003 to 2005. Over the course of nearly three years, his actions resulted in a wave of suffering, addiction, and death across the Appalachian region, culminating in a sensational federal trial and a precedent-setting sentence for a physician.