83 Minutes: The Doctor, the Damage, and the Shocking Death of Michael Jackson

In this tiresome account, Richards and Langthorne provide the already well-known details of Jackson's dysfunctional family, his alleged pedophilia, and his descent into drug addiction following the burns he suffered during the filming of a Pepsi commercial. Richards and Langthorne attest that January 27, 1984, was the beginning of the end for Jackson, as he grew more and more dependent on narcotics to ease his pain. After Jackson meets Conrad Murray in 2006, Murray assumes the mantle of the King of Pop's personal physician, and their lives are intertwined forever. The authors ramble on needlessly about Murray's native country of Grenada in addition to pointing out that the debt-ridden Murray was just as much in need of Jackson as Jackson was of easy access to drugs. Sprinkling their allegedly objective chronicle with judgments about "bizarre" nature of the "tragedy," they conclude that Murray was negligent in his care for Jackson and speculate against all evidence that the singer might still be alive if Murray had practiced good medicine. In the end, the authors succeed in illustrating little more than what readers most likely already know. Agent: Carrie-Ann Pitt, Blink. (June)