Two Men, a Murder, and an Unlikely Fight for Justice
- Rating: ☆☆☆☆
- Genre: Memoir / Mental Health
- Length: 295 pages
- Publisher: Ballantine Books
- Release Date: March 1, 2022
Description
Fresh out of medical residency, Dr. Benjamin Gilmer joined a rural North Carolina clinic only to find that its previous doctor shared his last name. Dr. Vince Gilmer was loved and respected by the community—right up until he strangled his ailing father and then returned to the clinic for a regular week of work. Vince’s eventual arrest for murder shocked his patients. Could their beloved doctor be capable of such violence? The deeper Benjamin looked into Vince’s case, the more he became obsessed with discovering what pushed a good man toward darkness.
When Benjamin visited Vince in prison, he met a man who appeared to be fighting his own mind, constantly twitching and veering into nonsensical tangents. Sentenced to life in prison, Vince had been branded a cold-blooded killer and a “malingerer”—a person who fakes an illness. But it was obvious to Benjamin that Vince needed help. Alongside This American Life journalist Sarah Koenig, Benjamin resolved to understand what had happened to his predecessor. Time and again, the pair came up against a prison system that cared little about the mental health of its inmates—despite more than a third of them suffering from mental illness.
The Other Dr. Gilmer takes readers on a thrilling and heart-wrenching journey through our shared human fallibility, made worse by a prison system that is failing our most vulnerable citizens. With deep compassion and an even deeper sense of justice, Dr. Benjamin Gilmer delves into the mystery of what could make a caring doctor commit a brutal murder. And in the process, his powerful story asks us to answer a profound question: In a country with the highest incarceration rates in the world, what would it look like if we prioritized healing rather than punishment?
What Others Are Saying
“A complex, unlikely medical mystery and true crime story along with one man’s relentless quest for justice.”
— Charles Frazier, author of Cold Mountain, winner of the National Book Award for Fiction
“The author does a fine job humanizing everyone involved. This painful look at a terrible social injustice deserves a wide audience.”
–Publishers Weekly
My Thoughts
I must be the last to have heard about this story, but as the saying goes, “Last but not least.” I hope this review will be meaningful to you.
This is a gripping debut memoir about, as you might have guessed, two Dr. Gilbers. One is in prison and the other is taking over the prisoner’s former medical practice. As the story progresses Dr. Gilbert who takes over the practice is taken on a wild rollercoaster ride of emotions as he learns more and more about his predecessor.
But after his initial concerns, he slowly beings to wonder what exactly happened to land the former doctor in prison.
This memoir was quite interesting and held my attention to the last page. It’s a topic with a little different twist, but one that we all should be aware of.
My Concerns
At one point I thought the emotional reactions from the current doctor were a bit over-the-top. But the more I thought about it, we all react differently to various situations.
Final Thoughts
Not only will this book hold your attention, I think the unique topic will too. Sometimes after reading a book like this I ask myself if I’m too complacent regarding social issues. My answer is always the same, Don’t assume you have to tear the pavement up waving a sign, Debbie. Write letters to the right people. Who knows what even one might mean. (Bear in mind, this book isn’t soliciting action of any kind, this is my question to myself.)
Have I raised your curiosity? Read the book. And don’t read reviews with spoiler alerts. I’m an odd one who often only knows the genre of a book because, for me, even the synopsis can tell too much about it.
Thumbs up. A must-read memoir.
My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ability to read an eARC and review this before publication. I was free to honestly record my opinion.
Rating
4 Stars
About The Author
Dr. Benjamin Gilmer is a family medicine physician in Fletcher, North Carolina. A former Albert Schweitzer fellow, he is an associate professor in the department of family medicine at the UNC School of Medicine at Chapel Hill and at the Mountain Area Health Education Center. A former neurobiologist turned rural family practitioner, Dr. Gilmer has lectured across the country about medical ethics, bias in medicine, and criminal justice reform. He lives with his wife and two children in Asheville, North Carolina.
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