William H. Reid

On July 20, 2012, in Aurora, Colorado, a man in dark body armor and a gas mask entered the midnight premiere of The Dark Knight Rises with a tactical shotgun, a high-capacity assault rifle, and a sidearm. He threw a canister of tear gas into the crowd and began firing. Soon twelve were dead and fifty-eight wounded; young children and pregnant women among them. The man was later found in his car outside the theater, where he surrendered to law enforcement without further incident.

 

Only one person was allowed to record extensive video interviews with the shooter. This is what he found.

 

In the investigations and court case that followed, Dr. William H. Reid, a distinguished forensic psychiatrist, would interview James Holmes nine times, for 23 hours in all, and later testify as a psychiatric expert for trial Judge Carlos Samour. Reid read Holmes’ private diary; investigated his phone calls and text messages; interviewed his family, friends, teachers and professors; spoke with many of his victims, and reviewed tens of thousands of pages of physical evidence, notes, photos, videos, psychiatric reports and court testimony in an effort to understand a horrible event and the person who created it. The result is the gripping story of how a lovely little boy named Jimmy became one of the worst killers in US history.

Developing a forensic practice can be confusing and intimidating. Dr. William Reid, a highly experienced forensic psychiatrist, has written a practical, straightforward guide for clinicians interested in doing it right and increasing their opportunities for a successful transition to forensic work. This book, which will be of interest to many attorneys as well, provides straightforward details, along with many case examples, of lawyer-expert communications and relationships, case assessment, record review, evaluations, reports, deposition and trial testimony, fees and billing, office operations, marketing, liability, and professional ethics. A bonus chapter by a successful malpractice attorney gives a unique and valuable "lawyer's perspective" on the content and mental health experts in general. The huge appendix provides over 40 highly useful examples of common office forms, letters, reports, and affidavits.

 

Any mental health professional who currently practices, or wants to practice, at the interface of mental health and the law will find this an indispensible resource.

 

COMING IN 2025, the compelling, fictionalized story of two real men and their incredible bond.

 

The book opens on two soldiers, Augie Simpson and Frank Sinclair, fighting the enemy and the cold in 1951 Korea. Chapter two takes them back a year to South Chicago (Frank) and Pittsburgh (Augie). They're drafted. Wiry, street-smart Frank begins to see the Army as a career. Augie tolerates it. Frank marries his home-town girl just before they deploy to Korea.

 

The next few chapters see Frank seriously wounded in the course of saving Augie's life. Augie, also wounded but not as severely, watches over Frank as he first gets better at a MASH unit, then gets worse in Camp Drew Hospital, Japan. Augie is shipped home with a limp. Frank struggles with his injuries, the loss of his hoped-for Army career and the loss his wife (who left with their infant son while he was overseas). He's transported to Letterman Army Hospital, San Francisco, for medical discharge, then back to Chicago minus a leg, half a lung and his dreams for the future.

 

Augie and Frank go on to live separate, very different lives, neither aware of the other for decades. Others enter their subplots with twists and turns, tragedy and triumph, until the last, even more fascinating chapters.

 

Watch for AUGIE & FRANK, hard cover, paperback and Kindle ebook, in mid-2025, wherever books are sold.

COMING IN 2025, The Best Medicine in the World, for the world's most devastating disease.

 

The Best Medicine in the World is the inside story of a huge pharmaceutical manufacturer, government regulators, good (and occasionally bad) physicians, and clozapine, the widely-acclaimed "gold standard" for schizophrenia and the only medication shown to reduce suicide in severe mental illness. It's about clozapine's convoluted path through development and FDA approval, failures, successes and a public release that was prelude to battles in the very aggressive health care marketplace. It's about some doctors who were heroes, a few who weren't, and one who went to prison for fraud. It's about health care systems that often balance budgets by depriving sick people of their best chance for a good life, and federal regulators who did their jobs at first but now strangle patient access.

 

It touches the lives of millions. Six million people in the US and Canada have a schizophrenia-related mental disorder. Most are very disabled. They commit suicide at a rate far higher than the general population. Their behavior is perplexing, often frightening, to the public, and their families are worried sick.

 

It's a human story, of real patients and a handful of people who championed the drug described by one patient's mother as "the best medicine in the world."

 

The authors have lived the clozapine story. William H. Reid, MD, MPH, is a writer and professor of psychiatry. As medical director of the huge Texas mental health system and head of the National Council of State Medical Directors, he chaired a national clozapine task force to address clinical, financial and political barriers to prescribing the drug. He has won national and regional awards for his writing, teaching, research and clinical work.

 

Gilbert Honigfeld, PhD, called the "godfather of clozapine" in mental health advocacy and trade circles, was project director for Sandoz Pharmaceuticals (now Novartis), one of the largest drug companies in the world. He shepherded clozapine through all levels of clinical research and testing, sometimes encountering company resistance, patient tragedy and clinician fraud. He led the way through a tortuous but successful FDA approval process and oversaw initial marketing and distribution. Today, he works with national advocacy groups seeking solutions to unnecessary FDA regulation, administrative expense, and restricted clozapine access.

 

COMING SOON, the early reader series families have been waiting for!

 

The kids at Corkins Mountain Lodge have wonderful experiences in very short illustrated books perfect to be read by 4-9 year-olds, or read to them by a loving grownup. In different books, you child and his/her friends meet June, Skippy, Dylan, Jack, Grace, Max, Paul, Scott, Elliot, Adam and Baby Will on hikes and kid-level adventures, in gentle mysteries and in little lessons about life.

 

The initial series includes Mystery on the Big Hike!, A Very Special Campfire!, June's First Fish!, Who Made the Big MESS!, and Who Will Feed the Animals?