Canary in the Coal Mine

When Dr. Will Cooke, an idealistic young physician just out of medical training, set up practice in the small community of Austin, Indiana, he had no idea that much of the town was being torn apart by poverty, addiction, and life-threatening illnesses. Soon, however, he would find himself at the crossroads of two unprecedented health-care disasters: an opioid epidemic and the worst drug-fueled HIV outbreak ever seen in a rural American community. Confronted with Austin’s hidden secrets, Dr. Cooke decided he had to do something about them. But in taking up the fight for Austin’s people, he would have to battle some unanticipated foes: prejudice, political resistance, an entrenched bureaucracy—and the dark despair that threatened to overwhelm his own soul.