This book will be loved by many - for sure!
It has so much well-researched information, it read more like a medical text and that's where it was outside of my reading pleasure.

Did I learn a lot - yes I did.
Did I enjoy it - not as much as I had hoped to as I read the tragic story.
Would I recommend it? To a select few, absolutely.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for my complimentary eARC in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. Please excuse my tardiness in posting my review. My TBR list is continuously growing and I keep finding so many amazing books being requested + added to my pile! I have so much gratitude for this copy that has been shared with me.

This is such a difficult book to read. That being said, it is a story that needs to be told. I did find that the book dragged a bit at times. At other times, I had to put it down because I found it emotionally painful and draining.
It is horrific what happened to Bruce Tucker and I am so very angry and sickened that justice was not done. It is terrible what his family had to go through and the obvious pain it obviously still causes his son.
Although I did find the book a bit dry and slow at times, it should be one that everyone should read. It is another example of the racism that African Americans still suffer to this day. We need to be aware of injustices like this if we are serious about ending racism.
I am glad the author wrote this book. I can imagine it must have been difficut to research and it obvious why he wrote the book. I just hope that others do read it, and I also hope that there is something that can be done for Bruce Tucker's son. This may have happened long ago but it is still affecting others to this day.

I wasn't able to complete this book, as it was far to dense and information heavy, with not enough focus on what the title promises.

This book is not for the faint hearted! The story starts with a gentleman seeking help because he believes his brother prematurely died so one of his organs could be donated to help another. I should mention the donor is black and the recipient is white!
The story goes back over a hundred years when black people were used (murdered) so that their organs could be used in experiments, primarily with the hope that they would some day be successful in organ transplants. They felt it was important to science....which obviously attempting transplants was, BUT they secretly used healthy blacks to do this. You would have hoped the practice would become obsolete once it became illegal, but did it? An extremely well written and researched book, but one I had to put down long before bed. I

The Organ Thieves is described in the intro as The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks meets Get Out. Two of my favorites, but this book didn't quite hit the mark for me.
Thank you to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for my eARC in exchange for an honest review.
The book opens in 1968 with the brother of Bruce Tucker contacting a lawyer, as his deceased brother's body had arrived at the funeral home missing his heart. Tucker had suffered a head injury and ended up an organ donor at the Medical College of Virginia - without his family's knowledge or permission, and the first such case in the segregated southern United States.
The premise of this true-life story is most interesting, but the telling was weighed down by a large amount of detail early on. Nearly the first quarter delves into the history of organ transplantation, then slowly picks up the original story after losing momentum.
The book is obviously very well-researched and the writing is readable, just may have been served better with tightening, content-wise.
Recommended for those seeking an interesting medical story of a groundbreaking event in the debates of consent, brain-versus-cardiac death and other donation ethics, as well as the early days of organ transplantation.
For release on Aug. 18, 2020.

3.5 stars. Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for this powerful look at some little known events in the segregated south and in the improvement of medical care with some groundbreaking discoveries and techniques. Such improvements came along with some horrific experimentation described in the book. Years of meticulous research resulted in this book.

This was a long book with much detail and digressions which hindered the flow of reporting for me. The story centres around the case of a black man in Richmond, Virginia in 1968. He was made a heart and kidney donor without the consent of his family. Bruce was a hard-working man in his 50s who sent money home regularly to support his son and mother. One day, while taking a break from his work at an egg sorting business he fell off a fence where he was sitting. He sustained a brain injury and was taken to the research hospital in Richmond, considered to be one of the best in America for experiments and innovations. Being black and with the smell of liquor on his breath, he was thought to be a derelict. Things didn't go well for him.

We don't read about Bruce Tucker until 30% into the book. We get an early history of the days when Richmond was a centre of the slave trade, mentions of the civil war, growth of the tobacco industry and other businesses, and details about some of their most distinguished citizens and influential doctors.

This book revolves around racism, medical ethics, malpractice, experimentation on animals, the prejudice and injustice endured by black men in the south. Doctors were racing to gain fame for new, innovative medical procedures leading to professional rivalry.

The author reveals a shameful history when the education of early medical students was changed from lectures to a more hands-on approach studying anatomy. To learn by this method the students required bodies to dissect. Bodies were unearthed at night from segregated black cemeteries. Students studied the bodies at night under the guidance of medical doctors. There was a separate rat-infested hospital for black patients.

By the 1960s, laws were passed to integrate schools, universities and hospitals but some of the old attitudes still prevailed. The hospital in Richmond became a leader in kidney transplants and the doctors were hoping to do one of the first successful heart transplants, following some experiments with dogs.

When Bruce was brought into the hospital, the top researchers thought they were ready to perform a heart transplant. Bruce had been placed on a respirator and his heart was still beating when it was removed from his chest. It was reported that his EEG showed no brain activity. It was transferred to a white businessman. The time of death had been always been based on the cessation of the heart and other vital organs and not by brain death. Bruce’s heart was still beating when cut from his chest.

To do a transplant, permission had to be given by next of kin, but little effort was made to find them. In Bruce’s pocket was a business card giving the address and phone number of his brother’s shoe repair shop very near the hospital but this was overlooked. On arriving at the hospital, he inquired about his brother's welfare. He was treated in a callous manner. Finally, he learned Bruce was dead and the coroner informed him that both heart and kidneys were missing from the body.

The Tucker family sued the hospital, and the jurors had to go solve the dispute about time of death. Was Bruce still alive when his beating heart was removed, or when cerebral activity ended? Some of the most prestigious doctors in the country were on trial and others were testifying in their defence. The hospital and the doctors were found not guilty of malpractice. The Tucker family received no monetary compensation as the statute of limitations for negligence had run out, depriving his son and mother without his monthly payments to them.

Some good did come out of the trial as stringent rules for heart and kidney transplants we're put in place.