Blood Medicine: Blowing the Whistle on One of the Deadliest Prescription Drugs
Amazon Bestseller Selected as a Top Ten Book by Oprah’s O Magazine; Featured at the Los Angeles Times Book Festival
Developed in the 1980s by tiny Amgen and licensed to the giant Johnson & Johnson, the drug soon generated billions of dollars in annual revenue—and still does. One of J&J’s top salesmen Mark Duxbury believed he was helping patients until he started learning the truth about J&J’s unsavory practices. He filed a whistleblower suit, which was taken on by attorney Jan Schlichtmann, the hero of the movie, A Civil Action. The fight for justice on behalf of every American was just beginning…
“A David-and-Goliath story about a whistleblower fighting Big Pharma that reads like a thriller…Entertaining but also informative. It’s a useful addition to the bookshelf of every patient and family member dealing with cancer and dialysis.”
Saturday Evening Post
“This book reads like a Robin Cook medical thriller and should be on every America’s bookshelf- particularly now as debates swirl around (universal) health care…”
NY Journal of Books
Mr. & Mrs. Hollywood: Edie and Lew Wasserman and Their Entertainment Empire
Los Angeles Times Book Festival; Publishers Weekly; Los Angeles Times; Variety; Kirkus Reviews
Lew was tall and Edie was petite. They fell in love in a mob-owned nightclub in Cleveland and eloped in 1936. He landed at a talent agency in Beverly Hills, working with Jimmy Stewart, Alfred Hitchcock and Ronnie Reagan. She befriended Janet Leigh, Polly Bergen, and Lady Bird Johnson. They eventually conquered Universal Studios, amassing not just movie and TV stars but political power and global influence.
“Sharp blends corporate maneuvering and personal scandals into a gripping portrait of the original power couple.”
Publishers Weekly
“A plot fit for Hollywood: The bloodbath of the moguls.”
San Francisco Chronicle
“Lavish and extravagant, gossipy yet even-handed… The author is alternately enraptured and horrified by the Wassermans, as most anyone would be when confronted by such a staggering amount of guile, ambition and cold-blooded genius.”
Starred Kirkus Review
Stalking the Beast: How Hollywood Super-sized King Kong
Excerpted in Playboy Magazine
Here’s a fun and breezy look at the evolution of Hollywood’s studio system, as glimpsed through the lenses of three King Kong movies. Sharp traces the development of the 1933, 1976 and 2005 blockbusters by interviewing many of the films’ players, demonstrating how each movie reflected a certain social and economic era. This provocative, behind-the-camera read lifts the curtain on the growth of our entertainment-obsessed world.
“In his 75 years as a screen idol, cinema’s best-known beast has co-starred with a trio of leading ladies. In her last interview, the original Beauty, Fay Wray, and his latest obsession, Naomi Watts, reveal what it’s like to be in his arms.”
Playboy Magazine
“This is a great primer on Hollywood union history,”
Barnes & Noble
In Good Faith: Prudential-Bache’s Multibillion Dollar Scandal that Defrauded Thousands of Investors.
Wall Street Journal; New York Times Review of Books; Publishers Weekly
and as seen on 60 Minutes on CBS
In this carefully researched and fascinating expose Sharp explores the full dimensions of a Wall Street scandal that devastated countless investors. Through in-depth interviews with employees—from the hot-shot salesman who thought something was “fishy” to the clever chairman, George Ball—this inside story details how an American titan was nearly crushed.
“This shocking exposé is a corporate tale of corporate greed and deception.”
Publishers Weekly
“Sharp tells the painful story of Pru-Bache’s massive fraud…giving an overall view of the tragedy as it unfolds…chilling.”
Wall Street Journal