Customer Reviews

The Cyanide Canary

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
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This is an excellent book. The fact that it is a true story makes it even better. The investigators and lawyers truely poured their hearts into this case. It is written in a way that constantly make you want to find out what's going to happen next. You feel as if you are in the court room during the trial. It is such a sad story and your heart goes out to the injured person. I would highly recommend this book.

I bought this book for a friend for Christmas and found I had to go back and buy two more copies (one for myself and as another gift), because I started reading it before wrapping it and couldn't put it down. I won't call this tragic "story"--because the word story implies it is a work of fiction. However, the detailed endnotes based on sworn affidavit, deposition and trial testimony, as well as numerous citations to witness interviews show it is well researched recital of shockingly true facts. Written in the third person, it reads as easily as a fiction novel (including simplified medical, chemical and legal jargon), but it clearly is not. Given the monstrosity of the events, it is easy to understand how witnesses involved in the investigation and trial would easily remembered what they said and saw at the time the events occurred. This is a definite read for anyone interested in a well written and researched compelling story of finding justice in a small Idaho-company based town. The only people who might not want to read it now would be those who don't want to have their holiday preparations waylaid (because it will pull you into the story), or those who are still denying the facts of what happened.

We lived and worked in eastern Washington State during the mid-1990s for environmental companies and both had to take safety classes where they explained the dangers of confined space entries and the precautions you have to take for working in those environments, not to mention all the other regulatory and safety requirements needed for working with hazardous chemicals. We were lucky: we were educated, well-paid, working for environmental clean-up companies with lucrative government contracts where safety was good business practice.

The circumstances detailed in The Cyanide Canary are 180 degrees different. Allen Elias, the owner of the Evergreen facility, was not engaged in environmental cleanup, but working on the cheap trying to develop a commercial means of reprocessing waste. His employees were high-school graduates desperate for a job, with no safety training or understanding of the requirements for confined space work, nor any clue, really, about the hazards of certain chemicals--things Elias did know. Which is why Elias was charged with criminal conduct after one of his workers was injured during a tank cleanout. The story of the accident, along with the resulting investigation, and trial, makes up this book, which reads like a long Law & Order episode, almost complete with the "Ka-Chung" sound at the end of each chapter. As such, it should appeal to L&O fans, or anyone with an interest in how environmental law is being developed.

The weakest part of the book is the beginning chapter, where the authors attempt to portray the events of the accident in an almost novelistic method, including trying for some suspense about whether the victim, Scott Dominguez, would survive or not. After they get that out of the way (more than likely, a suggestion from some bone-headed editor who felt the beginning needed some punch or a grab for the reader), the book settles down into its portrayal of Hilldorfer's investigation, bolstered by all the interviews and transcripts that were eventually used to indict Elias and bring the case to trial. The truly riveting part of the book is not the opening, but the trial, the question of whether Elias will be found guilty, and whether or not he will attempt to flee justice.

I enjoyed the book quite a bit, reading it in two sessions during a train ride to and from NYC. It's a revealing look into the legal world, and also an interesting case study between the kinds of murder cases usually seen on Law & Order and the "white collar" crime that usually does not end up in jail sentences for the convicted.

I'm a long time Idaho resident and libertarian. I am pretty cynical about help from the Federal government, but...

In Idaho, someone tried to get ahead by cutting corners in ways that impacted others. We have a perfect role for government to step in. This is a true tragedy. The story is almost over and then takes another twist that really had me sprinting to the end of the book.

As I promote free markets, people always ask what will keep big business from destroying the world. This is a great story about the difficulties, and ultimate triumph of the government's effort to make one citizen accountable for his actions.

In the coal mines of yesterday the miners took a canary with them into the mine. If the canary fell off of its perch the miners knew they were in trouble. In this true story, twenty year old Scott Dominguez didn't have a canary when he went into a 25,000 gallen storage tank that turned out to be filled with poisonous gasses. Shortly thereafter he was pulled from the tank unconscious. He was not managed to live through the night but was severly brain damaged. In effect Scott acted as the canary himself.

The tank had been used to store cyanide and phosphoric acid. When combined, these chemicals produce hydrogen cyanide, the gas used by the various states to execute 945 men and seven women in gas chambers. It has since been determined that the 7 to 15 minutes that it takes to kill a criminal is cruel and unsual punishment because the victuum suffers horrible pain for up to several minutes. Gas chambers have has been ruled unconstitutional.

This is a tragic story of a horrible environmental crime. The investigators took years to bring an uncaring business owner to justice finally gaining a 17 year sentence for the owner of the company.

Picking up a well-written book always scares me. It means everything on my carefully planned TO-DO list (except job and kitties, of course) will get reprioritized. Oh well.

I'm about halfway through a real page-turner of an exposé, `The Cyanide Canary,' by Joseph Hilldorfer and Robert Bugoni. This true account of an environmental waste cover-up brings to mind Jonathan Harr's "A Civil Action," with parallel themes of corruption and negligence. Here Hilldorfer is the primary EPA agent in charge of bringing hazardous materials transgressor Allan Elias to justice. Elias is described as an outrageously amoral con-artist whose in-your-face OSHA violations are breathtaking in their heedlessness. Working with larger chemical waste corporations such as Kerr-McGee, Elias' chicanery and unabashed stonewalling has allowed him in the past to slip through the net of the Environmental Protection Agency. Hilldorfer becomes personally vested in this case when he learns of the significant neurological damage sustained by one of the men Elias sent to clean out the `tank.'

The `EPA' is generally regarded as a behemoth greatly to be feared, but the agency as depicted here has few enforcement `teeth' and even fewer agents with a desire to sink those teeth into violators. While the public believes that pursuing environmental lawbreakers on criminal or civil levels is second-nature to the EPA, that's not evident in the book so far. The author suspects the EPA is picking and choosing its battles involving criminal prosecution.

`The Cyanide Canary' was inspired by that sine-qua-non of all good writing: passion and compassion. An issue is only as credible as how well it's expressed, and the articulation in this book is superb. Objectivity and balance --even understatement--pack a powerful punch with me. Writers Joseph Hilldorfer and Robert Dugoni manage to make their case dramatic and compelling through a wry Jack Webb `just-the-facts-ma'am' style that allows readers to easily tap into their own reserves of disgust and wonder, outrage and sympathy.

Like the author in `A Civil Action,' Joseph Hilldorfer finds this investigation leeching into his personal life, his thoughts, his sleep.

And so do I. I must find out how things end here. The cats are fed, but the bills, dishes and deadlines will wait. I can't resist the mesmerizing siren of a particular `canary' one minute more.

Therese Hercher

This is a super book! I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in environmental crimes.

I was quite impressed with the detailed account of the trial and the events leading up to it !!!!

On the other hand I was sorely disappointed with the seeming total disregard for the workers safety !!!!

It is fly-by-nite outfits like this that give the rest of the chemical industry a bad name.

Many of us have spent our entire or large portion of our working life ensuring the workers safety !!!!

Thanks for a great book and being a voice for the worker.

This book is a great look at how environmental crimes are view and prosecuted in the U.S.

As a resident of the rural region where the story line takes place, I was intrigued by the high drama which the cop, now turned adventure writer, put into his story. The goofiness extends to an effort by the author to quote exact conversations which occured between people during the incident in question. The author wasn't there....but to read his novel....you would think he had everyone wired and recorded. Perhaps those quoted have perfect memory of everything they said during the emergency? Let's get real.

The facts and the tragedy of the case are without argument. However...to read the author's version of his own perceived heroism...is a bit too much. I suspect his story gets better with each telling. It appears that the most troubling aspect of this case to Mr. Hilldorfer is that the local residents didn't bow and curtsey when he, as the big city cop, rode into town on his federal badge.

Out here we have a joke....the only difference between a fairy tale and a fisherman's tale is that the fisherman's story starts with "no sh__, guys...this really happened" instead of "Once Upon a Time".

Based upon his version of this tragedy,I think Mr. Hilldorfer needs to take up fishing.