New York: Viking, (2007) dj. Hardcover first edition - An account of "corporate neglect, petty politics, endless legal wrangling and our love-hate relationship with petroleum centers on Beverly Hills High School and its illustrious alumni, oil derricks and alarming number of cancer victims. Initially skeptical of the idea that the profitable oil pumps adjacent to the school have led to an array of horrible diseases among its graduates, Horowitz quickly found herself pulled into a story that raises fundamental questions about how we assess risk and balance our desire for justice with scientific and legal ambiguities about establishing causes and assigning blame. She is better at raising such questions than answering them, largely because in her case the truth does not come out, no lawsuits have come to trial, let alone been resolved. That doesn't make for very satisfying reading, but it's faithful to a time in which, as Horowitz says, even our will to do right by our communities has been contaminated by competing desires." Currently, the emphasis is on closing existing wells, and protecting the environment from abandoned wells. Notes, cast of characters and list of agencies, index. xxii, 442 pp. ISBN: 978-0670037988.