Bryan Hampton transfers to the Las Vegas Department of Justice after having a case sabotaged by dirty politicians in Chicago. He wants a fresh start and hopes that working with old college friend Jay Dixon will provide an uncorrupted environment in which to pursue health care fraud and abuse no matter the dollar amount. With the help of two private sector organizations, Bryan becomes part of a 'Dream Team' of investigators that use sophisticated software and data resources to uncover a fraud ring that will stop at nothing to get rich.

UNBRIDLED GREED is clearly a personal and passionate work by author Barry Johnson. Johnson's career as a dentist, an employee of a health care database, software, and publishing company, and then as a fraud prevention entrepreneur makes him very knowledgeable on the subject of health care fraud. This is clearly felt in the very weighty explanations of medical billing and coding, types of fraud, and the ramifications that such fraud perpetuates. There were many 'Tell me again how that works' type conversations.

Reading this story truly felt like I was trying to wade through three hundred and forty-one pages of insurance documents and the stipulations of their coverage. The action and building of tension in such a far-reaching criminal case is lost in the pontificating and redundant dialogue. The characters show very little ambiguity or depth. They're good or they're bad. Characters who remain complicit to fraud, no matter the reason, are viewed as traitors and without honor. Bryan is intolerant, obstinate, and smug. He truly seems to care more about the fraud perpetuated on Medicare and large insurance carriers than the pursuit of a murderer that is tied to the case.

I'll admit to feeling like a criminal myself when reading this because I couldn't feel angry that large insurance carriers were being defrauded. I think my attitude might have been 'it serves them right.' This is part of the pervasive attitude Johnson is trying to fight against but it's really hard to care if a multi-billion dollar company loses a few million when it denies coverage to thousands and barely covers the expenses of those paying in. If the story had contained more shades of gray rather than the black and white ethics Johnson tries to force, I might have been more inclined to see the crimes as crimes.

UNBRIDLED GREED lacks a sympathetic view of the world and tries to label all fraud as actions based upon the greedy masses looking for an easy way out. This in no way excuses the crime, but understanding why people remain complicit to illegal activities goes beyond good or bad ethics. Unfortunately, there isn't a character in Barry Johnson's story to represent the complex and complicated nature of human actions. There is a wealth of knowledge in Johnson's writing about this complex field of fraud, but the moralizing tone coupled with unwieldy dialogue really make this story difficult to get through.