Books

Tandy Culpepper Talks to Susan Bartz Herrick about Her Gripping Mother-Son Memoir, Slow Dancing with the Devil

Book Review: Slow Dancing with the Devil: A Son’s Substance Use Disorder, A Mother’s Anguish
by Susan Bartz Herrick
Reviewed by Tandy Culpepper

In Slow Dancing with the Devil, Susan Bartz Herrick delivers an unflinching, deeply personal account of her son’s tragic battle with opioid addiction—a journey that ended in heartbreak with the death of 30-year-old Robert Luke Paschal. Herrick’s memoir is more than a testament to a mother’s love and anguish; it is a sobering, meticulously researched exploration of the national opioid epidemic, and the systemic failures that continue to fuel it.

The book opens with the devastating car crash that nearly claimed Luke’s life. Airlifted to a hospital with a crushed chest, broken neck, and extensive internal injuries, Luke survived—but the aftermath proved equally perilous. Prescribed OxyContin for pain management, he soon became ensnared by the drug’s addictive grip. Herrick details how Purdue Pharma downplayed the drug’s addictive properties, placing countless families, like hers, in the path of ruin.

What distinguishes this memoir is Herrick’s dual perspective—equal parts emotional and analytical. She lays bare the despair, the hope, the denial, and the relentless effort to save her son. At the same time, she weaves in rigorous research on substance use disorder, turning her grief into a guidebook for others facing similar struggles. The result is a book that reads both as a personal chronicle and an educational resource—raw, compassionate, and fiercely informed.

My conversation with Susan was marked by candor and clarity. She speaks of Luke not only with love, but with urgency—to help others recognize the signs of addiction, to break the silence that so often surrounds it, and to equip families with the knowledge that might make a difference.

In 2021 alone, more than 60,000 of the 80,000 overdose deaths in the United States were opioid-related. Slow Dancing with the Devil reminds us that every one of those numbers is a person. A son. A daughter. A Luke. And behind each is a mother like Susan, still fighting to be heard.

Published by Tandy Culpepper

I am a veteran broadcast journalist. I was an Army brat before my father retired and moved us to the deep South. I'm talkin' Lower Alabama and Northwest Florida, I graduated from Tate High School and got botha Bachelor's degree and Master's in Teaching English from the University of West Florida, I taught English at Escambia County High School for two years before getting my m's in Speech Pathology and Audiology from Auburn University. Following graduation, I did a 180 degree turn and moved to Birmingham where I began ny broadcasting career at WBIQ, Channel 10. There I was host of a weekly primetime half-hour TV program called Alabama Lifestyles. A year later, I began a stint as a television weathercaster and public affairs host. A year later, I moved to West Palm Beach, Florida and became bureau chief at WPTV, the CBS affiliate. Two years later, I moved to Greensboro, North Carolina where I became co-host of a morng show called AM Carolina. The next year, I moved cross-country and became co-host and story producer at KTVN-TV in Reno, Nevada. I also became the medical reporter for the news department. Three years later, I moved to Louisville, Kentucky and became host and producer of a morning show called today in WAVE Country at WAVE-TV, Channel 3, the NBC affiliate. Following three years there, I moved to Los Angeles and became senior correspondent at the Turner Entertainment Reportn, an internationally-syndicated entertainment entertainment news service owned by CNN. I went back to school afterwards and got an MFA in Creative Nonfiction at Goucher College in Towson, Maryland, a suburb of Baltimore. Oh, yes. I won a hundred thousand dollars on the 100 Thousand Dollar Pyramid, then hosted by Dick Clark.

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