Nadia Bowers's Memoir 'Dear Dealer' Excerpt Details Sister's Overdose and Heroin Investigation

An excerpt from Nadia Bowers's memoir 'Dear Dealer' recounts the aftermath of her sister Sasha's fatal overdose, found in a parking lot at Lenny & Joe's in New Haven, Connecticut. Bowers, an actor, learns from Detective Dennis, an old classmate, that Sasha was discovered slumped in her car with no drug paraphernalia except an empty Ritalin bottle, Lexapro tablets, and Suboxone. Dennis explains that fentanyl-laced heroin is prevalent and that Sasha might have snorted, smoked, or ingested it in pill form. Bowers gives Sasha's phone to Dennis, hoping to trace dealers, but he warns that arrests are unlikely due to burner phones and coded language. He suggests Sasha pulled into the lot to sleep off drowsiness after using heroin near the Hill, a low-income area known for drug scoring. The man who found her was from Massachusetts. Bowers reflects on Sasha's connection to Lenny & Joe's, a family-favorite restaurant, and her sister's final text messages, including one to a clinic patient named Yasmina about sharing Suboxone strips. Sasha's datebook showed upcoming meetings, and an email two days before her death expressed optimism, indicating she did not intend to die. The memoir is published by Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.