Errors and Omissions: Michael Seeley Series, Book 1

From one of the foremost experts in the country on intellectual property law, a gripping legal thriller of depth and complexity

Meet Michael Seeley, defender of artists’ rights, take-no-prisoners intellectual property litigator—and a man on the brink of personal and career collapse. So when United Pictures virtually demands that he fly out to Hollywood to confirm legally that they own the rights to their corporate cash-cow franchise of Spykiller films, he has little choice but to comply.
What Michael Seeley discovers in these gilded precincts will plunge him headfirst into the tangle of politics of the blacklisting era and then into the even darker world of Nazi-occupied Poland. He’ll encounter Mayer Bermann, the steely Polish émigré who founded United Pictures—and who may lose control of it to a ruthless conglomerate; Bert Cobb, the putative author of the original Spykiller screenplay; Harry Devlin, the...

Publishers Weekly

The bromide about writing what you know works well for Stanford law professor Goldstein, an expert in intellectual property jurisprudence who participated in a famous case involving ownership of the James Bond film franchise. In his intriguing debut novel, he tosses his burned-out litigator, Michael Seeley, into the middle of a movie studio's homicidal battle to continue to control the rights to a fabulously successful spy series. This adaptation, which dips back into Hollywood's blacklist era, is a pretty intellectual property itself, depending more on character and motivation and moral ambiguity than action and suspense. Keeler relies on shading and subtlety rather than broad vocal interpretation. He segues smoothly from lively descriptive passages to even livelier dialogue sequences. Goldstein enjoys writing scenes in which several people converse at a fast clip; Keeler has no trouble attaching identifying voices to each while matching the novel's snappy patter. The novel ends not with a bang but with a mild joke. As wryly interpreted by Keeler, that seems not only appropriate but completely satisfying for a thinking man's thriller. Simultaneous release with the Doubleday hardcover (Reviews, Mar. 13). (July) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

paul goldstein is the Lillick Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and is widely recognized as one of the country’s leading authorities on intellectual property law. A graduate of Brandeis University and Columbia Law School, he is Of Counsel to the law firm of Morrison & Foerster LLP, where he has represented motion picture studios, among other clients. He has regularly been included in Best Lawyers in America. A native of New York, he now lives outside San Francisco with his family. He is at work on his next novel featuring Michael Seeley.