JACKIE FLEMING - MOSTLY MYSTERY REVIEWS

What's New?

FAME (Previews)

Back Issues

FMAM Merchandise

Contests

Reviews

Columns

Guidelines

Advertise

Links

DIME

FMAM Staff

FMAM Home

	Jackie Fleming is a mother of two, grandmother of three. She works as a 'Public Service Specialist' for the county Coroner. Before that she was in the Air Force (Non-Destruction Inspection Specialist and Personnel Technician). She's held numerous part time jobs (she's currently at a funeral home, before that she worked at Block Buster. She's also been a mystery shopper, information operator, and worked fast food. "I know that's not your normal bio, but it is me," says Jackie.   Jackie is a member of the Romance Writers of American and the following RWA chapters: SFA RWA, SV RWA, FTHRW, and RomVet's. She can be reached at jackiesf@yahoo.com.

ERRORS AND OMISSIONS
Paul Goldstein
Doubleday, July 2006, $24.95, 288 pages
ISBN Q-385-51717-3

Once a sought after and successful attorney, Michael Seeley has fallen into the depths of denial. In his frame of mind, Seeley doesn’t have an alcohol problem. Other attorneys and artists don’t have the same high moral ground to stand on. His list of clients has dwindled to litigating a few pro bono cases. His marriage is in a “trial separation” period. He’s resorted to stashing liquor in any conceivable hiding place. In a perpetual drunken state and down to his last hope of resurrecting respect for artist’s rights, he earns the wrath and condemnation of Judge Randall Rappaport.

Daphne Hancock and Nick Girard, his coworkers, intervene. His name still represents honest ethics. He is given an ultimatum. Take the United assignment, travel to LA, and interview the writer. If he still refuses to sign over the film rights, then Seeley is to sign an Errors and Omission opinion. The alternative is: the law firm steps back, the judge’s threat of debarment goes through, and Seeley’s career is over. He has no choice but to investigate United Picture’s rights to Spykiller, a profitable film with many sequels.

In LA, Seeley takes his first shot at sobriety. He views the original film and sequels. The premise of the story is novel, but the ending leaves him suspicious. It is inconsistent with the rest of the storyline.

He visits the author of the screen play, Bert Cobb, at his residence. Cobb is an artist with his camera, but does that make him capable of joining two words together until a screen play is written? Is this why Cobb refuses to sign over his rights to the script? Had another writer written the original film? The secret goes back to early Hollywood. Back to the McCarthy period, to the blacklist.

Respecting Cobb’s principles, Seeley investigates further. United Pictures isn’t happy. Over extravagant black tie dinners and powerhouse behind door meetings, Seeley learns there’s a power struggle for control at United Pictures. Whether signing an Errors and Omissions opinion or not, life and death is the price. United Pictures recommend he leave LA, and are not above performing felonies to get their way.

Seeley makes wrong decisions for the right reasons, and innocent people get hurt. His investigation and ethics brings his search to Europe, and to a man all but two people in Hollywood never knew existed. This is more than the McCarthy era, more than the blacklist. Will Seeley finally learn the truth behind the secrets before he makes another major bungle and more people are hurt?

The author, Paul Goldstein surprised me. This book is promoted as a story about Hollywood and its darkest period, but it’s more. In ERRORS AND OMISSIONS we read about the depths an alcoholic can fall to and about his struggles to, if not climb out of his drunken state, then to at least find a place where he can float. If you can’t relate to the fifties, you will find today’s events familiar. Or at least I did.

Jackie Fleming

top of page

Jackie's Archived Reviews