Publisher's Weekly Review
Goldstein, a Stanford law professor and intellectual property expert, delivers on the promise of his thriller debut, Errors and Omissions (2006), with this outstanding sequel. Michael Seeley, who's living in seclusion in Buffalo, N.Y., agrees at his estranged brother's urging to travel to San Francisco to take on a patent infringement case that Vaxtek, a small company, is bringing against St. Gall, a Swiss pharmaceutical giant, over an AIDS vaccine. Robert Pearsall, the lead plaintiff's attorney, apparently committed suicide on the eve of trial. Surprised that Pearsall, known for his meticulous preparation, didn't depose Lily Warren, a St. Gall employee who claimed to have invented the vaccine, Seeley pursues that loose end, only to find that Warren's version of events raises questions about not only Seeley's clients but also his predecessor's death. In lean prose, Goldstein masterfully portrays the intricate courtroom maneuvering and the ethical dilemmas of trial attorneys. Scott Turow fans will welcome this complex protagonist. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Lukewarm legal thriller centering on a courtroom battle for the patent to an AIDS vaccine. Goldstein (Law/Stanford Univ.; Errors and Omissions, 2006, etc.) opens with a by the numbers scene in which Leonard Seeley, medical officer at a West Coast biotech company, entreats his brother Michael, a lawyer, to spearhead a case involving the patent for an AIDS vaccine. Leonard's small company, Vaxtek, is suing St. Gall, a big Swiss drug producer, for infringement upon the drug's patent. Michael's idealism, the entreaties of a brother with whom he's had a tense relationship and the gloom of a Buffalo winter convince Michael to take the David v. Goliath case. He's off to San Francisco (where, it seems, most legal thrillers also go) and the case turns out to be more complicated than it first seems. The notebook kept by the Vaxtek scientist who invented the vaccine is suspect and the scientist may also have been romantically involved with a woman from St. Gall. But most disturbing is the death of the lawyer who preceded Seeley on the case. The man allegedly fell in front of a train, but Seeley--and the man's widow--suspect he was murdered. Did he know too much about the case? For the ensuing trial, the centerpiece of the narrative, Goldstein brings on a large slate of characters, most of them clichd and one-dimensional: Well-dressed and buff describes the gay lawyer, too many drinks signal an errant sister-in-law and "slender and precise" bespeak a Swiss executive. Seeley keeps investigating the background to the case while he pursues it in court. In a clever twist on legal proceedings that musters some suspense, Goldstein has Seeley, who eventually learns he was duped on several key matters, make points in court he hopes judge and jury won't buy. The author knows well the dynamics of the courtroom and of patent law, but his style lacks color, freshness and texture. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
In Goldstein's debut novel, Errors and Omissions (2006), the story of a movie studio hell-bent on securing the rights to the James Bond franchise, he showed that copyright law can be sexy. Here, Goldstein brings pizzazz to another area of intellectual property, patents pharmaceuticals, to be exact. Michael Seeley is enjoying his reclusive life back in his hometown of Buffalo, New York, handling small-time cases instead of the corporation litigation suits he used to head up at a big Manhattan firm. He doesn't miss that cutthroat (and alcoholic) life, but he is hard-pressed to turn down his estranged brother Leonard's plea for help. Leonard is a doctor with a small pharmaceutical company in San Francisco, and he claims one of the giant corporations in the industry has stolen their patent for a breakthrough drug treating people who are HIV-positive. As he learns about the case, Michael realizes that his brother has not been completely forthright. Goldstein pairs a first-rate medical drama with a tragic story of a broken family, and he effectively combines suspense with rich characterization.--Wilkens, Mary Frances Copyright 2008 Booklist
Library Journal Review
In this follow-up to Goldstein's 2006 debut novel, Errors and Omissions, we learn more about what motivates and haunts intellectual property attorney Michael Seeley. The author is a Stanford University law professor, but this is no legal treatise; rather, it is an enjoyable story about "corporate science" and its implications for patients, shareholders, researchers, lawyers, and global health-care systems. In an authoritative, well-modulated performance, Paul Michaels (The Da Vinci Code) tackles the intricacies of patent litigation, its jargon, and the personalities of the novel's key players. Recommended for medical and law libraries with fiction sections and for libraries whose patrons enjoy legal thrillers by John Grisham, Brad Meltzer, and Scott Turow. [Audio clip available through www.booksontape.com.--Ed.]--Gwendolyn E. Osborne, Evanston, IL (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
