Dead Space-Lee Goldberg

Dead Space
Lee Goldberg
CreateSpace, Dec 30 2011, $11.99
www.createspace.com
ISBN: 9781456501686

Pinnacle Pictures decides to create a fourth network. As the anchor program, the brass chooses a revival of their 1960s cult classic TV show Beyond the Beyond. Former cop Charlie Willis (see My Gun Has Bullets) heads security at the studio.

He quickly learns working street patrol at night in downtown Los Angeles is an easier job than keeping the maniacs working on the project safe and the even crazier fanatic fans wanting in out. However, someone takes fanaticism over the top of the Hollywood sign when murder occurs. Charlie believes Clive Odett, head of The Company is behind what appears to be professional hits as the firm will kill to control all the TV hits. However, Charlie’s focus on Odett and his dirty practices has him miss some of the fans who reject ruthlessly any change in casting as a heresy from a show that went off the air over two decades ago. Encouraging the loonies is the original Endeavor starship Captain Pierce actor Guy Goddard who has not had a real gig since the show went off the air as he wants his role back.

With an obvious lampooning of the Star Trek craze and a nod to the movie Galaxy Quest (though the novel came before the movie), this reprint of a 1997 thriller takes no prisoners as Lee Goldberg satirizes Hollywood business practices and fanatical fundamentalist fandom. The story line is fast-paced from the moment Pinnacle announces the revival, greeted by some as the Second Coming. Although Charlie’s inquiry is entertaining that subplot never matches the lunacy of the reactions of bottom line slimy Hollywood insiders and the gross frantic wannabe insider fans as Mr. Goldberg rakes both symbiotic groups as adding noise to Dead Space.

Harriet Klausner