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  • Profession's future at center of meetings between MACPA, firm partners
  • Tomorrow's CPA program runs up the score with students, CPAs-to-be
  • What constitutes sufficient, competent evidential matter?
  • Recent releases of professional standards
  • Consideration of fraud in a financial statement audit
  • Short-term Enron solutions may have unintended consequences
  • McMillan's thriller writes new chapter for CPA image
  • Tort reform again tops list of MACPA's legislative victories
  • PAC protecting CPAs' interests in Maryland
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McMillan's thriller writes new chapter for CPA image

By Bill Sheridan
MACPA Electronic Communications Manager

The CIA has Tom Clancy. Attorneys have John Grisham. So who will lead CPAs through the world of dramatic fiction?

Meet Ed McMillan.

Until recently, the longtime MACPA member has been known best for writing a series of financial management publications, which he uses while giving presentations across the country on non-profit accounting and tax issues.

Lately, though, the literary world has taken keen interest in McMillan's first novel, a Grisham-esque accounting thriller titled The Audit. The book is building a small but growing audience in Maryland and throughout the country, thanks mainly to a page-turning plot that includes fraud, embezzlement, price-fixing, murder and a band of CPAs as unlikely heroes.

More than that, though, the book offers an insider's view of how fraud happens and how it is investigated — and gives the CPA profession's image a much-needed boost in the process.

"One day I was on an airplane reading a John Grisham book, and I thought to myself, 'I can do this,'" said McMillan, 54. "I feel that with the right people behind me, I can do for accountants what Grisham did for attorneys. I think that in a lot of respects, accounting is unfairly labeled 'boring.' But if you get into investigating fraud, it can be pretty darned exciting."

He should know. In addition to the courses he teaches throughout the country, McMillan does a great deal of consulting on fraud investigations. In fact, one of his real-life investigations — a whodunit in California that involved rerouting bank statements in an effort to catch an embezzler — was woven (embellished for drama, of course) into the plot of The Audit.

That's not the only parallel between McMillan's life and the book. The hero is a young CPA named Pat McGuire, whose background (an ex-Marine who earned his degree in night school before passing the CPA Exam) is nearly identical to McMillan's. Most of the scenes are set in and around the Baltimore-Washington corridor, and McMillan uses actual restaurants as the backdrops for pivotal scenes throughout the story.

Then there are the characters. Most of them — from the hero McGuire to his sidekicks Rita Davies and Russell Autry, on down to the villain, Andy Lombardo — are named after McMillan's friends. "A lot of times I used a name just because I liked the way it sounded," McMillan said. "I just went through my Rolodex and picked out what I thought were interesting names."

The Audit took four years to complete, but writing it was a breeze compared with McMillan's struggles to get the book published. After pitching the book (and striking out) with various publishers and literary agents, McMillan dug into his own pocket and printed a few thousand copies himself under the name "Harwood Publishing."

"I had enough confidence in the manuscript that I knew it would sell," he said. "I sell the book on my Web site (http://www.nonprofitguru.com/) and Amazon.com, and when I go out to give speeches. Now the word is getting out."

And how. After reading the book, the head of a CPA firm in Braintree, Mass., recently walked into a local bookstore and ordered a copy of The Audit for each person on staff. Reviews have appeared in Executive Update, Association News and the Journal of Accountancy, and a recent review in The Sun called the plot "cinematic" and said McMillan "writes with splendid verve." And with accounting scandals at Enron and Allfirst still making headlines, public relations professionals have begun calling McMillan with offers to spread the word nationwide — for a fee, of course.

Positive press coverage and growing sales have McMillan convinced he'll finally be able to find a publisher — and that he should think about starting a sequel.

"(The Audit) is set up with a sequel in mind. I plan to bring back a lot of the original characters," he said. "But I'm not going to start on that track until I cross the big hurdle, and that's finding a publishing house or agent to represent me."

Doing so would fill a literary void in the "profession-focused thriller" genre. It also could create even more interest in a profession that suddenly finds itself the center of attention.

"This is the first time in my memory that the public is interested in accounting. You read about it every day in the newspaper," McMillan said. "But I'm optimistic. I'm proud to be a part of this profession."