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Sheldon Siegel Final Verdict
Signet 20040801 0451212614 / 9780451212610 MM Very Good
0451212614 From Publishers Weekly Siegel's fourth stand-out legal procedural features likable law partners Mike Daley and ex-wife Rosie Fernandez working together in their San Francisco firm, Fernandez, Daley and O'Malley. As with the others in the series (Special Circumstances; Incriminating Evidence; Criminal Intent), it's a low-key but pleasantly compelling read. Skid row resident Leon Walker, successfully represented by Michael and Rosie in a murder case 10 years earlier, reappears and seeks legal help once again. Leon is charged with the murder of Tower Grayson, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist found stabbed to death in a Dumpster behind a liquor store. The firm has several good reasons to turn Walker down. After Rosie's battle with breast cancer, they've sworn off exhaustive murder investigations, and the original Leon Walker case destroyed their marriage. But Michael's unbending moral code compels him to take the job, and Rosie reluctantly goes along. It's a tough case as both the cops and the prosecutors are doing everything in their power, including intimidating witnesses and threatening Michael, to take the accused man down. Leon, who lives in a flophouse and is dying of liver disease, is equally determined to go to his grave an innocent man. Although Grayson's family and business partners depict him as a pillar of the community, dogged detective work (Michael's ex-cop brother is a PI) turns up a wealth of unsavory evidence attesting to Grayson's many failings, both legal and moral. Michael's careful deliberations and ethical considerations are a refreshing contrast to the slapdash morality and breakneck speed of most legal thrillers. The lengthy, detailed courtroom scenes are instructive and authentic, the resolution fair, dramatic and satisfying. Michael, Rosie, daughter Grace and friends are characters worth rooting for. The verdict is clear; another win for Siegel. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition. From Booklist In this outstanding entry in an always reliable series, former husband and wife defense attorneys Michael Daley and Rosie Fernandez must confront the events that broke them apart. When Leon, a former client whose case caused the marital rift, asks the team to defend him once again as he faces murder charges, Mike and Rosie reluctantly agree, influenced by the fact Leon is now suffering from a deadly kidney disease. All the evidence, albeit circumstantial, points to Leon as the one who stabbed a wealthy venture capitalist. Enlisting the help of their cadre of colorful supporting characters, Mike and Rosie attempt to find out what really happened, employing their usual investigative and courtroom acumen in the process. As always, Siegel makes the most of Mike's cunningly cautious cross-examination technique. An ending that's full of surprises--both professional and personal--provides the perfect finale to a supremely entertaining legal thriller. Mary Frances Wilkens Copyright ? American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition. May ship from alternate location depending on your zip code and availability.
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1.69 USD
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Sheldon Siegel Special Circumstances
Bantam 20010701 0553581929 / 9780553581928 MM Very Good
0553581929 Amazon Review With over a hundred mysteries and thrillers published each month, it's rare that a new book by an unknown author makes a splash, both with critics and with the public. John Grisham's The Firm was a cult hit among lawyers that exploded into New York Times bestsellerdom. Tom Clancy's The Hunt for Red October, first published by the Naval Institute Press, was discovered when Ronald Reagan labeled it a "perfect yarn." Sheldon Siegel's debut legal thriller, Special Circumstances is likely to take its place among these precious few. The novel begins with the distinctive voice of Siegel's ex-priest hero: "After my five years as an underproductive partner in our white-collar criminal defense department, our executive committee asked me to leave. I was, in short, fired. On Monday I'll open the law offices of Michael J. Daley, criminal-defense attorney, in a subleased office in a walk-up building in the not-so-trendy part of San Francisco's South of Market area. Welcome to the modern practice of law...." But on his final day of work, a senior partner turns up dead. A close colleague of Daley's is the most likely suspect, and Daley--in his new walk-up practice--takes the case. In a series of brilliantly executed twists and turns, he uncovers one layer of deception and intrigue after another to get to the root truth of the case. Meanwhile, Siegel--a San Francisco attorney himself--continues to pepper his first-person narrative with Daley's dead-on jabs at the world of courtroom warfare. Of the new San Francisco DA, for example, Daley comments: "As an attorney, he's careless, lazy and unimaginative. As a human being, he's greedy, condescending and an unapologetic philanderer. As a politician, however, he's the real deal." While Special Circumstances is not a "perfect yarn," it is nearly so. As well-executed as most classic legal thrillers, it slips effortlessly into a distinctive narrative voice to capture Mike Daley's world and elevate the thriller story line to a deeper commentary on the state of the legal profession and the quest for true justice. Welcome to the big time, Sheldon Siegel. --Patrick O'Kelley --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From Publishers Weekly San Francisco attorney Siegel's debut pits a likable lead against a giant law firm run by villains and fools; the result is a well-made courtroom page-turner, skillful and taut right up through the surprise ending. Siegel's hero and narrator is the competent, low-key Mike Daley, former priest and onetime public defender, now a 45-year-old partner at San Francisco's glossy Simpson and Gates. Daley hasn't brought enough business to the criminal department, and the senior partners have asked that he resign. Also leaving the firm is Prentice Marshall "Skipper" Gates III, son of the firm's founding partner: Skipper has just been elected district attorney. "My partners are thrilled," says Daley of Skipper's departure. "They have never complained about his arrogance, sloppy work and condescending attitude.... What they can live without is his $400,000 draw..." On New Year's Eve at Simpson and Gates, Daley is packing up his office, Skipper is enjoying a glitzy farewell party and other lawyers are working to close a lucrative property deal. But when the deal falls apart, two of those lawyers--a slimy master litigator and an ambitious young female partner--are found shot to death. At first it seems to be a murder-suicide brought on by greed, sex and depression. Then one of Daley's few friends at the firm, the son of a prominent rabbi, is charged with the murders. Daley and Skipper clash in a high-profile court case with echoes of several recent real-life media circuses. If the trial itself takes up too many pages, Siegel redeems himself elsewhere by focusing on the flawed, often-desperate Daley: Siegel humanizes his hero by depicting Daley's charged, still-sexual relationship with his ex-wife, a tough lawyer who retains custody of their six-year-old daughter. With a winning protagonist and a gripping plot, Siegel's d May ship from alternate location depending on your zip code and availability.
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1.69 USD
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