Special Circumstances

Siegel, Sheldon

ISBN 10: 0553526936 ISBN 13: 9780553526936

Publisher: Random House Audio, 2000

Synopsis

Read by David Dukes
3 Cassettes, 5 hours 15 minutes

Meet Mike Daley.   Yesterday he was skidding off the partner track at one of San Francisco's most prominent law firms.  Today, he's renting a makeshift office on the wrong side of town.  Where does an ex-priest, ex-public defender, and ex-husband like Daley go to build a practice?  Not far, he discovers.

In a stunning turn of events, Daley's best friend and ex-colleague is charged with the double murder of two lawyers at the old firm, and asks Daley to defend him.  Cobbling together a defense team composed of himself, his ex-wife, and a onetime courtroom fixture named Mort Goldberg who's been wished on him against his better judgement, Daley finds he's got more to defend than his friend's innocence.  The newly elected, media-hungry District Attorney, also a former colleague, will prosecute the case himself.  As court is called into session, it becomes clear that in this trial ambition, honor, friendship, greed and longstanding grudges will play as important a role as truth and justice.

About this title

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

From the Back Cover

"A rousing legal thriller."
— Chicago Sun-Times

"A page-turner of the finger-burning kind."
— San Francisco Chronicle

"An A+ first novel."
— The Philadelphia Inquirer

"A poignant, feisty tale ... characters so finely drawn you can almost smell their fear and desperation. The dialogue is taut and tangy."
— USA Today

"By the time the whole circus ends up in the courtroom, the hurtling plot threatens to rip paper cuts into readers' hands."
— San Francisco Chronicle
Don't miss Sheldon Siegel's latest legal thriller featuring Mike Daley:

Incriminating Evidence

Available in hardcover July 31, 2001, wherever Bantam Books are sold

About this edition

• Publisher: Random House Audio
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0553526936
• ISBN 13: 9780553526936
• Binding: Audio Cassette