Hardback: In 2000, debut author Sheldon Siegel bursts into the legal arena with a riveting courtroom drama, exposing the world of big-time law firms and lawyers in a sharp-witted, wonderfully sardonic page-turner of a novel.
Meet Mike Daley. Ex-priest. Ex-public defender. Ex-husband. And as of yesterday, ex-partner at Simpson & Gates, one of San Francisco's most prominent law firms.
Today, he's out on his own, setting up a private practice on the wrong side of town. Then his best friend and former colleague is charged with a brutal double murder. Daley has his first client and is instantly catapulted into a high-profile case involving the prestigious law firm that just booted him.
The victims are one of Simpson & Gates' most powerful partners and a beautiful young associate.
There is a suicide note on the partner's computer but neither the police nor the ambitious district attorney believe it is authentic and they think the man they have arrested is the killer.
It is up to Mike Daley to prove them wrong but time is very short.
As Daley prepares his case, he begins to uncover the firm's dirtiest secrets - and dirty they are - but he also discovers that his friend, too, has a lot to hide. Even as the trial is under way, Daley and his investigators are still frantically digging for evidence that will clear their client. Against a chorus of morning press reports and nightly TV commentaries picking apart each day's session, Daley comes to realize that ambition, politics, greed and long-standing grudges will play just as important a role in the outcome as truth and justice. This is the real world of law practice at work and it is as ruthless as it is startling.
Brilliantly paced, witty, crackling with energy and suspense, Special Circumstances (2000) - the first book in the Mike Daley legal fiction series - not only brings us to a stunning denouement, it zestfully reminds us why we love to hate lawyers and at the same time, cannot get enough of courtroom drama when it is done this well.
About the author: Sheldon Siegel graduated from the Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California at Berkeley in 1983. He has been in private practice in San Francisco for over nineteen years and specializes in corporate and securities law with the firm of Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP.
He lives in Marin County with his wife, Linda, and twin sons, Alan and Stephen.
Rating: 5/5
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