Type of bind: Audio Cassette
Format: Bargain Price
Quantity: 3
Printing Date: February 01, 2000
Sale Popularity Level: 3068629
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Product Description:
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.
Amazon.com 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, very 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 Tuesday 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
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Rated by buyers 
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This was the debut novel by the author. It is a novel about legal procedures, in particular about a murder trial. The author is an attorney writing about a legal case, and that can be both bad and good. On the good side, it is a well researched novel on a subject matter that the author is highly familiar with. On the bad side, the author sometimes seems to be showing off his knowledge of the subject, and you will find yourself getting buried in legal procedures. At some points I skimmed a little to get on with the case. It is like watching a complex case drag on through the courts, and reminding yourself that attorneys are paid by the hour and have no financial incentive to hurry a case along.
The case itself is interesting, involving the deaths of two attorneys. Not everyone is going to mourn the passing of a senior partner in a law firm, including some associates who did not make partner. Was it suicide or murder? Different people have motives wanting it to be one or the other. The verdict does not necessarily end things, as some issues are left mired in tar pits. Few people are left unscathed. There is a suprising revelation at the end, and the matter of attorney-client privilege, i.e., what you tell your attorney stays with your attorney.
Rated by buyers 
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I read this after I read "Incriminating Evidence". This was a better story than that. Less improbable but equally unusual in its plot. The writing is good and I liked the way the real thoughts or feelings of the main character are written down, in contrast with what he actually expresses. For people that know San Fransisco and its legal community, as well as the workings of the California legal system, the book makes interesting reading. Although the author is a corporate lawyer he writes with knowledgeable insight about the professional successes of a team of defence lawyers, a divorced husband & wife but still partners in law. I suspect that down deep the author may now regret that he did not become a criminal defence attorney but chose instead the less exciting, but usually more lucrative, career of a corporate lawyer.
Rated by buyers -
A lot of good San Francisco color. Maybe there was a far fetched fact or two, but I found this book colorful, fast, and humorous. Legal thrillers are not really my favorite genre, but I really enjoyed this book and will be starting another of Siegel's books as soon as I can get my hands on it.
Rated by buyers 
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One of the most intriguing aspects of this book is that the author was one of the lawyers in the firm in San francisco in which a gunman opened fire in the late 80's (could be incorrect on the date). The book concerns a large law firm in which two lawyers are murdered or is it murder/suicide. Mike Daley, ex-priest, ex-public defender, ex-husband and as of yesterday ex-partner sets up his own practice on the wrong side of town. When his best friend is indicted for the "murders" he asks Daley to defend him. Daley is catapulted into a trial where his former law firm's dirtiest secrets are unvelied and where greed, politics, ambition and long standing grudges will play as important a role in the trial's outcome as truth as justice. This is well written. I believe it is the author's very first book. The details are not budensome and the story moves right along. I give it five stars for content and writing.
Rated by buyers -
As a reader of other legal thrillers and a lawyer, I am fairly critical of these books. If the book doesn't grab me at the beginning, I put it aside. However, this book really did grab me and I couldn't put it down until I'd finished it - on the same day. Funny, clever and satiric, wholly enjoyable, even if I did figure out who had done it very early on and why. Mr. Siegel had me caring about Mike Daley and the excellent cast of supporting characters. I look forward to getting to know them better in his subsequent book.
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