Sheldon Siegel

Brilliantly paced, witty, crackling with energy and suspense, >Special Circumstances> is a phenomenal thriller that introduces an electrifying new voice in legal fiction.

Special Circumstances

Fate throws a curveball at the San Francisco ex-husband-and-wife legal team of Mike Daley and Rosie Fernandez, when Mike picks up the phone and hears the voice of Leon Walker. This is not good news-because Walker was the one who ruined their marriage. Years ago, he and his brother participated in a stickup that left a man dead. Through a series of (some said) questionable maneuvers, Mike got the charges dropped, but he and Rosie fought about it all the time and it finally drove a wedge between them. Now, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist has been found dead in a dumpster on San Francisco's skid row. The new murder has been pinned on Walker, but he not only tells Mike he is innocent, he says he is a dying man and doesn't want to go to his grave proclaimed a murderer. Dogged investigation, courtroom nimbleness, and a healthy dose of luck usually have helped Mike before, but it looks like it'll take more than that to prevail this time, and his time is running out-both on his client and, just maybe, on his partnership. Filled with wonderful characters and suspense and more than a touch of humor, Reasonable Doubtis, like the author's first three books, a page-turner.

Final Verdict

A four-book set of Mike Daley/Rosie Fernandez legal thrillers

Higher Law 1

San Francisco criminal defense attorneys Mike Daley and Rosie Fernandez represent a young woman accused of murdering her boss.

The Dreamer

When an unknown terrorist group demands the release of a University of Chicago graduate student whose plan to set off a bomb at the Art Institute was thwarted at the last minute, Detectives Gold and Battle must race against time to stop them from shutting down a major U.S. city. (mystery & detective). Simultaneous.

The Terrorist Next Door

When Mike Daley and Rosie Fernandez take a case to clear their daughter's boyfriend of murdering his father they uncover a scandal that takes them to San Francisco's darkest alleys and into the homes of the city's most prominent citizens.

Perfect Alibi

-A Mike Daley/Rosie Fernandez novel---Cover.

Felony Murder Rule

Confessions abound-some of them quite unexpected-in Sheldon Siegel's new legal thriller. Mike Daley doesn't go to confession much since he left the priesthood twenty years ago and became a lawyer, but that doesn't stop his old friend, Father Ramon Aguirre, from trying to get him there. "It wouldn't kill you to go to church once in a while," he tells Mike. But it does kill someone. For several months, a ruinous sexual harassment suit has been building against the San Francisco Catholic Archdiocese, and when the plaintiff's lawyer is found dead, an apparent suicide, an almost audible sigh of relief is heard in certain quarters. But that is before the police find evidence of murder. Even worse-the evidence points to Father Aguirre. Mike and his ex-wife law partner, Rosie, jump in to take the priest's case, but what started out as difficult soon appears impossible as forensics, witnesses, and secrets from Father Aguirre's past all incriminate their client. Soon, their wits are the only things keeping the priest from a life sentence or worse, and wits simply may not be enough-unless they can conjure up a miracle of their own.

The Confession

Criminal Intent

Special Circumstances introduced an exciting new voice in legal fiction - a talent so original, it drew comparisons with the very top tier of courtroom thriller writers. Now Sheldon Siegel delivers a new challenge for defense attorney Mike Daley - ex-priest, ex-husband, ex-public defender - and it's a high-profile zinger: a case he doesn't think he can win for a client he can't stand. It starts with a phone call Mike Daley never expected to get, from District Attorney Prentice Marshall Gates III, San Francisco's chief law enforcement officer and front-runner candidate for California attorney general. Friends they're not; Skipper Gates had led the charge to get Mike fired from his job as a partner in a prestigious law firm. But Gates needs Daley now - and needs him badly. He's just been arrested. It seems that a couple of hours earlier he woke up in an armchair in his hotel room and found the dead body of a young male prostitute in the bed. The details that continue to emerge from the crime scene are tabloid heaven. The SFPD is certain Gates did it. The prosecutors are already talking the death penalty, and there's nothing in the mounting evidence, and certainly not in Gates's unpersuasive denials, to convince Daley and his partner (and ex-wife) Rosie of his innocence. But even if he's lying, it's their job to defend him, and that means finding out what really happened. Sure enough, the deeper they dig, the seamier their findings. An array of influential power brokers is all too ready to cover questionable activities that may - or may not - connect with the victim. There's a campaign manager with his own dirty secrets, a shady Internet entrepreneur who trades flesh for cash, a prominent businessman who uses muscle to keep his enterprise prospering. Mike and Rosie chase down trails that take them from the lowest depths of the Mission District, where drugs and bodies are always for sale, to the gated mansions of Pacific Heights, all the while contending with a trial that gets under way even as they are frantically trying to piece together what is really at stake in the case against Gates. Its riveting blend of inside knowledge, powerful suspense, courtroom intrigue, and ironic humor makes Incriminating Evidence an edge-of-the-seat novel that will hold readers from the very first page to its startling denouement.

Incriminating Evidence

A bar. A body. A bloody knife. Mike wasn't expecting the early-morning call from his 86-year-old uncle. Big John Dunleavy arrived at his namesake bar to find the body of San Francisco police officer Eddie Corcoran in the alley, a bloody knife at his side. Corcoran was a tough cop whose life went off the rails after his partner was killed two years earlier. Infidelity and alcohol abuse led his wife to file for divorce. Excessive force and harassment while arresting drug dealers and the homeless resulted in his recent suspension from the force. Corcoran was on the verge of permanently losing his job, custody of his children and everything. He didn't think he'd lose his life. All signs point to Big John's grandson Joey as the killer. Witnesses reported that Joey and the cop argued at the bar shortly before last call. The alleged murder weapon is Joey's Boy Scout knife. The only fingerprints are his. Big John begs Mike to represent Joey. Mike and his team of ex-wife/boss (Rosie) and brother/P.I. (Pete) embark on a desperate search for the truth that takes them around San Francisco -- from the foggy streets of the Sunset to the colorful corners of the Mission to the homeless encampments in Golden Gate Park to the drug-infested hotels in the Tenderloin. Can they find justice for Joey before the bars close? LAST CALL is the thirteenth installment of Sheldon Siegel's New York Times bestseling series featuring San Francisco attorneys Mike Daley and Rosie Fernandez. An intricate plot, engaging characters, powerful suspense, and a touch of humor are Siegel's hallmarks. In LAST CALL, readers will discover once again why Mike and Rosie are two of the most compelling characters in contemporary crime fiction.

Last Call

San Francisco criminal defense attorneys Mike Daley and Rosie Fernandez represent a homeless man accused of murder.

Mike Daley and Rosie Fernandez defend a young woman accused of murdering a Silicon Valley billionaire.

Hot Shot

As husband and wife, Mike Daley and Rosie Fernandez couldn't make it work. Luckily for Bay Area criminals, they didn't let that stop them from joining forces to open San Francisco's most tenacious law firm. Called in at the last minute to try to stop the execution of Nathan Fineman, a former mob lawyer convicted of murdering three people in the backroom of the notorious Golden Dragon Restaurant, Mike and Rosie race the clock in a desperate attempt to prove their client's innocence--an impossible task, given the wealth of forensic evidence pointing to his guilt. At the same time, Mike must battle his own personal demons when the reputation of his father, a San Francisco cop who was one of the first officers at the Golden Dragon on the night of the murders, is called into question.

Judgment Day

As husband and wife, Mike Daley and Rosie Fernandez couldn't make it work. But as partners in one of San Francisco's most tenacious law firms, Daley and Fernandez make one hell of a team. Judgment Day finds the ex-spouses tackling their most difficult case yet. Called in at the last minute to try to stop the execution of Nathan Fineman, a former mob lawyer convicted of murdering three people in the back room of Chinatown's notorious Golden Dragon Restaurant, Mike and Rosie must race the clock in a desperate attempt to prove their client's innocence. With only ten days to go and a wealth of forensic evidence pointing overwhelmingly to Fineman's guilt, their task seems impossible. Complicating matters, Mike must battle his own personal demons when the reputation of his dead father--a San Francisco cop who was one of the first officers at the scene the night of the murders--is called into question. And as the plot hurtles toward its stunning denouement, judgment day is fast approaching not only for Nate Fineman, but for Mike's father and the law firm of Daley and Fernandez as well.

Mike Daley and Rosie Fernandez defend a young police officer accused of murder.

Serve and Protect

Another super novel from Sheldon Siegel in the Mike Daley mystery series. For Mike Daley and Rosie Fernandez--former spouses and current law partners--the stakes have never been higher. In the seventh installment of this bestselling, critically acclaimed series, the duo learn that their sixteen-year-old daughter's boyfriend has been arrested on suspicion of murdering his father, a Superior Court judge. Bobby Fairchild, however, claims to have found his father's body upon returning home from a date with Grace. The police, who found Bobby at the scene of the crime holding the murder weapon, contend that his parents' acrimonious divorce sent the boy over the edge. With their daughter as Bobby's only (Perfect) Alibi, Mike and Rosie take the case that takes them down San Francisco's darkest alleys and into the homes of some of the city's most prominent citizens.

Sheldon Siegel

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