Product Description

With his terrific first novel, Special Circumstances, Sheldon Siegel delivered legal fiction so exciting, it drew comparisons with the very top tier of courtroom thrillers. Now he has 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, but Gates needs Daley now--badly. He’s just been arrested. A couple of hours earlier he woke up in his hotel room and found the dead body of a young male prostitute in the bed. Prosecutors are already talking the death penalty, and there’s nothing in the mounting evidence to convince Daley and his partner--and ex-wife--Rosie of Gates’s innocence. But even if he’s lying, it’s their job to defend him.

Sure enough, the deeper Mike and Rosie dig, the seamier their findings. From a shady Internet entrepreneur who trades flesh for cash to a prominent businessman who uses muscle to keep his enterprise prospering, Mike and Rosie chase down leads that take them from the depths of the Mission District, where drugs and bodies are always for sale, to the gated mansions of Pacific Heights, frantically trying to piece together the shocking truth of what actually happened, even as the trial itself is under way.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #168699 in Books
• Published on: 2002-07
• Released on: 2002-07-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 464 pages

Amazon.com Review
When the rich and ambitious Prentice Marshall "Skipper" Gates III, San Francisco's district attorney, is found in a hotel room with a dead male prostitute handcuffed to the bed, it looks like an open-and-shut murder case. Gates claims he fell asleep in front of the television and woke to find the body. But no one is buying this excuse, and the DA is brought up on murder charges by his own office, which plans to seek the death penalty.

Michael Daley (defense attorney, ex-priest, and ex-public defender) agrees to take the case, though he has no great affection for the accused. Gates has had his sights set on the attorney general's office, and in San Francisco's political community, it seems everyone has slept with, betrayed, or crushed everyone else. Perhaps Gates's assertion of a vast conspiracy is true. Still, Daley believes Gates is not telling the whole truth about the case. What is he hiding? Daley's search takes him from the elite neighborhoods of San Francisco to the seedy--and deadly--underworld of the Mission District's prostitutes and drug pushers, all the while carrying on a trial that's full of twists and turns. In this follow-up to to Special Circumstances, Sheldon Siegel proves that he's no one-shot wonder. The story is brilliantly plotted, the characters are sharp and believable, and the wit as dry and pointed as ever. This new series injects some much-needed life into a genre that had gone a little stale. --Perry M. Atterberry

From Publishers Weekly
"I look around the table: my ex-wife, my ex-girlfriend and me. We aren't a law firm we're a support group. Somebody will probably name a 12-step program after us." That's Mike Daley ex-priest, ex-public defender, ex-partner in one of San Francisco's fanciest law firms describing his new team of criminal defense specialists, housed in a former martial arts studio in the Mission District. It also sums up the considerable charm and strength of Siegel's second Daley vehicle, following on the heels of the well-received Special Circumstances. Daley is an original and very appealing character in the overcrowded legal arena a gentle soul who can fight hard when he has to, and a moral man who is repelled by the greed of many of his colleagues. His latest adventure starts with a bang: Prentice "Skipper" Marshall Gates III, San Francisco's district attorney and the man responsible for getting Daley fired from his law firm, is discovered at the Fairmont Hotel next to the naked dead body of a young male prostitute. He asks Mike to defend him on murder charges, then proceeds to lie to him and withhold vital information so often that a defense lawyer with a more macho self-image would quit in anger and disgust. But Daley believes Skipper is innocent and his struggling little firm needs the money. The central parts of the book, the investigations and the trial itself, are sluggish in spots and inflated with pregnant pauses, but in the end Siegel is so good at making readers believe in Mike Daley's decency that they'll be willing to forgive any narrative lapses. Agent, Margret McBride. Major ad/promo; teaser chapter in Special Circumstances.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Mike Daley and friends are back in this intriguing sequel to Siegel's highly praised debut, Special Circumstances. Prentice Gates, the San Francisco district attorney and a leading candidate for California attorney general, wakes up in his hotel room after spending the night in an armchair and finds a dead male prostitute on the bed. After his arrest on suspicion of murder, Gates realizes that the one man who can help him the most is someone he despises, defense lawyer Mike Daley. Daley reluctantly takes the case, and as he digs to uncover the truth, the mounting evidence seems to implicate his client. Is Gates as guilty as he seems? As in Siegel's previous book, the San Francisco setting and the courtroom scenes ring true. Readers will be anxiously awaiting this new Mike Daley novel. Recommended for public libraries.
- Jeff Ayers, Seattle P.L.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Fabulous, fast and fun!
Special Circumstances was the best new legal thriller to come out in a long time. It was with much anticipation (couldn't wait for another Mike Daley story!) tempered by slight trepidation (could he do it again?) that I started reading Incriminating Evidence. I am happy to report that my fears were completely unfounded.

Sheldon Siegel is a master of his craft.

I ripped through this book in a few hours, oblivious to all around me. Murder, betrayal, and kinky sex coupled with intelligent humor kept the pages turning. Great characters and believable dialogue take the reader deeper and deeper into Mike & Rosie's world, twisting and turning along the way. There is enough intrigue and courtroom drama to please any fan of the genre.

Siegel creates a story that is totally engrossing and enthralling every step of the way! It will hold you spellbound. Don't miss it.

Another literary home run for Sheldon Siegel!
FINALLY!! In a field of novels that has started to become rather stale in the past few years, Sheldon Siegel has injected an impressive dose of adrenaline with his first novel, 'Special Circumstances' and now with his just-as-good sequel, 'Incriminating Evidence', the trend continues. By now we have become familiar with criminal defense attorney Mike Daley, who is fast becoming my favorite protagonist in the legal thriller genre.

Mike is an attorney with a conscience. A former Priest who maintains a legal practice with his ex-wife, Mike Daley is suddenly forced to deal with a situation which takes him literally by surprise: San Francisco DA Prentice Gates, a not-too-friendly competitor, is arrested when a male prostitute is found dead in his hotel room, bound, gagged and handcuffed to the bed. Decisions, decisions...as much as Mike would like to relish the situation and kick him while he's down, his conscience kicks in--as well as that little voice in the back of his head that says 'we need more clients'--and he accepts the job of defending his arch rival in a murder case with so much incriminating evidence against Prentice, that it looks like he will be defending a guilty man. Sheldon Siegel, knowing what it takes to make a good legal-thriller exceptional, teases us with just enough information to make us question over and over again
WHO actually did the killing? As I read this book, I began to suspect everyone from Prentice's best friend, his daughter, shady

business partners, the male prostitute's pimp, even his wife--and then back to Prentice himself...finely crafted and tuned just right, 'Incriminating Evidence' deserves to be an enormous best seller. For fans of Steve Martini, Richard North Patterson, Phillip Margolin and Grisham, do yourself a HUGE favor and add Sheldon Siegel to this short list of A-List authors...yes, he IS that good. I very much look forward to Mike Daley volume 3. Highly recommended.

Mike Daley stars again...
Mike Daley, the unique, ex-priest turned criminal attorney, is back for his second outing. Sheldon Siegel, a California attorney, made some people sit up and take notice when he published "Special Circumstances", in which he introduced Mike Daley. This San Francisco based novel is every bit as good as his first, which is saying a lot!

One unique touch added by Siegel is his creative way of naming chapters, then giving a quote that would be taken from the fictional press at the time of his story. I particularly enjoyed Chapter 2, entitled "The A__hole Premium", accompanied by the quote "The Hall of Justice isn't a big tourist attraction"...from the SF Police Chief, in the SF Chronicle.

Siegel creates a real whodunit, where no one is sure until the closing chapters. The way in which the truth is parsed and stretched out by Siegel's client, who admits to it only when there is another unimpeachable source, is excellent and realistic. "Skipper", the San Fransisco DA, who was introduced in the first novel, takes center stage, but this time as an accused murderer of a male prostitute. One appealing new character is "Nick the Dick" Hanson, an 80+ and colorful PI who is legendary in the state, not just for his investigative skills, but for the way he controls a courtroom when he enters it. Siegel takes us back and forth to court, interspersing his story with the dilemma of Mike and Rosie (his ex-wife) who are law partners and still deeply committed to each other, despite the divorce.

A terrific novel, with great characterization, a compelling plot, and the promise of more good things to come in the series!