Rating: 
Summary: A wonderful read!
Review: This is a great legal mystery. Well written, full of suspense and likeable characters. One of the best mysteries I've read in a while. My best advice-just buy it and set aside some time to read it as you will not want to put it down until you're done!
Rating:
Summary: A fantastic read!
Review: What fun! I've got a first edition of a book that's going tobe one of the year's #1 bestsellers and will launch this author into aspectacular career. Fast paced, exciting, well written, sparkling dialogue this book has it all. Thankyou Amazon for these reviews and tipping me off to this fabulous book. I hope Siegel has the next one ready soon. END
Rating:
Summary: A Great Read
Review: When you start to read this book, make sure you have a good block of time on your hands - you won't want to put it down! It's funny, fast paced with great characters. The courtroom drama is very engrossing. I can't wait until the next one comes out.
Rating:
Summary: A Legal Thriller for the Ages
Review: Special Circumstances is a book you just can't put down. After having read books by everyone from Grisham to Turow to Father Greeley, this is the best. The characters are well drawn out and believable. Anyone who has ever worked at a law firm can identify with these people. The protagonist, Mike Daley is your basic neighborhood guy who wound up at the wrong law firm and basically got out just before he was asked to leave. He's easy to identify with and you really pull for him if not for his client the cheating son of a rabbi. The people who were murdered are basically lawyers who deserved their fate. Everybody has this fantasy about the boss and his fluzzy getting knocked off and this book hits the mark perfectly. The great thing about this book is Mike Daley. He's a good guy in above his head trying to get his best friend off on a murder rap. Daley's funny, smart and caring. All things none of the other lawyers are in this book and probably in real life too. Basically, if you don't like lawyers, its a great book. Basically, if you don't like fancy lawyers from the right schools from the right big firms across the US its an even better book. This is a wonderful book and Mike Daley is the type of lawyer we'd all like to represent us if we got into trouble.
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Summary: A NEST OF VIPERS AND A FEW GOOD MEN AND WOMEN
Review: Certain to win a First Novel Award this year, Sheldon's Siegel's foray into the crowded legal-mystery genre results in an Academy Award winning performance. I have read all, and I mean all the legal mysteries in the past 5 years. Take the top ten authors and compare this writer, this book. True, several of the top ten have had difficulty sustaining the excitement and intricacy evident in their 1st or 2nd books. A few of those ten have become, yes, BORING. Some have substituted fast paced legal labor with just plain labor and the reader suffers. Siegal is fresh and brillliant. The tightness, intricacy, rigorous attention to both plot formation and dialogue, superb descriptions, supersonic pace, Hitchcockian ending equal one of the best in the past 5 years. One of the few writers who does NOT allow intricacy to slow the pace, to require the reader to "keep notes," to read laboriously. Beautifully researched, carefully edited (FOR A CHANGE), crafted with an appealing development of characters (THEY DO NOT JUST SIT THERE LIKE SO MANY LATELY) compel a constant reader like myself to sit up, perk up, stand up and get a cup of coffee for a long night ahead. WRITE MORE PLEASE. PS: THIS WOULD MAKE A GREAT MOVIE.
Rating:
Summary: A thriller with real homework behind it
Review: Sheldon Siegel's Special Circumstances is not only an exciting thriller, it is a carefully researched work. As a practicing lawyer, I'm often frustrated with novels which create ridiculous legal situations to support a plot. Siegel has managed to tell a gripping story while giving the reader a realistic background of the corporate legal world and the criminal law. The trial scenes are especially well done. While there are a few shortcuts on highly technical points, overall this book has rare authenticity while telling a story one doesn't want to put down.
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Summary: Read This Special Book!
Review: "Special Circumstances" is a well-written, suspenseful book, that has a lot of humor sprinkled throughout. Whether you love lawyers or hate them, you will love this book. Siegel's writing had me hooked from the first sentence of the first page, up to the very end. There were some great twists and turns that made this book a real page-turner. The main character, Mike Daley, has a great, dry wit, and I laughed out loud several times at comments he made. I look forward to reading Sheldon Siegel's next book and seeing what mischief his characters get themselves into. In my opinion, Siegel is a much better writer than Grisham. Buy the book and decide for yourself!
Rating: 
Summary: A Winning Debut!
Review: In Sheldon Shapiro's first novel, Special Circumstances, he deserves to be placed in the top-tier of legal thriller writers. Siegel has created well-developed characters -- particularly his protagonist, Mike Daley -- and the plot is fast-paced and bristles with energy. Siegel's ability to combine excitement, surprises, humor and suspense makes Special Circumstances a book that you won't want to put down. Without going into detail for fear of providing information which might weaken some of the story's suspense for you, the only thing that kept me from rating this book a '5' is that I felt slightly--and I emphasize 'slightly'-- disappointed in the ending. Nevertheless, Special Circumstances is a book I know you'll enjoy and will want to recommend to your friends.
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Summary: Good legal thriller.Will read more from this talented author
Review: The partners at San Francisco's prestigious Simpson and Gates law firm force Mike Daley into resigning. Mike failed to deliver enough business in his five years in the white-collar criminal division. At the same time that Mike is fired, another Simpson and Gates attorney Prentice "Skipper" Gates III leaves to begin his political career as the district attorney. While Mike quietly packs and Skipper celebrates, someone kills two other attorneys (partner Bob Holmes and associate Donna Williams) who failed to close a deal. The police accuse another person working the lost deal, Joel Friedman, of murder. Skipper petitions the court to invoke SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES as Friedman deserves nothing short of the death penalty for the cold-blooded killings. Joel hires Mike to represent him even as Skipper sees this case as the media ticket to his higher ambitions. SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES is a special legal thriller that, if justice exists, will make debut author Sheldon Siegel a household name. The story line is well written as Mr. Siegel establishes the identities and personalities of his characters and their interrelationships early in the novel. The court room drama, which takes up much of the latter half of the book, is filled with detail that slows down the fast-paced plot yet adds judicial depth rarely seen in a tale. The lead protagonist is a wonderful character who hopefully will return to provide sub-genre fans with more courtroom excitement. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: Best Legal Thriller that I've had the pleasure to read
Review: I came across this little gem in a small book Peace Corps library in distant Kazakhstan. With much time to kill, I was looking to read just about anything. I picked up Special Circumstances.
Before I knew it, I could not put the book down. I found myself enraptured by this excellent piece of fiction. Sheldon's Michael Daley had me intrigued. He also had me laughing.
Sheldon Siegel has created, in my view, the best legal thriller that I've ever read. He paints strong visions of San Francisco and interesting characters in Michael Daley, Rosie Fernandez, and "Skipper" Gates. I also found his courtroom scenes to be unparalleled and wholly realistic. I found his novel to be as educational as it was entertaining. You feel like you are actually in the courtroom watching the drama. Add Michael Daley's wit and you simply can't resist.
I find Sheldon Siegel's novel to be on par with Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch novels as far as authenticity in the courtroom. I also draw comparisons to Robert B. Parker's Spenser novels when speaking about Michael Daley who is a funny guy who is just trying to do the right thing.
I highly recommend that you read this first novel. I've already convinced many Peace Corps volunteers here to read it, and so far, they love them as much as I do!
If you're looking for intrigue, mystery, witicisms, and authentic courtroom scenes, you can't miss with Special Circumstances.
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