Perfect Alibi [Hardcover]

...and Mike and Rosie have a really bad one on their hands. I have to be careful not to give away the plot, but suffice to say that 16-going-on-30 year old Grace has gotten herself into a rough place. Take a boyfriend who SHOULD have been relatively problem free, add a rich-but-dysfunctional family with a murder victim who wasn't all the world thought him to be, mix in a good dose of bad luck and teenage hormones, and look out!!

Once again Sheldon delivers a fantastic novel with a cast of characters that are old friends by now. Pete and Sylvia are, each in their own way, as tough as ever, Roosevelt is showing his age but remains a good cop, Nicole is a gorgeous opportunist, Kaela Joy is as hot as always, and Judge McDaniel is still a model for all judges. If some of our favorites, like Nick and Mort, are missing, we will just look forward to seeing them in some future book.

Of course San Francisco is truly a place like no other on earth and Sheldon always manages to make us feel at home. The high-priced shops of Union Square, neat places like Books Inc. and Amoeba Records, the various eateries, Chinatown, the Golden Gate, the cable cars, on and on and on...marvelous!!!

Sheldon Siegel is simply the very best of the "lawyer" authors and "Perfect Alibi" is fully up to the standard we expect. You may be uncomfortable with the problems parents have with kids (especially if you've "been there"), but you'll admire the way Mike and Rosie deal with them. If I go on much longer I shall ruin it for you, so I'll just say go buy it and get ready to enjoy.

This wasn't the best Sheldon Siegel novel to me. It's hard feeling sympathy for the victim as well as his son accused of murder both were pathological liars. Grace was overly sarcastic teenager instead of helping she did everything to complicate the case as well making it hard on her parents who were only trying to defend her. Rosie and Mike was dynamic as usually. but it wasn't enough to help the novel. I will wait for the eighth novel.

The publisher's back-cover blurb sets the scene:

"For Mike Daley and Rosie Fernandez - former spouses and current
law partners - the stakes have never been higher. . . . 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 . . . . his only alibi."


Siegel's trade-mark humor adds so much to the story.

For example: (1)a judge named Putty Chandler is "well into the
back nine of a thoroughly undistinguished judicial career."

(2)Gary Winer is a "cloying, owl-eyed man with large horn-rimmed
glasses, a horrific comb-over and a grating nasal voice. He's
spent the past thirty years trying to make the world safer for
insurance companies."

(3)Mike and Rosie's four-year-old son, Tommy is a: "happy kid,
but he's also a worrier. 'no worries,' he asks. I'm not sure
if he picked up the line from me or Barney the Dinosaur."

(4)Assistant DA, Bill McNulty, is labeled "McNasty" by Mike
and considered a "terminal curmudgeon" and a "competent
lifer."

Siegel, a practicing SF attorney for more than
twenty-five years, knows the legal ins and outs and
shares them expertly and easily with his readers. We
learn, for example, about the CSI Effect.

You learn more about the City Siegel loves. In
every book. this time we are treated to the history of
Tank Hill, the Bohemian Club, and the Tenderloin area, to
name a few.

Above all, however, in Sheldon Siegel's books you
learn to love his characters because you know he loves
them, as he talks of them with compassion and insight.
Not all of the regulars have returned. I miss Nick the
Dick, for example. However, Rosie Johnson is present and
accounted for in the following sketch:

"The dean of San francisco homicide inspectors has handled
every high-profile murder investigation in the City for forty years.
A half-century ago, he and my father formed the SFPD's first inte-
grated team. The good news is he'll proceed with competence and
professionalism. the bad news is he doesn't arrest anybody unless
he has the goods. . . . Inspector Roosevelt Johnson eyes me through
wire-rimmed, aviator-style bifocals. The former college tight end
has dropped some weight since he underwent radiation treatments
for throat cancer last year. Nevertheless, the seventy-five-year
old legend still carries over two hundred pounds on his imposing six-foot-four-inch frame. The war-horse has fought the cancer to a
standstill, but his lyrical baritone has developed a gravelly edge."

When I compose my list of favorite authors for friends,
Sheldon Siegel is always at the very top. He will be at the top
of your list as well. Start with: SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES.

Note: Unfortunately, Amazon did not offer this title soon
enough for me. I'm happy to see it is available now.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 9 reviews  4.2 out of 5 stars