The Confession by Sheldon Siegel
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Mike Daley is a lawyer, a graduate of Boalt Hall of Law, Berkeley’s premiere law school, and, coincidentally, my alma mater, so he has a leg up in my book. He’s representing Ramon, a priest, accused of murder. The victim, a girlfriend of his from his pre-priesthood days, was pregnant and Ramon may be the father. Okay, that’s an interesting twist. The Archdiocese wants to take over the case in order to protect its interests, but Ramon wants Mike and his ex-wife Rosie, to represent his best interests. But Ramon can’t directly defy the Archdiocese. So Mike is fighting the D.A. and his own co-counsel. I like the complications this introduces. The author handles all the legal stuff in a clever, entertaining way while still being quite accurate.
But the real appeal is the clever dialogue. There’s a lot of it, but the author employs a shtick where interleaved between the lines of dialogue are asides showing what Mike is really thinking. It works well. Everybody, including Mike, is lying to everyone else but Mike’s asides keep us on the right track. The book has its flaws. Daley uses his brother as a P.I. who can magically find anything, tail everyone, tap any phone, get private police and other records, etc., largely through illegal methods. As an FBI agent for 26 years I’m well aware of what a P.I. can reasonably be expected to achieve and this ain’t it. So suspend your disbelief. Of course every time Mike makes some progress, one more thing goes wrong, implicating his client. His fingerprints are on the murder weapon; they’re on the neck of the strangled victim; a star defense witness gets murdered, etc. Despite a few cliches, it was a fun read. Goodreads doesn’t allow half stars, but I’d give this 4-1/2.
