Book Review: Misdemeanor Man

Reviewed By: J. L. Kinney

Misdemeanor Man     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Dylan Schaffer
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Legal Setting
Bloomsbury, June 12, 2004, $23.95, hardcover

As public defender in a Northern California City, Gordon Seegerman has no ambition to climb out of the misdemeanors department. He'd rather take a case and plead it out, no muss, no fuss. His lifelong ambition is to have Barry Manilow hear his cover band, Barry X and the Mandys, play in honor of Mr. Manilow himself.

Seegerman is handed a flasher case, which he hopes to dispense of quickly, but the client disappears, and a witness ends up dead. The opposing counsel is a woman with whom he shares a past. Gordon also deals with his father, who has a genetic form of Alzheimer's Disease, and lives with the worry of whether or not he will start forgetting things and face the inevitable downhill spiral. Between rehearsals with the and, Seegerman reluctantly finds that he has to take this flasher case to trial. With the help of his friends in the band, he uncovers corruption within some prominent members of the town where he lives, which makes for a court case he will never forget.

MISDEMEANOR MAN captures the reader in the first few pages, with a sarcastic humor, and draws them in further with characters who are real people, easy to relate to. The suspense builds without the reader even realizing it, and before they know it, the reader is cheering Gordon on, wanting him to win the case and fulfill his dream of singing to Barry Manilow.

J. L. Kinney

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, J. L. Kinney