Misdemeanor Man: A Novel

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Misdemeanor Man: A Novel

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Overview

Gordon Seegerman is a reluctant public defender by day and the Barry-obsessed singer in a Manilow cover band by night. When a routine misdemeanor case exposes corruption among his city's most prominent citizens, Seegerman finds himself having to act like a real lawyer for the first time in his life. Irresistible and irreverent, Misdemeanor Man will have you on the edge of your seat, rooting for the underdog and believing in the magic of Manilow.

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ISBN-13:	9781596919044
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	12/03/2008
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
File size:	504 KB

About the Author

Dylan Schaffer is a criminal-defense lawyer who has served as appellate counsel in more than fifty murder cases, including death penalty matters. He lives in Oakland, California. Television rights to Misdemeanor Man have been optioned by Paramount, with Fox developing the pilot.

Dylan Schaffer is a criminal-defense lawyer who has served as appellate counsel in more than fifty murder cases, including death penalty matters. He lives in Oakland, CA.

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Editorial Reviews

Schaffer has a good eye for the oddities of human nature, a skeptical mind and a nice way with a phrase.
— The Washington Post

Patrick Anderson

In criminal defense lawyer Schaffer's first novel, a disappointing attempt at a comic legal thriller, a California public defender is shouldered with a routine flasher case that quickly complicates his life. "Misdo-man" Gordon Seegerman is overworked but unambitious; his passions lie with Barry X and the Mandys, his Barry Manilow cover band, and he worries that the case will interfere with the biggest gig of his musical career. Seegerman loses hope for a speedy disposal of the case when he faces his formidable ex-girlfriend, Sylvie, the ADA prosecuting the "willy wanker," Harold Dunn. She discovers Dunn's history of lewd behavior and presses for extended prison time, but Dunn refuses a plea and claims he was set up. Then the accused is bailed out by a mysterious friend, and one of the chief witnesses winds up dead. In the meantime, Seegerman stumbles onto a shady charitable organization named G-O-Dan that may connect everyone, and uncovers property investment shenanigans. Schaffer peoples the novel with an oddball but stereotypical cast: Seegerman's band, a standard array of socially disenfranchised, talented musicians who help him solve the case; the suspect local legal establishment; and Seegerman's Alzheimer's-addled father, a former police detective. Schaffer aims for comedy throughout (e.g., Seegerman's near-pathological devotion to Barry Manilow), but the book's illogical plot turns and awkward structure make for a wearying read that devolves into a contrived narrative of a misdemeanor trial. Agent, Lydia Wills at Writers and Artists. (June) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

A case of public indecency escalates to capital murder while the music of Barry Manilow plays on. De-frocked CPA and recovering alcoholic Harold Dunn is the latest case for public defender Gordon Seegerman. Dunn was arrested in a department store for flashing an eight-year-old girl and a hooker, a seedy little crime that for some reason has him locked up in tightest security. Seegerman, who was hoping for a little time off the job to prepare for his band's performance in front of his idol, Barry Manilow, finds the nerdy little criminal unwilling to plead anything but innocent. Worse, the DA on the case is Seegerman's ex-girlfriend Silvie and she's out for blood. She wants Dunn locked up big time. With the help of his band's bass player Terry, Gordon starts poking into Dunn's pathetic background, which includes a prior exposure ten years earlier in Portland when he was still on the sauce. Shortly after interviewing one the hookers, who turns out to be kind of sympathetic to Dunn, turns up strangled, and Dunn, whose excessively high bail was mysteriously met, has disappeared. Further sleuthing leads Gordon and Terry through the thickets of the biggest homeless charity in the city (a barely disguised Oakland) where Dunn kept the books, an organization with ties to the powerful including Silvie's husband. Between the investigation and the rehearsals, Seegerman spends time with his dad, a cop whose spectacular career was ended by early-onset Alzheimer's, a threat that now hangs over the son. There is a possible flirtation with a mysterious beauty, but it seems to go nowhere. As the evidence piles up on the murder, Dunn continues to want a jury trial on the flashing. Thank goodness for thoseinspiring Manilow songs, Seegerman's only real comfort. First-timer Schaffer, a public defender, packs too much writing into too little space-but it's fun, nonetheless, making a good case for both Manilow and Oakland. Agent: Lydia Wills/Writers and Artists Group

Kirkus Reviews

A terrific read-the best legal fiction I've read in years, hands down. A totally unique, genre smashing page-turner.” —Barry Scheck, professor of law, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and co-author of Actual Innocence: Five Days to Execution, and Other Dispatches from the Wrongly Convicted

“Schaffer is a fresh new voice in a crowded and highly competitive field. Highly recommended.” —Sheldon Siegel, New York Times best-selling author of Final Verdict

“The thinking man's John Grisham. For a guy who isn't me, Dylan Schaffer can really write.” —Kinky Friedman, author of The Prisoner of Vandam Street

“A terrific debut. Misdemeanor Man is the rare legal thriller that never forgets to tell the most compelling storiesfithose that occur outside the courthouse.” —Alafair Burke, author of Judgment Calls and Missing Justice.

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