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A Cinderella Affidavit
Danny Leung is a police informer who gave them confidential intelligence that they now want him to share in court, and he hires corporate attorney Matthew Boer to help him avoid the cops in what turns out to be the lawyer's most dangerous case ever. 75,000 first printing.
384 pages, Hardcover
Published April 15, 1999
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
November 1, 2014
I really liked this book. Some reviewers have complained about the number of characters, but the book is more than a “Dick and Jane” compendium of the day’s events. It’s a complicated story that reveals the inner workings of a law firm in addition to being a fine legal drama and mystery. Definitely my cup of lemonade. (I don't like tea.)
A Cinderella Affidavit is one developed by narcotics officers to obtain a search warrant that isn’t exactly kosher. It is based on the cop’s gut feeling about a house or location but may not have a snitch’s information required by a judge. Normally this wouldn’t matter, since the bad guy is caught holding the drugs which are then evidence used at trial, but since Francis Dunleavy, the cop trying to break down the door got killed, the snitch’s presence in court becomes truly important since the affidavit had described, in detail, the person who was supposed to be in the apartment at the time when Dunleavy was killed. Unfortunately the snitch in this case existed, but had made up much of the information.
The opening courtroom seen, taking some depositions, is really quite humorous. It follows the open-ended battering down of a drug dealer’s den where a Dunlevy is shot. Michael Chen is accused of shooting the policeman through the door. His lawyer, Sarah, files an appeal, asking for the name of the informant who the affidavit said had given police the information about when the drugs would be in the apartment. Her client doesn’t match the description given by the informant and calling him could provide exculpatory testimony. The state, naturally doesn’t want to reveal the name of the CI. Turns out the affidavit written by the Lieutenant, a boozer just barely holding it together, had cited this particular snitch (known as IT) in a whole daisy chain of affidavits that threaten to bring down a raft of cases. Danny, the IT in this case, had not been Lieutenant Carvello’s snitch, but rather the dead cop’s and he is linked to the Chinatown mob that makes it imperative he not appear in court for any reason.
Matthew is Danny’s lawyer. It so happens that Danny is IT. What’s interesting about Matthew is that as tenacious as he is in tracking down the perpetrators (I’m trying to avoid some spoilers here) he commits multiple ethical violations and does some really stupid things. Frankly, it’s a wonder his mentor at the firm stood by him as long as he did, not to mention his girlfriend. (An interesting aside is that the author of the book was disciplined for some ethical violations himself in his position -- irony of ironies - as general counsel to the Massachusetts Board of Overseers.)
For me, a good legal drama has to have excellent repartee in the courtroom between the two sides (perhaps that’s why I enjoy listening to Supreme Court oral arguments.) This book has that along with a nice touch of humor. The plot itself becomes a bit strained, but nevermind. It was extremely well narrated by Ron McLarty, one of my favorites.
A Cinderella Affidavit is one developed by narcotics officers to obtain a search warrant that isn’t exactly kosher. It is based on the cop’s gut feeling about a house or location but may not have a snitch’s information required by a judge. Normally this wouldn’t matter, since the bad guy is caught holding the drugs which are then evidence used at trial, but since Francis Dunleavy, the cop trying to break down the door got killed, the snitch’s presence in court becomes truly important since the affidavit had described, in detail, the person who was supposed to be in the apartment at the time when Dunleavy was killed. Unfortunately the snitch in this case existed, but had made up much of the information.
The opening courtroom seen, taking some depositions, is really quite humorous. It follows the open-ended battering down of a drug dealer’s den where a Dunlevy is shot. Michael Chen is accused of shooting the policeman through the door. His lawyer, Sarah, files an appeal, asking for the name of the informant who the affidavit said had given police the information about when the drugs would be in the apartment. Her client doesn’t match the description given by the informant and calling him could provide exculpatory testimony. The state, naturally doesn’t want to reveal the name of the CI. Turns out the affidavit written by the Lieutenant, a boozer just barely holding it together, had cited this particular snitch (known as IT) in a whole daisy chain of affidavits that threaten to bring down a raft of cases. Danny, the IT in this case, had not been Lieutenant Carvello’s snitch, but rather the dead cop’s and he is linked to the Chinatown mob that makes it imperative he not appear in court for any reason.
Matthew is Danny’s lawyer. It so happens that Danny is IT. What’s interesting about Matthew is that as tenacious as he is in tracking down the perpetrators (I’m trying to avoid some spoilers here) he commits multiple ethical violations and does some really stupid things. Frankly, it’s a wonder his mentor at the firm stood by him as long as he did, not to mention his girlfriend. (An interesting aside is that the author of the book was disciplined for some ethical violations himself in his position -- irony of ironies - as general counsel to the Massachusetts Board of Overseers.)
For me, a good legal drama has to have excellent repartee in the courtroom between the two sides (perhaps that’s why I enjoy listening to Supreme Court oral arguments.) This book has that along with a nice touch of humor. The plot itself becomes a bit strained, but nevermind. It was extremely well narrated by Ron McLarty, one of my favorites.
February 19, 2019
A book that encompasses three of my favorite components, lawyers, murder and mystery. The main character is a young lawyer drawn in by a senior partner in the very prestigious Boston law firm to defend a small time operator in the China town drug trade. Matt Boer is a corporate lawyer struggling to defend his client while faced with other more complex events and people involved in tangled real estate deals, police incompetence and corruption, and political ambition.
Although Michael Frederickson's work is one of fiction, the situation he uses as a basis is true. The book is well developed gradually rolling out the events and interested persons into a complicated story of people and organizations, such as Matt's law firm, the police department, and a secondary female defense attorney. The author touches on lawyer misconduct, ethics and standards of attorney behavior which he is eminently qualified to write about. He is general counsel to the Massachusetts state agency in charge of prosecuting lawyers for legal wrongdoing and a Rhodes scholar.
A very enjoyable book with lots of twists to keep the reader's interest.
Although Michael Frederickson's work is one of fiction, the situation he uses as a basis is true. The book is well developed gradually rolling out the events and interested persons into a complicated story of people and organizations, such as Matt's law firm, the police department, and a secondary female defense attorney. The author touches on lawyer misconduct, ethics and standards of attorney behavior which he is eminently qualified to write about. He is general counsel to the Massachusetts state agency in charge of prosecuting lawyers for legal wrongdoing and a Rhodes scholar.
A very enjoyable book with lots of twists to keep the reader's interest.
February 28, 2023
Excellent, 5 star read, about a drug raid gone awry, rookie attorney, a really sharp attorney, police coverups, Chinese mafia, a dead policeman, all based in Boston's Chinatown. This book was published in 1999, but a lot of the plot and subsequent happenings can relate really well to today's reputational disasters of some police departments around the nation. The author Michael Fredrickson is an attorney in real life and worked at the time of the publication of this book for the Massachusetts state agency in charge of prosecuting lawyers for wrong doing
October 20, 2025
A John-Grisham type novel that explores a scandal that involves the Boston police department, a Chinese gang, and the hero's (Matt Boer) own law firm. I just learned that the author based the story on a true Cinderella Affidavit (a search warrant based on a non-existent confidential informant)which explains why the story seemed believable. There were some parts of the book the author started explaining legal aspects of trust documents in way too much detail that wasn't necessary to understand the story.
August 1, 2021
I was going to do 2.5 stars/5 but I did appreciate that the author wrapped up everything nicely with the epilogue at the end so I’ll give it 3 stars. A lot of characters. Some were more developed than needed and some I would have liked more background/ development of. Overwhelmingly intricate with legal jargon at some points and inter-wrapping stories.
August 28, 2021
Thus book had too many characters and it was hard to keep up... And the plot twist wasn't really twisty enough
It's a good book, that's all I can say
It's honestly not such a big loss if you haven't read it
It's a good book, that's all I can say
It's honestly not such a big loss if you haven't read it
March 29, 2023
Entertaining legal thriller by a guy who once bailed me and my-to-be out of a British immigration detention. It’s a long story.
August 15, 2019
A Cinderella affidavit is a statement in which police officers say that they have information from an informant that meets two criteria. The informant must know what he's talking about and there must be cause to believe that the informant is reliable. However, what makes this a "Cinderella" affidavit is that the police are lying. They may have totally made up the informant or they may have reason to believe that the informant's statement may not be honest or reliable.
I don't believe that the book ever explains what "Cinderella" has to do with this. My guess is that the reliability of the informant's statement vanishes like Cinderella's pumpkin coach.
Such a document is used as a justification for a police raid in Boston in the beginning of the book A Cinderella Affidavit. A police officer is killed during the raid.
I usually enjoy books set in my home city of Boston, especially when, as in this book, we see views of more than one neighborhood. I choose to believe, though, that Boston Police officers are not generally as dumb or as corrupt as the ones in A Cinderella Affidavit.
There is a lot of humor in this book. I don't want to ruin individual jokes by quoting them here. So I will risk ruining a whole passage by quoting it, but I will do so in the following
Indeed, the name of the principal legal firm in the book seems to be intended as a joke. "Daphnis and Clooney" is sometimes referred to as "D and C" (as in "dilation and curettage.") The unabbreviated name seems to me to be an obvious (albeit cryptic) reference to Daphnis and Chloe, "an ancient Greek novel or romance" attributed to someone named Longus, set on the isle of Lesbos.
Unfortunately, the book isn't all like that. Much of it is rather slow with a plot so complicated and Byzantine that it makes the Hampton Court maze look like a straight line. Also, Fredrickson should have realized that if you name three of your four major female characters Sarah, Laura, and Hannah, you are virtually asking for readers to get confused. (Luckily, the fourth major female character is named Julie.)
This is by no means a bad book but with some trimming and some clarification, it could have been better.
I don't believe that the book ever explains what "Cinderella" has to do with this. My guess is that the reliability of the informant's statement vanishes like Cinderella's pumpkin coach.
Such a document is used as a justification for a police raid in Boston in the beginning of the book A Cinderella Affidavit. A police officer is killed during the raid.
I usually enjoy books set in my home city of Boston, especially when, as in this book, we see views of more than one neighborhood. I choose to believe, though, that Boston Police officers are not generally as dumb or as corrupt as the ones in A Cinderella Affidavit.
There is a lot of humor in this book. I don't want to ruin individual jokes by quoting them here. So I will risk ruining a whole passage by quoting it, but I will do so in the following
Indeed, the name of the principal legal firm in the book seems to be intended as a joke. "Daphnis and Clooney" is sometimes referred to as "D and C" (as in "dilation and curettage.") The unabbreviated name seems to me to be an obvious (albeit cryptic) reference to Daphnis and Chloe, "an ancient Greek novel or romance" attributed to someone named Longus, set on the isle of Lesbos.
Unfortunately, the book isn't all like that. Much of it is rather slow with a plot so complicated and Byzantine that it makes the Hampton Court maze look like a straight line. Also, Fredrickson should have realized that if you name three of your four major female characters Sarah, Laura, and Hannah, you are virtually asking for readers to get confused. (Luckily, the fourth major female character is named Julie.)
This is by no means a bad book but with some trimming and some clarification, it could have been better.
August 27, 2016
I was excited to read a book from a lawyer's perspective. But this book just wasn't doing it for me. There were too many characters to try and keep up with. There were times it would get really good and I couldn't wait to pick it back up. And just as quickly it would slow down. I am ok with learning new words, but dang, this book almost made me feel like I didn't know the English language. I gave up on looking all the new words up to see what they meant.
July 16, 2011
Loving the Boston setting and the harried associate!
March 19, 2012
I really enjoyed this - wasn't sure right at first but turned out really good read
October 22, 2013
Well written, fairly fast paced. All the tie-ins of the plot at the end are a bit far-fetched, but the characters are well developed for a legal thriller. Recommended for an entertaining read.
September 1, 2015
I didn't figure it out. I thought I did, but I didn't. Good dialogue, nice and detailed characters.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews