Stephen Greenleaf

I picked this one up immediately after finishing [Past Tense], the previous book in the Marsh Tanner series. Predictably, it wasn't nearly as good. Greenleaf was kind of on a crusade; way too much social education about the plight of Mexican laborers in the California strawberry fields. It could have been done with a lighter hand to better effect in context of the story, but he just didn't handle it well. I kept thinking, "let's move the story along, shall we?" as page after page went by with nothing dramatically necessary happening. Two red herrings and wrong conclusions by our hero and then he just solved everything with a "well, since those two people weren't the murderer, I know who it was" kind of attitude. A distinct disappointment.
Reviewed in 2007… (altro)

This is a masterpiece of the semi-hard-boiled detective genre; all the elements, and then some. I could see the ending coming, as could our hero, but it came with a bang anyway. And thank goodness I had the foresight to take the next one in the series out of the library at the same time. I don't know how I could have put this one down if I hadn't had the next one right there on the table to pick up immediately. Don't start with this one if you haven't read any of the Marsh Tanner series before. He has a past, and you need to know a bit of it before you read Past Tense.
Reviewed in 2007… (altro)