Strawberry Sunday [Audiobook, Unabridged] [Audio Cassette]

Stephen Greenleaf (Author), Brian Emerson (Narrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2000

When fellow hospital patient is brutally murdered after her release, John Tanner begins a desperate journey to find her killer that leads him deep into a network of violence and corruption within the strawberry industry -- a world that is more complex and dangerous than he ever could have imagined.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

At the end of Past Tense (1997), the previous mystery featuring veteran PI John Marshall Tanner, readers might have wondered whether or not the San Francisco shamus would survive a particularly bloody shoot-out. But a good gumshoe is tough to kill, and Tanner is back. As his new adventure begins, Marsh is recovering physically from being nearly exsanguinated, and emotionally from the death of his old friend Charley Sleet. As he slowly mends, he meets a young woman, Rita Lombardi, on his daily walks in the hospital corridors. She is recovering from surgery to correct serious birth defects that had crippled both legs. For the first time in her life, she feels free and excited about her future, and her optimism lifts Marsh's spirits. After his release, he learns that she has been stabbed to death. Her death seems impossibly tragic to him, and so he sets out to find out who killed Rita. He starts by visiting her hometown of Haciendas, a small company town in the Salinas Valley, a strawberry-growing area in Monterey County. Everyone there seems to owe their livelihood to the Gelbride family, the local agricultural kingpins. As he digs into the circumstances of Rita's life and death, Marsh discovers that she had been working to improve working conditions for the laborers on the Gelbride strawberry farms. Everyone around her seems to think she was a saint?but perhaps she was also a revolutionary. The Tanner books often have been built around a specific social or political issue, and this one is no exception. Greenleaf takes a long, hard look at the miserable conditions in which many farmworkers live and toil, and builds a complex, absorbing plot around the topic.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

San Francisco private detective John Tanner investigates the murder of a young woman who worked hard for labor reform among strawberry pickers in the Salinas Valley. Sound plotting and meaty prose from the author of Past Tense (LJ 3/1/97).
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks; Unabridged edition (January 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786117036
• ISBN-13: 978-0786117031
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.8 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,532,680 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific, as usual, May 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Strawberry Sunday: A John Marshall Tanner Novel (Hardcover)

As a long time fan of Greenleaf and Marsh Tanner, I thoroughly enjoyed Strawberry Sunday. I love books that inform and challenge me as well as entertain, and can always count on this author to accomplish that.

A rumor has been circulating that Greenleaf planned to retire the Tanner series, and with the last book seemed to have done so, in a most excruciating way. With this book, Marsh has been returned to me and I can imagine him, one of the rare really good people, continuing to do what he does best.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Worthy of an Edgar., February 15, 2001

By 

jvmeadows (Lynnwood, WA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Strawberry Sunday: A John Marshall Tanner Novel (Hardcover)

Strawberry Sunday, by Stephen Greenleaf, was nominated for an Edgar Award, 2000 -- and reading it, it's not difficult to see why. This is a mystery novel with a social conscience and a wry sense of wit. It begins with the hero, P.I. John Marshall Tanner in a hospital recovering from a gut shot and mourning the death of his close (cop) friend Charley Sleet, but most of the action takes place in the California Salinas agricultural community. Tanner has resolved to find out who murdered Rita Lombardi, a fellow hospital patient who wants to better the life of farm workers.

There are lots of red herrings, wonderful characters, and witty and often hilarious dialogues with them (and with himself). Tanner often reaches wrong conclusions and gets plenty of egg on his face, but in the end he prevails; he's a tough guy with loads of grace. Strawberry Sunday is a punchy, funny, touching novel. Read it.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well Done! Interesting characters, settings, plot, February 15, 1999

By 

Peter W. Sage (Medford, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Strawberry Sunday: A John Marshall Tanner Novel (Hardcover)

Did you every wonder where your fresh strawberries come from? Or the pears, peaches, grapes, pineapples on your table?

Stephen Greenleaf explores the agricultural caste system through the voice of his private investigator first person narrator, John Marshall Tanner.

Tanner is a great narrator: an intelligent, world weary private eye. Tanner goes off to the strawberry fields of the Salinas area to investigate a murder, then two, and actually three. But this isn't a story of violent murder; it is a story of agricultural communities, of dating in the l990's, of small town politics, of family rivalries. Tanner's weapon is simple: he asks questions. The answers eventually fill in the pieces of a mystery.

This is a great read.