Customer Reviews

Strawberry Sunday

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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.

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.

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.

San Francisco private investigator John Marshal Tanner has been hospitalized while he recovers from gunshot wounds. John's best friend Detective Lieutenant Charley Sleet shot John, who was forced to kill his buddy. Charley, dying from cancer, killed two dirty cops, and wanted John to end his life.

John still suffers nightmares from the incident. If it were not for fellow patient Rita Maria Lombardi's support, his mental recovery would have been a lot slower. Rita was recovering from surgery that corrected two deformed feet and an ugly birthmark on her face. She plans to return home to marry her boyfriend and help the strawberry pickers being terrorized by the Gebrides family, who own the town of Hacienas.

Rita invites John to visit her, but when he calls to set a date, he learns she was murdered. John decides to repay Rita for helping him regain his equilibrium by visiting her hometown and uncovering the identity of her killer. The obsessed John does not care whose skeleton is rattled nor whom he must hurt as long as he feels that he has paid back his debt in full.

Strawberries have everything and nothing to do with this well-done who-done-it. Stephen Greenleaf cleverly uses the fruit as a symbol of the wide chasm between owners and workers in a feudal system that has seen limited changes even with the noble efforts of Chavez. Within the framework of this socio-political tale, STRAWBERRY SUNDAY is a first class novel filled with betrayal, greed, and murder that adds much depth to this on-going series. It also serves to remind readers that the plight of the migrant farm worker remains similar to what it was three decades ago.

Harriet Klausner

This excellent Greenleaf novel opens with Tanner recovering from a gunshot wound in a hospital. He meets a young woman there who has many more problems than himself. She gets him back into "life". But later she is found murdered. Tanner has made promises to her and intends to carry them out. Villains had better beware. Great stuff!

Marsh, battered in body and spirit, finds his own cure in the migrant strawberry fields. His search for a killer puts him back in focus.

Greenleaf's language mastery captures the essence of the migrant worker's plight and engages the reader in Marsh's quest for justice.