I continue to be surprised by the number of dedicated mystery readers who do not know the John Marshall Tanner PI novels published by Stephen Greenleaf between 1979 and 2000. I have never understood how they are so little known considering the consistently strong critical praise the series received. Tanner is an attorney in San Francisco who chooses to be a private investigator rather than practice law despite being a member of the California Bar in good standing. Each of the books highlights a contemporary social issue. The plight of the migrant farm worker comes up often, it clearly worried Greenleaf. He first appeared in Grave Error, published by Doubleday in January 1979.
This seems to have been an inventive time in private investigator novels. Dick Francis published his second book with former jockey Sid Halley the same year. William DeAndrea’s Edgar-award winning debut with investigator Matt Cobb appeared the year before in 1978. Lawrence Block introduced his alcoholic private investigator Matt Scudder a couple years earlier in 1976. Sharon McCone began supporting All Souls Legal Cooperative in 1977. Delilah West solved her first case in 1980. Spenser had been on the job in Boston for five books already, solving his first case in 1973. The Nameless Detective had been working the streets of San Francisco since 1971. All this before the great onslaught of women private investigators in the early 1980s. I suppose Tanner got lost in the flood of innovative characters.
Nonetheless, these literate, well written, and carefully plotted books are uniformly good reads and followers of private investigator crime fiction owe it to themselves to look at one or two.
In his first adventure Tanner is retained to find out what the leader of a private consumer advocate institute is up to. Roland Nelson, a Ralph Nader like individual, is revered by thousands as an uncorruptible rooting out venal corporations everywhere. His wife reports that he’s been siphoning off money from the institute and he disappears evenings, declining to account for his time. She wants to know if he’s being blackmailed and if so, why. If he’s having an affair, she wants to know with whom. She is well aware that any adverse publicity will destroy her husband and the work he’s done.
Tanner’s investigation crosses the path of his fellow PI and good friend Harry Spring, whose current case seems to intersect with Tanner’s but how isn’t clear. Harry turns up dead, and Tanner’s focus changes to supporting the widow and finding the killer, which may not be altogether separate from whatever is occupying Roland Nelson.
Not the strongest of the series but a competent start and a plot complex enough to keep me reading. The fifth book Beyond Blame was shortlisted for the 1987 Macavity for Best Novel. The seventh, Book Case, was a finalist for the 1992 Dilys Award. Flesh Wounds was a 1997 Shamus nominee. Strawberry Sunday was shortlisted for the 2000 Edgar for Best Novel. The last in the series Ellipsis was a finalist for the 2001 Shamus Award.
Ed Lynskey and Steve Lewis interviewed Greenleaf for Mystery*File in 2005. See the interview and their commentary on Greenleaf’s work here: https://www.mysteryfile.com/Greenleaf/greenleaf.html