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John Marshall Tanner #2
Death Bed
Hired by dying millionaire Maximillian Kottle to locate Kottle's estranged son, San Francisco private eye John Marshall Tanner begins a quest to locate the former sixties radical who is also wanted for murder
Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1980
18 people are currently reading
56 people want to read
About the author
Stephen Greenleaf
32 books27 followersStephen Greenleaf got a B.A. from Carlton College in 1964 and a J.D. from the University of California at Berkely in 1967. Stephen Greenleaf served in the United States Army from 1967 through 1969, and was also admitted to the California Bar during that period, with subsequent numerous legal positions.
Stephen Greenleaf studied creative writing at the University of Iowa in 1978 and 1979, (the Iowa Writers Workshop) with the subsequent publication of his first Tanner novel in 1979. Mr. Greenleaf has written fourteen John Marshall Tanner books to date, with his latest being Ellipse. All the novels are situated in San Fransico, and Stephen Greenleaf also lives in northern California with his wife Ann.
Series:
* John Marshall Tanner Mystery
Stephen Greenleaf studied creative writing at the University of Iowa in 1978 and 1979, (the Iowa Writers Workshop) with the subsequent publication of his first Tanner novel in 1979. Mr. Greenleaf has written fourteen John Marshall Tanner books to date, with his latest being Ellipse. All the novels are situated in San Fransico, and Stephen Greenleaf also lives in northern California with his wife Ann.
Series:
* John Marshall Tanner Mystery
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
September 25, 2017
”We had been sitting in the room for close to an hour, talking about this and that---the Warriors, the Democrats, Mozart, Montaigne. I was a nondescript private eye who could stuff all of his assets into some carry-on luggage, and he was one of the ten wealthiest men in the city if you didn’t count the Chinese. He had everything money could buy and most of the things it could rent.
In a while he would be renting me.”
Maximilian Kottle wants to see his estranged son Karl one more time before the Reaper comes to collect his bounty. He is dying from cancer, and what was once months has shrunk down to days. He wants to “rent” John Marshall Tanner to find his son. Of course, he doesn’t tell him some key bits of information, like that his son is wanted by the police.
Karl has gone underground and has ties to a terrorist group who blow up buildings to make some hazy political point. They sound more like unhappy, radical people who just hate the world and, certainly, hate successful capitalists, like Maximilian Kottle.
Marsh’s leads chasing after Karl take him into some sordid places, where desperate people are doing desperate things that can make a man of certain sensitivities feel self-conscious being a male of the species.
”I suddenly became conscious of the smells in the room, the smell of fluids gone bad, of slow and damp decomposition, of cheap thrills offered on a bed of artifice and deception. Amber retreated from me slowly, until the backs of her knees came up against the cot and she sat down on it. The bedsprings ached audibly, then were silent. I loomed over Amber like the ghost of perverts past.”
A reporter goes missing; a poet ends up murdered in a park, and another reporter is dogging Marsh, like he has Ghirardelli chocolates strung out behind him like bread crumbs. And then, there is the lovely wife of his client, with a special request, who gives even his dingy office some sparkle it has never had before. ”There shouldn’t have been a light on in my office, and the door with my name on it shouldn’t have been unlocked, and there shouldn’t have been a beautiful woman waiting all alone to see me at that hour of the evening.
But there was.
I hung up my raincoat and turned up the heat and greeted my guest. Her smile dried me off and had me warm before the furnace had a chance.”
There are more frustrations than successes, more dead ends than revelations, but most annoying of all is that his client keeps dying and resurrecting himself, like he is the Lazarus of San Francisco. Marsh is hired, fired, and rehired enough times that he starts to forget his status in the investigation. It eventually all comes together so that Marsh can finally pour himself a stiff drink and pick up that John P. Marquand novel he has been wanting to read, with his feet up on his office desk, surrounded by the shimmering dreams of an unattainable woman.
If you like some City by the Bay in your hardboiled detective novels, Stephen Greenleaf will move you through the streets with a few stops in dens of inequity or in houses of the rich and famous, each proving to be equally treacherous for an ethically minded investigator to navigate.
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
In a while he would be renting me.”
Maximilian Kottle wants to see his estranged son Karl one more time before the Reaper comes to collect his bounty. He is dying from cancer, and what was once months has shrunk down to days. He wants to “rent” John Marshall Tanner to find his son. Of course, he doesn’t tell him some key bits of information, like that his son is wanted by the police.
Karl has gone underground and has ties to a terrorist group who blow up buildings to make some hazy political point. They sound more like unhappy, radical people who just hate the world and, certainly, hate successful capitalists, like Maximilian Kottle.
Marsh’s leads chasing after Karl take him into some sordid places, where desperate people are doing desperate things that can make a man of certain sensitivities feel self-conscious being a male of the species.
”I suddenly became conscious of the smells in the room, the smell of fluids gone bad, of slow and damp decomposition, of cheap thrills offered on a bed of artifice and deception. Amber retreated from me slowly, until the backs of her knees came up against the cot and she sat down on it. The bedsprings ached audibly, then were silent. I loomed over Amber like the ghost of perverts past.”
A reporter goes missing; a poet ends up murdered in a park, and another reporter is dogging Marsh, like he has Ghirardelli chocolates strung out behind him like bread crumbs. And then, there is the lovely wife of his client, with a special request, who gives even his dingy office some sparkle it has never had before. ”There shouldn’t have been a light on in my office, and the door with my name on it shouldn’t have been unlocked, and there shouldn’t have been a beautiful woman waiting all alone to see me at that hour of the evening.
But there was.
I hung up my raincoat and turned up the heat and greeted my guest. Her smile dried me off and had me warm before the furnace had a chance.”
There are more frustrations than successes, more dead ends than revelations, but most annoying of all is that his client keeps dying and resurrecting himself, like he is the Lazarus of San Francisco. Marsh is hired, fired, and rehired enough times that he starts to forget his status in the investigation. It eventually all comes together so that Marsh can finally pour himself a stiff drink and pick up that John P. Marquand novel he has been wanting to read, with his feet up on his office desk, surrounded by the shimmering dreams of an unattainable woman.
If you like some City by the Bay in your hardboiled detective novels, Stephen Greenleaf will move you through the streets with a few stops in dens of inequity or in houses of the rich and famous, each proving to be equally treacherous for an ethically minded investigator to navigate.
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
December 11, 2018
Maximilian Kottle is dying ... all the money he has, which is millions, will not save him. He has less than a month to live and he wants Jon Marshall Tanner, Private Investigator, to honor his last request.
He wants to see his son, who disappeared 10 years ago, was only 20. It was the 60s with the hippies, the world of drugs. the marches, the riots.
Tanner doesn't even really know if the son is still alive, finding him will take all his courage and strength.
I remember a bit of the 60s and the author has nailed it. It was a turbulent time and as I was reading, I could feel the anger, the fear, the apprehension of the time.
This is well-written, suspenseful, and a real page turner. The characters are credible and the story line is exact.
Many thanks to the author / Open Road Integrated Media / Netgalley for the digital copy of this crime fiction. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.
He wants to see his son, who disappeared 10 years ago, was only 20. It was the 60s with the hippies, the world of drugs. the marches, the riots.
Tanner doesn't even really know if the son is still alive, finding him will take all his courage and strength.
I remember a bit of the 60s and the author has nailed it. It was a turbulent time and as I was reading, I could feel the anger, the fear, the apprehension of the time.
This is well-written, suspenseful, and a real page turner. The characters are credible and the story line is exact.
Many thanks to the author / Open Road Integrated Media / Netgalley for the digital copy of this crime fiction. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.
January 22, 2020
Based on pleasant memories of two or three Greenleaf books I read thirty some years ago, I decided to read all of his John Marshall Tanner mysteries in sequence. Death Bed is only the second Tanner book, and already I have second thoughts about continuing down the Greenleaf Road.
The mystery—about the search for a long lost son, a ‘70s radical, by his dying millionaire industrialist father—begins well, and soon separates into two distinct investigations, each of which sparks the reader’s interests. But distracting Chandleresque metaphors abound, colorless minor characters crowd the foreground, and eventually the mystery, which at first promises to be predicable, ends in an unlikely murderer with an unsatisfying murderer.
I think I’ll take a pass on more Greenleaf—at least for now—and read Chester Himes and William Ard instead.
September 25, 2018
The second "Marsh" case, and my second also **yeah, 'I'm anal about reading series in order** :)
And this series is becoming one of my fav's from the '80's & '90's. Hard-boiled, and Marsh could be an heir of Marlowe or Lew Archer. Good stuff!
And this series is becoming one of my fav's from the '80's & '90's. Hard-boiled, and Marsh could be an heir of Marlowe or Lew Archer. Good stuff!
February 29, 2024
This is my first Greenleaf, and I enjoyed it. John Marshal Tanner reminds me of Pronzini's Nameless Detective, but that could just be because Tanner is a bachelor in San Francisco and not getting the full background on the character. Tanner also reminds me a little bit of Parker's Spenser as Tanner has his own code, shown by him being a lawyer before an investigator, but less preachy than Parker. I really enjoyed the build up of his supporting characters, even more so considering how small of parts they received. I will definitely read more of these cool 1970s mysteries.
August 20, 2009
This book is interesting with good details and clear character descriptions. Several mysteries abound within each other while Tanner is trying to find Kyle.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 9, 2018
I liked the style of writing, but the plot was too convoluted for my taste. By the time the author got around to unraveling all the threads he'd dragged in to the story, I was past caring.
February 3, 2021
Billionaire Max Kottle is on his deathbed and he wants P.I. Marsh Tanner to find his estranged son.
Karl Kottle has been missing since a fire at an ROTC building some 10 years before killed a young woman.
It's the end of the 1970's and the dreams of the 60's are but a memory for all concerned - the search gets complicated in short order.
There's a real sense of sleaze in 'Death Bed' as Marsh meets up with the lost, the despairing and the desperate.
At least Marsh ends up with a date with a beautiful woman to mark his entry into the 1980's :)
It's a solid crime noir novel with a good cast of characters. Typical of the genre there is little or no character development, there is, however, a lot of smart talk and comment.
Karl Kottle has been missing since a fire at an ROTC building some 10 years before killed a young woman.
It's the end of the 1970's and the dreams of the 60's are but a memory for all concerned - the search gets complicated in short order.
There's a real sense of sleaze in 'Death Bed' as Marsh meets up with the lost, the despairing and the desperate.
At least Marsh ends up with a date with a beautiful woman to mark his entry into the 1980's :)
It's a solid crime noir novel with a good cast of characters. Typical of the genre there is little or no character development, there is, however, a lot of smart talk and comment.
March 12, 2020
I liked the San Francsico setting , the writing style and the old time crime novel feel. Most of the latter comes from colorful similes. After a while some became very overdone and bad, like parodies. The style was so much better than most current cime novels, but I lost track of, and lost interset in, most characters. There was a lot of tease, leading to nothing.
December 31, 2018
232 pages
July 3, 2020
Very good
September 20, 2021
Ahhhhhhhh, where have you been hiding, Mr. Greenleaf???? Tanner is now my favorite MC!
December 3, 2021
Pretty boilerplate private eye stuff. Nothing here with any verve or surprise.
August 2, 2022
Great book. Very old school detective. I have to find some more of his work.
September 19, 2024
I enjoyed the book up until the end which turned out to be no end. I may have missed something but I don't think Greenleaf finished the book.
February 9, 2011
Unimpressed. The attempts at witty dialogue pale in comparison to my favorite mystery authors. The plot was fairly entertaining with several different threads and came to a logical conclusion. I realize it's an early book in this series, but I see less potential than I do in others. Oh, and though set in San Francisco, I didn't really have a feel for the city like I do in the work of Lescroart.
June 6, 2009
For my money, this is Mr. Greenleaf's classic P.I. novel.
May 15, 2024
A very nice detective novel of the "hard-boiled" school. It isn't terribly recent (maybe 1980ish), but the plot twists and turns satisfactorily and the characters are interesting.
December 19, 2016
Gave up a quarter of the way through
December 14, 2017
Fun, classic-noir detective novel...
June 8, 2021
Written in '79, set in San Francisco. Hard boiled PI but with an education. The story is still gripping even after 40 years.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews