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.

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.

The New York Times Book Review, Marilyn Stasio
...[Stephen] Greenleaf manages to make a scorching case against a feudal business that keeps its workers in virtual slavery.

From AudioFile
This book continues the John Marshal Tanner series with investigator Tanner hospitalized and recovering from a gunshot wound. When a fellow patient he befriends is murdered, Tanner must look for her killer. Brian Emerson narrates a steadfast story with energetic prose. He projects Tanner's intelligence, brooding and toughness and captures each of the remaining characters with singular distinction. Revelations of the social-political chasm between strawberry pickers and owners also become apparent as the investigation reaches its conclusion. B.J.L. (c) AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Kirkus Reviews
Convalescing in San Francisco General after trading shots with his best friend Charley Sleet (Past Tense, 1997), shamus John Marshall Tanner is a sitting duck for this season's hopeless cause, the plight of the Salinas strawberry growers personified by saintly UFS organizer Rita Lombardi, who's recuperating down the hall from an operation to straighten her long-crippled legs. Since Rita's put whatever little sparkle Marsh's surviving friends have found in his eyes, he's eager to give her a call in Haciendas (pop. 1982) when he gets out. By that time, though, she's already been killed in a savage attack that's left her fianc, independent grower Carlos Reyna, grim-faced and her mother, widowed 26 years ago by a hit-and-run driver, frozen in grief. Rita's family and friends aren't too dazed to denounce seigneurial grower Gus Gelbride, who runs everything in Haciendas but his uncontrollable wild-oats son Randy. Even though the case would be much too simple if Gus or Randy had killed Rita, Marsh digs up enough dirt on them to paint an appetizingly nasty family portrait and make you cringe with guilt next time you bite into a non-unionpicked strawberry. Sadly, his idea of detecting this time out is to bed down with the comely ADA who's trying to question him about Charley Sleet, invite the Gelbrides to tell him what Rita had on them, and accuse the wrong suspects of killing her. Despite a solution that's a lot less inventive and satisfying than the red herrings, Marsh's 13th offers another professional job of muckraking. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

John Marshall Tanner is a reluctant survivor. Some days, as he lies in a hospital bed struggling to recuperate from a near-fatal gunshot wound, he figures life is hardly worth living. One of the few people who can bring him out of his depression is young Rita Lombardi, in the hospital for surgery on a disfiguring birthmark and clubfeet. Rita and Tanner walk the halls together, pulling their IVs behind them, discussing the big and small issues of life: Rita's love for her friend Carlos and her passion for her special corner of the world - the strawberry fields of California's Salinas Valley. Rita never gets to welcome Tanner to her town of Haciendas. When Tanner recovers enough to call Rita, he receives some devastating news. Rita is dead, murdered by an unknown assailant.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

At the end of Past Tense, 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.

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.

AudioFile - Beth J. Long

This book continues the John Marshal Tanner series with investigator Tanner hospitalized and recovering from a gunshot wound. When a fellow patient he befriends is murdered, Tanner must look for her killer. Brian Emerson narrates a steadfast story with energetic prose. He projects Tanner's intelligence, brooding and toughness and captures each of the remaining characters with singular distinction. Revelations of the social-political chasm between strawberry pickers and owners also become apparent as the investigation reaches its conclusion. B.J.L. c AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Marilyn Stasio

Tanner doesn't know beans about the strawberry-growing business...but he's a genius at the P.I.'s peculiar skill of relating to strangers. -- The New York Times Book Review

Kirkus Reviews

Convalescing in San Francisco General after trading shots with his best friend Charley Sleet (Past Tense), shamus John Marshall Tanner is a sitting duck for this season's hopeless cause, the plight of the Salinas strawberry growers personified by saintly UFS organizer Rita Lombardi, who's recuperating down the hall from an operation to straighten her long-crippled legs. Since Rita's put whatever little sparkle Marsh's surviving friends have found in his eyes, he's eager to give her a call in Haciendas (pop. 1982) when he gets out. By that time, though, she's already been killed in a savage attack that's left her fiancé, independent grower Carlos Reyna, grim-faced and her mother, widowed 26 years ago by a hit-and-run driver, frozen in grief. Rita's family and friends aren't too dazed to denounce seigneurial grower Gus Gelbride, who runs everything in Haciendas but his uncontrollable wild-oats son Randy. Even though the case would be much too simple if Gus or Randy had killed Rita, Marsh digs up enough dirt on them to paint an appetizingly nasty family portrait and make you cringe with guilt next time you bite into a non-union-picked strawberry. Sadly, his idea of detecting this time out is to bed down with the comely ADA who's trying to question him about Charley Sleet, invite the Gelbrides to tell him what Rita had on them, and accuse the wrong suspects of killing her. Despite a solution that's a lot less inventive and satisfying than the red herrings, Marsh's 13th offers another professional job of muckraking.