Stephen Greenleaf: State's Evidence (USA 2016)

From the Publisher:
To clean up a rotten town, John Marshall Tanner goes after the city's most powerful villain
El Gordo is a quiet little city just outside of San Francisco, with a charming town square, a few local businesses, and the most corrupt police force in the state of California. John Marshall Tanner has worked a case here before, and it nearly ended with him taking a beating. When the private detective returns to El Gordo, it will be his life on the line.

A new district attorney is fighting to clean up this rotten burg, and he wants Tanner's help. One of the richest men in town killed a nobody in a hit-and-run, and the culprit is doing everything he can to buy his way out of trouble. In the old days, that would have been simple. But with the DA backing him up, Tanner will scrub El Gordo clean -- no matter how much blood stains its filthy streets.

State's Evidence is the 3rd book in the John Marshall Tanner Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

"A superior writer." -- The New York Times on Fatal Obsession
"The legitimate heir to the mantle of the late Ross MacDonald." -- Chicago Tribune

Stephen Greenleaf: State's Evidence. A John Marshall Tanner Mystery. MysteriousPress.com / Open Road Media, ISBN: 9781504021005 (February, 2016), eBook, 3.6 MB (ca. 357 p.), $7.99.

Stephen Greenleaf: State's Evidence (UK 2016)

From the Publisher:
San Francisco P.I. John Marshall Tanner is called in to help a crusading district attorney locate the only reliable witness to a mob-orchestrated hit-and-run killing. But is ex-model Teresa Blair hiding out, or is someone holding her hostage?

As Tanner investigates mob culture in the Bay Area and examines Teresa's privileged life, he discovers that mobster Tony Fluto isn't the only person to want her dead.

The closer Tanner gets to the truth, the more he realises that everyone from Teresa's business partner to her best friend to her husband has something to hide - including Teresa herself.

Stephen Greenleaf: State's Evidence. A John Marshall Tanner Mystery. Mulholland Books, ISBN: 9781473624047 (January, 2016), eBook, 570 KB (ca. 240 p.), £9.99.

Stephen Greenleaf: State's Evidence (USA 1992)

From the Publisher:
THE LADY VANISHES
It begins with a mob-orchestrated hit-and-run "accident." Now a crusading assistant D.A. hires San Francisco P.I. John Marshall Tanner to find the only reliable witness to the crime. A gorgeous ex-model named Teresa Blair has disappeared and it's up to Tanner to find out if she's only hiding -- or if she's the victim of foul play.

The name Tony Fluto has the same effect on everyone in the town of El Gordo: paralyzing fear. But the mobster wasn't the only one who had a reason for wanting Teresa out of commission. For the closer Tanner got to the truth the more he realized that everyone, from her business partner to her best friend to her husband, had something to hide -- including Teresa herself.

STATE'S EVIDENCE

"THE LONG-SOUGHT HEIR OF SAM SPADE, MARLOWE AND ARCHER" -- San Francisco Examiner
"THE TANNER MYSTERIES ARE STANDOUTS." -- Chicago Sun-Times

Cover art by Nicholas Rozsa.

Stephen Greenleaf: State's Evidence. A John Marshall Tanner Mystery. Bantam Books, ISBN: 0553293494 (January, 1992), 308 p., $4.99.

Stephen Greenleaf: State's Evidence (USA 1983)

From the Publisher:
"THE LONG-SOUGHT HEIR OF SAM SPADE, MARLOWE AND ARCHER." -- San Francisco Examiner
A gorgeous ex-model, the only witness to a Mob-engineered hit-and-run "accident," suddenly disappears. Is she kidnapped -- or hiding out?

Don't ask her husband, a rich California accountant and Zen Buddhist. Or her best friend, a tennis club queen who prefers chasing men and booze to tennis balls. Or the crime boss too powerful to talk -- or too much in the dark to know.

Ask John Marshall Tanner, the hard-boiled San Francisco sleuth of the '80s, the man who can find the answers to crime's toughest questions.

"THE TANNER MYSTERIES ARE STANDOUTS." -- Chicago Sun-Times
"PURE AND TOTAL PLEASURE!" -- The New Yorker

Stephen Greenleaf: State's Evidence. Ballantine Books, ISBN: 0345308697 (May, 1983), 248 p., $2.50.

Stephen Greenleaf: State's Evidence (USA 1982)

From the Publisher:
Critics have been comparing Detective John Marshall Tanner to Philip Marlowe and Sam Spade. Now Tanner, back for this third appearance in State's Evidence, has been hired to track down a gorgeous California model. Teresa Blair is the case against Mob boss Tony Fluto -- she's the only reliable witness to a hit-and-run "accident" perpetrated by Fluto. But suddenly Teresa is found to be missing. Which is hardly surprising.

The surprise is that no one seems to know very much about Teresa or her past -- and that includes her husband, James, an accountant and Zen Buddhist disciple so calm and contemplative that his company can be really deadly; and Teresa's best friend at the tennis club, Tancy Verritt, a snazzy society lady who spends a lot more time chasing liquor and men than tennis balls.

The closer Tanner gets to Teresa's mysterious past, the more uncertain his own future becomes, especially in the hands of such unfriendly persuaders as street-fighting gangs, goons who play with fire, and opponents trained to deal out death as logically as chess players. Nevertheless, Tanner learns that the dimensions of the case are far bigger and wider than he could imagine in even his worst nightmares.

The first book in Stephen Greenleaf's Tanner series, Grave Error, was a Mystery Guild Alternate Selection, and the second, Death Bed, was a Dual Main Selection of the Playboy Book Club. Mr. Greenleaf currently lives in Oregon, where he is writing his next Tanner detective novel, as well as another novel.

Jacket illustration by Gary Cooley

Stephen Greenleaf: State's Evidence. The Dial Press, ISBN: 0385272367 (May, 1982), 310 p., $15.95.