Stephen Greenleaf: Toll Call (UK 2016)

From the Publisher:
He thought he knew everything about her... but someone knew more.
Peggy Nettleton has been a loyal secretary to P.I. John Marshall Tanner for over eight years, and he thought he knew her well. But a mysterious phone caller, who threatens Peggy with mutilation if she doesn't tell him her most intimate secrets, seems to know her better.

Tanner sets out to silence the caller once and for all in a violent, treacherous case that hits a little too close to home, uncovering secrets and hidden desires along the way.

Stephen Greenleaf: Toll Call. A John Marshall Tanner Mystery. Mulholland Books, ISBN: 9781473624078 (April, 2016), eBook, 3.6 MB (ca. 380 p.), £9.99 (?).

Stephen Greenleaf: Toll Call (USA 2016)

From the Publisher:
John Marshall Tanner will go above and beyond to protect his secretary from a stalker
John Marshall Tanner finds his secretary slumped over on the sofa, her arm draped across her face. This private eye has seen enough death that, for a moment, he thinks Peggy Nettleton has been murdered. Fortunately, after a moment's panic, he realizes she has simply dozed off. Tanner has worked alongside Peggy for eight years, and if something happened to her, it would shatter him. Unfortunately, that grim nightmare is about to come true.

For weeks now, Peggy has been getting obscene phone calls from one of the most deranged minds in San Francisco. To set her mind at rest, Tanner goes looking for the caller -- a decision that sends him down a path of madness and murder that could either push him into Peggy's arms or separate them forever.

Toll Call is the 6th book in the John Marshall Tanner Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

"Stephen Greenleaf's John Marshall Tanner series improves with age... . One of the most convincing of today's private eyes." -- San Diego Union
"A superior writer." -- The New York Times on Fatal Obsession

Stephen Greenleaf: Toll Call. A John Marshall Tanner Mystery. MysteriousPress.com / Open Road Media, ISBN: 9781504027311 (February, 2016), eBook, 3.6 MB (ca. 380 p.), $9.99.

Stephen Greenleaf: Toll Call (USA 1994)

From the Publisher:
"ONE OF HIS BEST... An extremely satisfying story." -- THE ORLANDO SENTINEL
He seemed to know all about her.
But he wanted to know more.
Peggy had been P.I. Marsh Tanner's secretary for eight years, and he thought he knew her well. But he didn't know half as much as the phone caller, the mystery man who called Peggy at home and threatened her with mutilation if she refused to tell him her most intimate secrets and desires. And he could never have imagined that Peggy might grow to love the calls as much as she hated them.

But in the treacherous, twisted days that were to follow, there was much about Peggy -- and himself -- that Marsh Tanner would wish he didn't know...

"Stephen Greenleaf's John Marshall Tanner series improves with age. Tanner [is]...altogether one of the most convincing of today's private eyes." -- THE SAN DIEGO UNION

Stephen Greenleaf: Toll Call. A John Marshall Tanner Mystery. Ballantine Books, ISBN: 0345353498 (January, 1994 / 3rd printing), 297 p., $4.99.

Stephen Greenleaf: Toll Call (USA 1988)

From the Publisher:
"STEPHEN GREENLEAF'S JOHN MARSHALL TANNER SERIES IMPROVES WITH AGE. TANNER [IS]... ALTOGETHER ONE OF THE MOST CONVINCING OF TODAY'S PRIVATE EYES." -- San Diego Union

He seemed to know all about her. But he wanted to know more.
Peggy had been P. I. Marsh Tanner's secretary for eight years, and he thought he knew her well. But he didn't know half as much as the phone caller, the mystery man who called Peggy at home and threatened her with mutilation if she refused to tell him her most intimate secrets and desires. And he could never have imagined that Peggy might grow to love the calls as much as she hated them.

But in the treacherous, twisted days that were to follow, there was much about Peggy -- and himself -- that Marsh Tanner would wish he didn't know...
TOLL CALL

Stephen Greenleaf: Toll Call. Featuring John Marshall Tanner in a case that hits too close to home... Ballantine Books, ISBN: 0345353498 (October, 1988), 297 p., $3.95.

Stephen Greenleaf: Toll Call (USA 1987)

From the Publisher:
Stephen Greenleaf, whom The New York Times Book Review calls "a superior writer... his books are being talked about in terms of Hammett and Chandler," and whose mysteries contain what the Philadelphia Inquirer calls "some of the best writing this side of MacDonald, Chandler and company," is back with his newest and richest John Marshall Tanner mystery yet.

"Tell me something, Marsh. When you go to all that trouble to change your telephone number, how does someone learn the new one so fast?" This enigmatic question is Marsh's only clue to what is troubling Peggy Nettleton. And it leads him into a case that proves to be his most challenging, personally as well as professionally.

Peggy Nettleton has been Marsh's secretary for eight years. Theirs is a solid relationship marked by respect and affection. But now Peggy is in trouble, and she's not willing to talk about it. Marsh isn't willing to let her alone, however. He is determined to put a stop to whoever -- or whatever -- is threatening her.

Someone has been calling Peggy nightly, someone with a twisted and evil purpose, demanding that she reveal her most intimate secrets, and threatening her if she doesn't obey. In the months since the phone calls began, Peggy has slowly become enslaved by this ritual, a psychological victim of a man she doesn't know and has never seen, but who knows everything about her.

In the course of tracking down the caller, Marsh meets the people who are part of Peggy's life: a neighbor who lives in paranoid fear that her own daughter will be a kidnapping victim; a petty sex offender with an eye for Peggy; a tax lawyer who collects bizarre art and oversized receptionists; and Peggy's daughter's drugged-out boyfriend who's trying to extort money in order to start an experimental theater. Marsh must also confront his own role in Peggy's life, because during the investigation he learns more about her than he perhaps has the right -- or desire -- to know. Thrown together in a situation neither of them fully understands, Marsh and Peggy test the limits of their feelings for each other, and emerge with their relationship irrevocably changed.

Toll Call is Stephen Greenleaf's best mystery to date, a superb, suspenseful novel that examines the nature of love, sex, intimidation, and fear. Greenleaf has written a compelling mystery that will delight and satisfy all Tanner fans as well as invite new readers to join the ranks.

STEPHEN GREENLEAF was born in Washington, D.C., and grew up in Centerville, Iowa. He has received degrees from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, and from the Boalt Hall School of Law of the University of California, Berkeley. After serving two years in the army, including a year in Vietnam, he practiced law for five years before beginning to write fiction.

Four of his five previous books feature private detective John Marshall Tanner of San Francisco. His fifth book, The Ditto List, was Mr. Greenleaf's first nonmystery novel. Mr. Greenleaf lives in Oregon with his wife, Ann, an author of children's books, and his son, Aaron.

Jacket illustration by Larry Noble
Jacket design by Wendy Bass

Stephen Greenleaf: Toll Call. A John Marshall Tanner Mystery. Villard Books; ISBN: 0394541162 (March, 1987), 311 p., $16.95.