Death Bed: A Detective Story

by Stephen Greenleaf

Book Overview

Cloth & Boards. Near Fine/Very Good. First Edition. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Book about fine, dj has some wear at the spine tips. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0803717016
• ISBN13: 9780803717015
• Release Date: January 1980
• Publisher: Dial Books for Young Readers
• Length: 306 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Sophomore title one of the best in the PI series

I really grooved on DEATH BED. PI Marshall Tanner shines through as a character and the voice is pitch-perfect. This early in the series, Marshall focuses on the investigation of an unusual request from a dying man. Original premise, sharp dialogue, heady pace all combine to make this one of the best in the series. Mr. Greenleaf is often compared to the giant Ross Macdonald and for good reason.

Imagine, a PI novel dealing with the investigation of crime.

Death Bed by Stephen Greenleaf has the flavor of a Chandler novel and the credibility of a police report. If you like unending monologues about clothes, cats, chocolate, refried beans, gourmet coffee, or obscure musical instruments dating from the Rennaisance--save yourself the time. Do not read this book. Greenleaf's protagonist, John Marshall Tanner, a San Francisco PI, is primarily concerned with chasing down leads and getting to the bottom of things. The streets may at times get mean and gritty. Tanner may occasionally barge in where he is not welcomed like your dear Aunt Sally. He may ask difficult questions and sometimes insists on answers, even at the risk of speaking impolitely. The case in Death Bed contains at least a few echoes of Chandler's The Big Sleep. The client is a rich old gent who is literally on his death bed. The mystery revolves around the wayward son (rather than daughters), and whom the client wants found. Along the way we encounter a variety of credible characters, not the least of which is the Serpico-like reporter who loses himself for months at a time on the trails of his own investigations, and may have finally gone too far. Greenleaf's prose is smooth and craftsman-like and full of artful touches of metaphor and simile. There is a decided lack of emoting on the part of his PI, but in this hand-wringing, anxiety-laded, compassion-bloated epoch of amateurs masquerading as pros the absence comes as something of a relief. "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 if he owned any 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....."