I picked this one up immediately after finishing [Past Tense], the previous book in the Marsh Tanner series. Predictably, it wasn't nearly as good. Greenleaf was kind of on a crusade; way too much social education about the plight of Mexican laborers in the California strawberry fields. It could have been done with a lighter hand to better effect in context of the story, but he just didn't handle it well. I kept thinking, "let's move the story along, shall we?" as page after page went by with nothing dramatically necessary happening. Two red herrings and wrong conclusions by our hero and then he just solved everything with a "well, since those two people weren't the murderer, I know who it was" kind of attitude. A distinct disappointment.
Reviewed in 2007 ( )

Audiobook. I’ve been a huge fan of this series, and I’ve read all, now that I finished this one. Probably not the best one to read last as I found it a bit off. I rarely mind an author who makes it clear where he stands on an issue, and my heart goes out to the strawberry workers who work extremely hard for a ridiculously small amount of money. I get that, but Greenleaf hammers it home a bit too forcefully, I think.

Tanner is in the hospital after being shot in the final scene of the previous book in the series, Past Tense (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/510230642). His recovery is paralleled by that of Rita Lombardi. They become friends and Tanner is shocked when he hears of her death in the strawberry country of California. He decides to investigate and find out why she was murdered.

The weakest parts of the book are Tanner’s ruminations on strawberry farming and his relationship with Rita. The characters border on stereotypical: the big bad farm owner who can’t leave the last authoritarian century; his ne'er-do-well children, the small town cops in thrall to the big landowner, etc., etc. And Tanner’s investigation seems to consist mostly of conversations with the principals from which he draws erroneous conclusions, acting on them too swiftly. He stumbles a lot in this book, and not just with the investigation. Too many loose ends, I fear. Still, the better parts outnumber the weaker, so I enjoyed it. ( )