Product Description

Performing a background check on a prospective surrogate mother for childless tycoons Millicent and Stuart Colbert, detective John Marshall Tanner uncovers terrible secrets when the surrogate disappears two months into her pregnancy. Reprint.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1243185 in Books
• Published on: 1997-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 336 pages

Customer Reviews

Another gem by the best hardboiled private eye novelist yet!
Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler and Ross Macdonald have not only found their peer in Stephen Greenleaf, they've found their superior. As an unabashed fan of Chandler's, I must concede, however reluctantly, that Greenleaf is not merely the successor to the hardboiled detective tradition established by Chandler and the others, but the finest practitioner the field has seen yet. The John Marshall Tanner mysteries are marked by the kind of crisp, literate, and often poetic prose usually associated with "mainstream" literary works; fully-fleshed characterizations; acute observations; topical issues; and complex, plausible plots.

Another stellar entry in the series, FALSE CONCEPTION finds Tanner embroiled professionally and emotionally in the lives of a wealthy couple unable to have a child except through surrogacy. When the surrogate mother he's approved for his clients disappears, and he sets out to find her, he unearths some wrenching secrets about all of them--including himself.

This is the kind of great read whose overtones will resonate within you long after you've finished it

Weak writing, OK plot
The writing style of this book was so stilted and awkward that I almost abandoned the effort of reading it after the first chapter. As an example, here's the first sentence:

"What do you know about surrogate parenthood?" he asked, his lush black brows raised in elaborate innocence, as if the question were as offhand as a query about oat bran or Coxey's Army.

The plot is standard who's-the-father twisted family mystery fare, nothing original, but at least complicated enough to maintain interest. But I could have done without the overlong explanation of what surrogate parenting entails. And did I mention the bad writing?

Life is too short to read mediocre books like this. I would recommend Dennis Lehane or Robert Crais instead.

Exciting new find for me
Wow! What a great find for me! This book is exciting, fast-paced, and realistic with a P.I. I truly like. The writing is crisp....the plot believable... and the mystery unravels page by page. I would highly recommend this to all true mystery lovers.