From Publishers Weekly John Marshall Tanner recounts his latest grim experiences in Greenleaf's fifth novel about this California private eye. In Berkeley， Lawrence Usser is notorious for defending criminals as insane and therefore not guilty. When the lawyer is arrested for the vicious murder of his wife Dianne， her parents hire Tanner to prove the accused sane， to prevent him from escaping justice. Questioning people close to the Ussers， Tanner clashes with Lawrence's psychiatrist who has also treated the couple's young daughter Lisa， a runaway. The detective finds Lisa strung out on drugs and holed up with a gang playing weird games in Berkeley's sub-human corners. Before Tanner solves his knotty case， the plot grows to Byzantine dimensions， with elaborations that strain belief， in spite of its timely and vital subject and the author's superior literary skills. January 27Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information， Inc. Book Description "Readers who like their private-eye novels witty， literate， and properly balanced between misanthropy and compassion will find Stephen Greenleaf's BEYOND BLAME exactly to taste."NEWSWEEKPsychologist Dianne Renzel has been brutally butchered in her own bed. The evidence points to her husband， Lawrence Usser， a brilliant law professor， whose speciality is the successful use of the insanity defense for a variety of unsavory clients.Now Dianne's parents have hired Tanner to make sure Usser doesn't use his customary fancy legal footwork to skip the rap for his own wife's murder. But as Tanner digs into the case， assumption after assumption gives way to question after question， and soon it's nearly impossible to know who is guilty and who is beyond blame....From the Paperback edition. See all Editorial Reviews