The Dead Horse Paint Company [Mass Market Paperback]

Earl W. Emerson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1998

The fire at the Dead Horse Paint Company, a huge barn of a store, was a nightmare come true. Lives lost, lives wrecked, Staircase Fire Chief Mac Fontana himself a witness to the carnage. But it wasn't only the fire that raged out of control, it was also the team of firefighters - who committed a series of grave missteps and ended up having to cover their tracks. Now, years later, the horror comes roaring back. Callahan, the arrogant old fire chief, has been invited to defend his role in a convention seminar on the Dead Horse Paint Company fire. The entire firefighting community, including survivors of the fire, has gathered in Seattle for this. But before Callahan can utter a word, he is found in the trunk of a car - burned, ironically, to a crisp - in the snowy hills outside the town. Is it payback time? First tragedy, now murder - with apparently a lot in between. Fontana, no longer a disinterested party, has to dig painfully into his memory to find the way out of this one.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Nine people died in the fire that destroyed the Dead Horse Paint Company--a massive warehouse with a stuffed horse as its mascot. Now, several years later, people are still dying because of it. As in all the rest of Earl Emerson's superior, scrupulously crafted books about firefighter Mac Fontana, fire itself is one of the main characters: the way it ebbs and roars, the way it fools people into thinking they've beaten it. Fontana, now the fire chief in the small Washington state town of Staircase, was one of the survivors of Dead Horse. When an old boss (and enemy) is found burned to death in the trunk of his car in Mac's vicinity, all the fear and anger surrounding the killer blaze implodes out of the past. Other Fontana fire-eaters available in paperback are Going Crazy in Public and Morons and Madmen. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

A fire at a paint company claims the lives of nine firefighters. Years later, the man responsible for those deaths--the former fire chief--is found dead in the trunk of his burned-out car. And the prime suspect is one of his former firefighters, Mac Fontana, now the chief of a small-town fire department in the Cascade Mountains near Seattle. To prove his innocence, Mac must find the real killer. This fifth Mac Fontana mystery is a moderate success. It's stylishly written, with engaging characters and plenty of insight into the life of a firefighter (Emerson works for the Seattle Fire Department). However, its one major drawback--the identity of the murderer is obvious as soon as the character enters the story--weakens the novel considerably. Although Emerson's fans will probably enjoy this installment in the series, other readers may put it down unfinished. David Pitt --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 278 pages
• Publisher: Avon Books (Mm) (April 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380724383
• ISBN-13: 978-0380724383
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,133,375 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Macho? I think not!, November 6, 2000

By 

Gabrielle Luthy (Paris, France) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Dead Horse Paint Company (Mass Market Paperback)

Just like Thomas Black, Mac Fontana is a character I--a macho-disliking female--love! I'm wondering if some people miss the irony in Earl's books. I started reading him because I was with a friend on vacation and she could hardly put "Dead Horse" down. I ordered one of his books off Amazon, devoured it in about 2 hours, then went out the next day and ordered every other single title of his I could get my hands on, and read them one per day.

Dead Horse is my favorite of his books, next to "The Portland Laugher". It's Mac at his finest--uncertain, a little vulnerable, but determined to do the right thing. Even if he doesn't always know what that should be...

Yes, his writing can be a little choppy at times, but that's a style thing. I'm used to it, and I like it. I don't think it's a good idea to ever come in at the end of a series, particularly when so much of the character groundwork has already been laid. It begs the comment "....

The only bad thing I can say about this book is that it's been far too long without a sequel. Earl! Please! The suspense is killing me!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars He writes about people who seem real, April 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Dead Horse Paint Company (Mass Market Paperback)

I live in the Northwest and can put myself in the real life situations he writes about. Why do we have to wait so long inbetween books. I am hungrey for more.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mac Fontana is priceless., March 2, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Columbus, Ohio, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Dead Horse Paint Company (Mass Market Paperback)

In the past month I discovered Emerson's Thomas Black mysteries and was so consumed by them (or did I consume them?) that after finishing them all I headed right back to the store for as many of the Mac Fontana series as I could find.

As a general rule, I don't care for continuing characters in mystery -- they rarely have enough "character" to hold my interest for more than 2 or 3 books. Emerson's work is miraculously entertaining for book after book, for both the Black and the Fontana series. His minor characters are as memorable as his heroes, and Mac Fontana is a real delight (and I know comparisons are odious, but what a treat to read a Fontana book after that dismal Kinsey Milhone character perpetrated by Sue Grafton, which I gave up on after letter C).

I can't say that "Dead Horse " is the best of the Fontana series for the simple reason that all the Fontana books are so pleasing to me that it would be insolence on my part to rate one of them higher than another.

I, too, must take issue with the reader who didn't like the chapter titles. I think writing interesting chapter titles is very nearly a lost art form, and feel much indebted to Emerson for his chapter headers. (In particular, the opening chapter of Dead Horse has a fine title that I showed around the office to those of a scatological nature.)

Please, Mr. Emerson, stay out of burning buildings! Your books have become essential to my well-being.