Going Crazy in Public: A Mac Fontana Mystery [Hardcover]

Earl W. Emerson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1996

Staircase, Washington, fire chief Mac Fontana struggles to get past his wife's death, as a serial arsonist hits town, Staircase residents call for action, and members of the media start poking into Mac's private life. By the author of Morons and Madmen.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this chatty whodunit, fire chief Mac Fontana (Morons and Madmen), a no-nonsense and likable guy, takes on a serial arsonist who is toasting tiny Staircase, Wash., one corner at a time. The fires are only a nuisance at first, but the horizon darkens with the first fire fatality in the town's 100-year history. Residents assume the culprit is the same one who has been hard at work in nearby Seattle. But after Fontana's son is endangered by one of the blazes, the chief is convinced the arsonist is someone from Staircase-maybe someone in his department-with a grudge against him. There are plenty of candidates: the firefighter who didn't make it onto the force because his job was given to a woman; the pompous town safety director who is after Fontana's job. Most intriguing of all, at least to the townspeople and the national media, is the possibility that the fires are being set by the young son of a movie star who has come to Staircase to escape her celebrity. Emerson, himself a Seattle firefighter, makes a convincing case that fire departments aren't just a bunch of guys and a couple of dalmations hanging out at the station-although Fontana can chew the fat with the best of them. In his view, arsonists may be a step or two above the tabloid press. The humor is of the physical sort, the characters are refreshingly unromantic and the action will leave readers with a compulsion to check their smoke detector batteries regularly.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Despite an outbreak of arson in Staircase, Wash., it looks for a while as if the dramatic high points of fire chief Mac Fontana's summer will be a fire drill at the local nudist colony and Fontana's run-in with a pistol-packing former actress with whom gossip soon, and inaccurately, links him romantically. But that's before there are two suspicious blazes the same night--and one of them, in the Cove Road house where Fontana's son Brendan is staying, claims the life of ancient Lorraine Gilliam (Staircase's first fire fatality in a century, Fontana tells a pesky freelance reporter, who promptly crucifies him in the Seattle Times). Could the arsonist be the bumptious hero who led five victims out of the Cove Road fire? The despised Staircase safety director who's had Fontana in his sights forever? The sometime volunteer who hadn't answered his pager ever since flunking the fire-department exam--until the recent arson rash brought him back? Or (as seems increasingly likely) is everybody in Staircase--from the actress's retarded son to the wealthy couple whose every possession seems combustible--getting into the act? Fontana's fourth (Morons and Madmen, 1993, etc.) features droll small-town backchat and some great fires--even if too many torchers do spoil the blaze. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 241 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow & Co; 1st edition (June 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688137504
• ISBN-13: 978-0688137502
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,056,164 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Goin Crazy in Staircase once again offers entertaining cast., November 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Going Crazy in Public: A Mac Fontana Mystery (Hardcover)

In this fourth volume of the Mac Fontana series, Earl Emerson offers up an entertaining cast of offbeat characters and fast paced storyline. This time around the story revolves around a copy-cat arsonist who is setting fires in Staircase. Nearby Seattle also has an arsonist on their hands. Mac has to solve this mystery whilst protecting his own son, battling small time politics, romancing a celebrity in hiding, catching dog killers, keeping an eye on power hungry safety directors and putting out fires in and around town, including false alarms at the local nudist colony.

This Mac Fontana is good, but not as good as Morons and Madmen, or even Black Hearts and Slow Dancing. However, it is still a lot of fun and Emerson has once again written another winner.