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Mac Fontana #1
Black Hearts and Slow Dancing
Temporarily assuming the role of Deputy Sheriff of Staircase, fire chief Mac Fontana investigates the murder of a lone-wolf Seattle firefighter and uncovers a conspiracy that threatens his own life. Reprint.
243 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1988
About the author
Earl Emerson
33 books93 followersEarl Emerson is a lieutenant in the Seattle Fire Department. He is the Shamus Award-winning author of Vertical Burn, as well as the Thomas Black detective series. He lives in North Bend, Washington.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
February 16, 2018
PROTAGONIST: Mac Fontana, fire chief
SETTING: Small town in Washington State
SERIES: #1
RATING: 3.5
WHY: Mac Fontana is a fireman who had an incident when working back East; he's now serving as the chief in the small town of Staircase, WA. The mayor asks him to temporarily serve as sheriff. In that role, he investigates the disappearance of Seattle fireman Steve Zajax. He has to deal with the politics of the department as wwell as a sexy woman who confuses the heck out of him. There are several deaths, and his own life is threatened. After the investigation, he is more than happy to give up the sheriff job. Firefighting details are well done and could only have been written by someone with deep experience.
SETTING: Small town in Washington State
SERIES: #1
RATING: 3.5
WHY: Mac Fontana is a fireman who had an incident when working back East; he's now serving as the chief in the small town of Staircase, WA. The mayor asks him to temporarily serve as sheriff. In that role, he investigates the disappearance of Seattle fireman Steve Zajax. He has to deal with the politics of the department as wwell as a sexy woman who confuses the heck out of him. There are several deaths, and his own life is threatened. After the investigation, he is more than happy to give up the sheriff job. Firefighting details are well done and could only have been written by someone with deep experience.
May 23, 2018
The first in a series of six 90s novels, Black Hearts is an old-fashioned black novel, with his life-battered character, fire chief and acting Sheriff of a small town on the Seattle back country. While he deals with the murder of a firefighter colleague, assisted by a police dog responding to the sweet name of Satan, Mac Fontana will not let go before reaching the end of the investigation.
It is very well done, despite a reading made difficult by a vocabulary very tinged with slang.
It is very well done, despite a reading made difficult by a vocabulary very tinged with slang.
November 1, 2015
This is #1 in A Mac Fontana Mystery.
From the cover and the title, I thought it would be a cozy, but it really isn't. It moves at a very fast pace and Mac is a retired fire fighter/investigator from back east. The mayor of the small town that he live in outside of Seattle asked him to be Sheriff for the day. On that day, he finds a murdered man and proceeds to find the murderer. This book talks a lot about the fire department and how things work there.
I found it an interesting read, because I used to live in the Seattle area and I could envision some of the places he visited in Seattle.
I loved the dog in this book and he played somewhat of a major part in this book too. I hope he is in the rest of this series too. The mayor and Mac's son are small parts in the story but very interesting characters.
I am giving this 4 out of 5 stars.
From the cover and the title, I thought it would be a cozy, but it really isn't. It moves at a very fast pace and Mac is a retired fire fighter/investigator from back east. The mayor of the small town that he live in outside of Seattle asked him to be Sheriff for the day. On that day, he finds a murdered man and proceeds to find the murderer. This book talks a lot about the fire department and how things work there.
I found it an interesting read, because I used to live in the Seattle area and I could envision some of the places he visited in Seattle.
I loved the dog in this book and he played somewhat of a major part in this book too. I hope he is in the rest of this series too. The mayor and Mac's son are small parts in the story but very interesting characters.
I am giving this 4 out of 5 stars.
May 7, 2015
#1 in the Mac Fontana series. I enjoy this relatively short lived series (5 entries) at least as much as author Emerson's better known Thomas Black series.
Mac Fontana left an Eastern city fire department after 18 years and is content to be chief of the fire department in Staircase, a hamlet east of Seattle. The mayor, Maureen Costigan, persuades Mac to fill the sheriff's job for one day to get through an insurance inspection. He inherits the old sheriff's dog Satan, the corpse of a Seattle firefighter, and a murderous arsonist.
Mac Fontana left an Eastern city fire department after 18 years and is content to be chief of the fire department in Staircase, a hamlet east of Seattle. The mayor, Maureen Costigan, persuades Mac to fill the sheriff's job for one day to get through an insurance inspection. He inherits the old sheriff's dog Satan, the corpse of a Seattle firefighter, and a murderous arsonist.
April 29, 2025
The author is a fireman from the Pacific Northwest and sets his tales in recognizable areas around Seattle and towns to the east.
This one lays the groundworks for his character Mac Fontana, who lost his wife and is raising his young son Brendan in the fictional town of Staircase, east of Seattle. He's agreed to be the fire chief and has temporarily been pushed into being the police chief as well when a firefighter is found abused and dead out in a remote part of town.
There's the murdered fireman, his girlfriend, a real estate developer, maybe some firebugs cashing in on real estate and fires, the developer's security detail, a crooked fire chief, the town mayor, his predecessor's trained German Shepherd.....
This one lays the groundworks for his character Mac Fontana, who lost his wife and is raising his young son Brendan in the fictional town of Staircase, east of Seattle. He's agreed to be the fire chief and has temporarily been pushed into being the police chief as well when a firefighter is found abused and dead out in a remote part of town.
There's the murdered fireman, his girlfriend, a real estate developer, maybe some firebugs cashing in on real estate and fires, the developer's security detail, a crooked fire chief, the town mayor, his predecessor's trained German Shepherd.....
August 15, 2024
I used to read a lot of Earl Emerson but it's been a long time and I've changed and so has Emerson. The story is about Seattle and environs and features fire departments high jinks and police departments along with corruption and crime. He can write a pretty good story but I'm so tired of macho men, their slimeball friends and the filthy ramblings of he-men flipping from one woman to another. The one thing I can say is that the bad guys are not always guys, most of the women are as despicable as the men. He can show some ability to apply comedy to some pretty nasty tales, but it is never well balanced or quite as funny as it could be. Guess that's the last Emerson I'll be reading.
February 7, 2023
This mystery was really gripping and super fast paced! I couldn’t put it down. I believe Earl Emerson was a fire fighter himself, and you can really tell with the way he writes about it.
My main complaint is just that the language was pretty outdated for these days, which made it difficult to read sometimes.
My main complaint is just that the language was pretty outdated for these days, which made it difficult to read sometimes.
June 12, 2023
Definitely entertaining, regionally interesting, and interesting characters.
August 2, 2017
A solid start for a series. It has characters I'll look forward to meeting again. Nice northwest setting, that the author knows well, and a very exciting ending. Give it a try.
August 1, 2008
BLACK HEARTS/SLOW DANCING - VG
Emerson, Earl - 1st in Mac Fontana series
Maureen ``Mo'' Costigan, feminist mayor of Staircase, Washington, tries to persuade Mac Fontana, an emotionally wounded import from back East, to take on temporary sheriff's duties. The job means checking out a sultry woman's story about a missing boyfriend. The tortured, spread-eagled corpse Mac subsequently discovers plunges him into a case involving corruption in the nearby Seattle fire department. Emerson's lean, lucid, and picturesque prose masterfully describes Mac's abrasive encounters with renegade arsonists and a greedy real estate developer.
Good start to a new series.
Emerson, Earl - 1st in Mac Fontana series
Maureen ``Mo'' Costigan, feminist mayor of Staircase, Washington, tries to persuade Mac Fontana, an emotionally wounded import from back East, to take on temporary sheriff's duties. The job means checking out a sultry woman's story about a missing boyfriend. The tortured, spread-eagled corpse Mac subsequently discovers plunges him into a case involving corruption in the nearby Seattle fire department. Emerson's lean, lucid, and picturesque prose masterfully describes Mac's abrasive encounters with renegade arsonists and a greedy real estate developer.
Good start to a new series.
May 10, 2009
Mac Fontana is a compelling, iconoclastic character...living a simple cabin existance in the Northwest with his young son...escaping from the memories of big city issues and the loss of his wife...an experienced fireman and arson investigator who is dragged into the small town's sheriff job investigates the murder of a Seattle fireman keeps uncovering corruption...enough twists to keep me reading
January 6, 2014
Entertaining murder mystery novel, set in and around Seattle in 1988—so the city and the Eastside are familiar to me still. Helped me scratch an itch for going back to the Northwest, but also made the itch intensify a bit.
Love the semi-pulpy writing style. Not great literature by any stretch, but a fun read.
Love the semi-pulpy writing style. Not great literature by any stretch, but a fun read.
January 12, 2010
I just love the Mac Fontana series but had never read the first one. I found a hardback copy and just read it. Gosh it sure explained some things from later in the series. I really enjoy mysteries set in Seattle where I really know the area.
December 19, 2013
Very good introduction to the Mac Fontana series. The mayor of Staircase appoints him acting sheriff as well as fire chief and he must investigate a murder connected to arsonists. Taut, well written, with humorous asides. Recommended.
April 29, 2009
If you ever wanted to get hooked on Mystery series as a genre, I think this is the best ever first-in-a-series book.
October 5, 2009
a hard-boiled detective story with a side of humor. Very clever writing. I like this genre, so I really enjoyed this.
December 22, 2011
Peculiarly choppy in an almost experimental writing format and an intensely male world view, but very appealing. Mac is a complex person still working things out while solving crimes. Loved it.
August 23, 2012
Earl Emerson's Mac Fontana series is worth reading for the chapter titles alone.
November 2, 2013
Love the Mac Fonatana Character, Emerson writes at his best when writing about fire related stories.
February 1, 2015
it was a good story, but the author used words in ways I am not familiar with. It was distracting, as if they were misspellings.
July 28, 2021
I dearly love Mac, and would be so happy to sit on his rock for him while he's busy solving the problems of Staircase.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews