Help Wanted: Orphans Preferred

Mac Fontana #2

by Earl Emerson

A psychopath is wiping out the fire department of Staircase, Washington, man by man, and part-time lawman Mac Fontana must identify the cunning gunman before he can take aim on another fireman

Genres: Mystery, Fiction

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Earl 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.

Reviews

[Jeff Dickison · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent Mac Fontana book, # 2 in the series. Someone tries to poison many of the firemen under Mac's command and one of them does die. Then attempts are made on other firemen. Mac must figure out what is going on. There is an unexpected plot twist at the end that explains all. Recommended.

[aPriL does feral sometimes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Earl Emerson has a unique style of writing for his Mac series. More is inferred than spelled out, and there is a jerky cadence going on. I like it, but it took reading this second in the series to cement the appeal. In this book there are so many red herrings it must be a record. Emerson doesn't mind killing off main characters, so now I know not to fall in love too much with any one of them. I dislike Mo, though.

[T · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fast read, sequel in the Mac Fontana series. Mac is fire chief in the small town of Staircase, WA...he's inherited an old police dog, how can you not love a dog in the series? Satan responds to German commands and plays an active role in trying to figure out who and why firemen in this mostly volunteer department are being killed.

Earl Emerson speaks from experience, his other job is as a Seattle fireman....

[LJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

HELP WANTED: ORPHANS PREFERRED - Good
Emerson, Earl - 2nd in Mac Fontana series

Fire chief and part-time sheriff Mac Fontana is puzzled when members of his Washington town's fire department are targeted by a homicidal maniac; his involvement with the wife of a paramedic leads to terrible revelations.

It's good but I didn't enjoy it as much as the Thomas Black books.

[Kelly (Maybedog) · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sexist and boring, I disliked the main character so much, the fact that the mystery took place in the Seattle area wasn't enough to keep me reading.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

Emerson is a terrific writer, and that makes, obviously, for pretty good reading. The prose style is well above the fluff one often gets in a hard-boiled story, which is essentially what this is. I even liked the many descriptions of rural Washington landscape. His wit is a plus.

A surprisingly large number of characters are well-developed, and they are very human. Some, like Claude Pettigrew and his girlfriend, Wanda, are delightfully memorable. I can't say that I actually liked many of them (even Mac Fontana somehow is not a guy with whom I feel much bond as a reader), but they are well beyond the card-board cut-out you too often find in books which are a fast read.

I do, though, have problems with the plot. To begin with, it defies credibility that Fontana too often turns up just in time to avert mayhem. It's also mildly annoying that just about everyone is a suspect. There is violence which occasionally strikes me as excessive, and I guessed the ending. But I still had fun reading this.

[Wanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots happening in the small town of Staircase. One the volunteer firefighters is killed and several others have a close call. The chief, Mac, is also the sheriff and tries to figure out who the killer is. He is aided by the former fire chief. Lots of suspicious characters including members of his department.
He is also dealing with a real estate developer who wants to put in a huge development in the small town and who is also a criminal. The mayor is giving him problems, the weather is excessively hot and he is interested in another guys wife.
He has an old police sog that sort of helps out. He gets in some tight spots and has a few anger issus. Was a little surprised by the ending.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

#2 in the Mac Fontana series. One of my favorite crime/mystery genre series. Mac Fontana left an Eastern city fire department and is content to be chief of the fire department in Staircase, a hamlet east of Seattle.

Mac Fontana has decided to skip lunch in favor of hiking Mt Gadd in the company of Rainy Caitlin. The firehouse lunch is poisoned and one of the firefighters dies. There is a plethora of suspects including Rainy's husband. Then another firefighter is killed and Mac is shot at. He is putting the puzzle together in a race against death.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thomas Black mystery - just catching up on my reading list.

[Dale Rosso · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the book, could not put it down.