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Rating: 
Summary: Not Quite What I Expected!
Review: Earl Emerson's mystery the "The Dead Horse Paint Company" was a novel that caught me off guard. This being the first of Mac Fontana novels that I have purchased, I was a little disappointed at what I found. I expected a novel similar to a forensic medicine novel, only with a firefighter taste. What I got was another middle of the road murder mystery.The story is about Mac Fontana fire chief in a small Seattle suburb. Fontana formally worked in Seattle when the disasterous Paint Company Fire occured, killing nine other firefighters. Years later the fire chief who botched up the Paint Company fire is found dead in a burning car in Fontana's new hometown. Fontana investigates and finds many past enemys of the former chief. The characters that make up the list suspects are the best thing of the book. In total this is a good mystery, but don't expect anything too deep. Emerson's writing style is choppy, as the stories pace is not very fluid. Emerson also has a tendency to throw to much masculinity throughout the book. Not for everyone.
Rating:
Summary: Not Quite What I Expected!
Review: Earl Emerson's mystery the "The Dead Horse Paint Company" was a novel that caught me off guard. This being the first of Mac Fontana novels that I have purchased, I was a little disappointed at what I found. I expected a novel similar to a forensic medicine novel, only with a firefighter taste. What I got was another middle of the road murder mystery. The story is about Mac Fontana fire chief in a small Seattle suburb. Fontana formally worked in Seattle when the disasterous Paint Company Fire occured, killing nine other firefighters. Years later the fire chief who botched up the Paint Company fire is found dead in a burning car in Fontana's new hometown. Fontana investigates and finds many past enemys of the former chief. The characters that make up the list suspects are the best thing of the book. In total this is a good mystery, but don't expect anything too deep. Emerson's writing style is choppy, as the stories pace is not very fluid. Emerson also has a tendency to throw to much masculinity throughout the book. Not for everyone.
Rating: 
Summary: Just a comment
Review: I disagree with the reader who submitted the complaint about 'silly' chapter headings. I find they fit in with the dry wit that poliferates throughout the mac fontana books. Whatever your opinion, these are great books, IMO. Especially the first fontana book, Black Hearts and Slow Dancing...
Rating:
Summary: Emerson keeps getting better and better
Review: I've been reading Earl Emerson's two series for over ten years, and have read every one. Originally I read them because I enjoyed the Seattle/Pacific Northwest setting. Now I read them because they're so damn good. In the Mac Fontana series, of which Dead Horse Paint Company is the latest entry, Emerson proves that mysteries don't have to have an gritty New York or Detroit setting to be realistic and riveiting.
The Mac Fontana character becomes and more real with each book. Mac Fontana is different than the typical cliched character; there's a humanness and realism that never takes itself too seriously. Fontana is human without being pathetic or self-absorbed. He just <is>.
If you enjoy reading the better Rober tParker, Jermiah Healy or Robert Tappley books from Boston, or the J.A. Jance Seattle series, you'll find Dead Horse Paint Company to be not only be equal, but better.
PS:After you've finished the Mac Fontana series, start on Emerson's Thomas E. Black series. You won't be disappointed.
Rating: 
Summary: Macho Stupid
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Macho? I think not!
Review: 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!
Rating:
Summary: Macho Stupid
Review: This recent attempt at story telling by Earl W. Emerson suffers from the basic malady found in both his series of murder mysteries featuring the male characters Mac Fontana and Thomas Black (as well as the insipid female, Kathy). Enjoyment of these works is greatly impared by a pervasive macho stupidity. All of the stories convey "...a false sense of charisma" (Morons and Madmen. Earl Emerson. 1993:156) embodied in the male protaganists. An obsession with female breasts and sexual conquests bring a derisive burden to an otherwise interesting story. Insensitive, sexist commentary from a supposed studly point of view mars otherwise accomplished writing skills. The conflict always seems to revolve around men "...whose macho territory has been invaded by women" (ibid, page 175).
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