EMERSON, Earl W. 1948-

PERSONAL: Born July 8, 1948, in Tacoma, WA; son of Ralph W. and June (Gadd) Emerson; married Sandra Evans, April 25, 1968; children: Sara, Brian, Jeffrey. Education: Attended Principia College, 1966-67, and University of Washington, Seattle, 1967-68.

ADDRESSES: Home—North Bend, WA. Agent—Dominick Abel, Dominick Abel Literary Agency Inc., 146 West 82nd St., Suite 1B, New York, NY 10024. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Writer. Seattle Fire Department, Seattle, WA, lieutenant, 1978—.

MEMBER: Mystery Writers of America, Private Eye Writers of America.

AWARDS, HONORS: Shamus Award, Private Eye Writers of America, 1985, for Poverty Bay.

WRITINGS:

MYSTERY NOVELS

The Rainy City, Avon (New York, NY), 1985.

Poverty Bay, Avon (New York, NY), 1985.

Nervous Laughter, Avon (New York, NY), 1986.

Fat Tuesday, Morrow (New York, NY), 1987.

Black Hearts and Slow Dancing, Morrow (New York, NY), 1988.

Deviant Behavior, Morrow (New York, NY), 1988.

Help Wanted: Orphans Preferred, Morrow (New York, NY), 1990.

Yellow Dog Party, Morrow (New York, NY), 1991.

Morons and Madmen, Morrow (New York, NY), 1993.

The Portland Laugher, Ballantine (New York, NY), 1994.

The Vanishing Smile, Ballantine (New York, NY), 1995.

Going Crazy in Public: A Mac Fontana Mystery, Morrow (New York, NY), 1996.

The Million-Dollar Tattoo, Ballantine (New York, NY), 1996.

Deception Pass, Ballantine (New York, NY), 1997.

The Dead Horse Paint Company: A Mac Fontana Mystery, Morrow (New York, NY), 1997.

Catfish Café, Ballantine (New York, NY), 1998.

Vertical Burn, Ballantine (New York, NY), 2002.

Into the Inferno: A Novel of Suspense, Ballantine (New York, NY), 2003.

SIDELIGHTS: Earl W. Emerson has brought the crime novel into the Pacific Northwest with his books set in or near Seattle, Washington. He has created two distinctive series heroes: Thomas Black, a hard-core private detective with a strong sense of justice and morals; and Mac Fontana, a small town fire chief with more than his share of extraordinary conflagrations to fight. In his St. James Guide to Crime and Mystery Writers essay on Emerson, John M. Muste noted that in all of Emerson's work, his prose "is clean and his narratives always move with considerable momentum. His plots are complicated, sometimes perhaps overly so, but the resolutions are clear." Muste added, "As a body of work, Emerson's novels provide an interesting setting, some relaxed humor and a different perspective for plots that are not always entirely fresh."

Emerson's first protagonist, Thomas Black, has appeared in almost a dozen titles. Early Black stories emphasize his toughness and independence as an ex-policeman solving crimes not for financial profit but for the satisfaction of helping to right wrongs. Through the series, Black is joined in his crime-fighting efforts by an attorney named Kathy Birchfield, for whom he develops an attraction that deepens over time. From a platonic but sexually tinged relationship through the early books, Black and Birchfield move into romance and marriage, often facing dangerous situations together. "A typical Black case," said Muste, "begins with Kathy Birchfield coming to him with fears about the fate of a friend, or bringing him a client. The novels all contain high levels of violence, and Black himself, although adept at the martial arts, comes in for beatings; like many fictional detectives, he sometimes loses the first fight but he never loses the last one."

Although one Publishers Weekly critic dismissed a Black novel for its "substandard Chandlerisms and a barrage of wisecracks," Emerson's works have received positive reviews. The Portland Laugher, for instance, was cited in Publishers Weekly for its "superbly worked-out plot, a narrator with a likable voice, and Emerson's clean, witty prose." Another Publishers Weekly reviewer praised the way the detective's personal relationships "show a vulnerable side of the tough, resourceful Black." The same reviewer noted the novels' "gritty panache."

In the more recent Black story Catfish Café some critics noted that Emerson departs somewhat from witty repartee to take on a more serious tone about family relationships. Catfish Café is about Black's investigation into a murder that might have been committed by the daughter of his one-time partner, Luther Little. Gradually, after sorting all the complicated relationships in Little's African-American family, Black surmises that the murder was the end result of an incident that occurred long ago at the café of the title. "Part social study, part whodunnit, the elegantly written Catfish Café does well by both," said Dick Lochte in the Los Angeles Times. A Publishers Weekly critic similarly noted that the murder mystery itself is not the most compelling part of the novel, which "will likely leave readers more interested in the mysteries and variety of human behavior than in explications."

Beginning in 1978, Emerson has been employed as a professional firefighter in Seattle. This career led to the development of his second hero, Mac Fontana. Fontana heads a small fire department in a town near Seattle. Sometimes he must also moonlight as the town's sheriff, and he does so with great determination. From his debut appearance in Black Hearts and Slow Dancing, Fontana has proven a hit with the critics. A Publishers Weekly correspondent described him as "a no-nonsense and likable guy" whose actions show "that fire departments aren't just a bunch of guys and a couple of Dalmatians hanging out at the station." Another Publishers Weekly reviewer called The Dead Horse Paint Company, Fontana's fifth mystery, "deftly constructed [and] compelling." The reviewer continued, "Fontana . . . sifts through the rubble of broken lives to find a killer as Emerson constructs a brooding, engaging tale of personal and professional conflict."

Since character Fontana and author Emerson are both firefighters, some of the most vivid scenes in the Fontana books are, not surprisingly, of firefighters bravely performing their jobs. This is especially the case in Vertical Burn, according to a number of reviewers. In the opening scene, Fontana is caught in a blaze set off by arsonists that causes a wall to fall and kill his partner Finney. Although Fontana is not formally charged with wrongdoing, his peers suspect that he panicked during the incident and that this led to Finney's death. Fontana then sets out to prove his innocence and find out how the fire was started. Praising the fire scenes in the book, Los Angeles Times contributor Lochte felt that Emerson's descriptions were so convincing that "readers may wind up struggling to breathe," adding that the "roaring fires [are] so stunningly depicted that you can feel the heat and smell the acrid smoke." Although Michael Prager in the Houston Chronicle felt the story is marred by "implausibility," Booklist contributor Dennis Dodge called it a "thriller that delivers on thrills."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

St. James Guide to Crime and Mystery Writers, 4th edition, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1996.

PERIODICALS

Booklist, June 1, 1998, Dennis Dodge, review of Catfish Café, p. 1731; April 1, 2002, Dennis Dodge, review of Vertical Burn, p. 1309.

Denver Post, December 7, 1997.

Houston Chronicle, June 30, 2002, Michael Prager, "Smoke Eater's Serenade: Firefighting Author Writes from Experience," p. 35.

Kirkus Reviews, June 15, 1998, review of Catfish Café, p. 846.

Library Journal, March 15, 2002, Roland Person, review of Vertical Burn, p. 108.

Los Angeles Times, August 23, 1998, Dick Lochte, "Mysteries," p. 5; June 5, 2002, Dick Lochte, "Mysteries: Sleuth Goes to Blazes to Nab Arsonists," p. E2.

New York Times Book Review, March 16, 1986, p. 31; March 8, 1987, p. 29; March 6, 1988, p. 22; March 18, 1990, p. 33; June 9, 2002, Marilyn Stasio, "Book Review Desk," p. 18.

Publishers Weekly, April 26, 1993, p. 60; August 8, 1994, p. 390; September 4, 1995, p. 52; April 29, 1996, p. 54; August 12, 1996, p. 67; May 12, 1997, p. 61; September 1, 1997, p. 100; June 1, 1998, review of Catfish Café, pp. 48A, 56; May 6, 2002, review of Vertical Burn, p. 34.*