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"EMERSON AGAIN DELIVERS THE GOODS, dishing out humor, suspense, and heart-pounding action in heaping portions." --Booklist Marian Wright is an amateur sleuth in the employ of two attractive young women eager to catch up with their no-account ex-lovers. But when Marian's investigation ends abruptly and ferociously, Seattle private eye Thomas Black has a new case on his hands. Picking up the pieces of Marian Wright's search for her clients' rogue boyfriends, Thomas encounters a network of show more people--from ex-cons and prostitutes to other private investigators--all webbed together by a chilling common thread. It's a discovery that speaks volumes about the zealousness of Marian's manhunt, and even suggests a monstrous reason for her sudden death. Yet equally monstrous is an unknown, baseball bat-wielding assailant who seems hell-bent on making sure Thomas Black's investigation stays closed. . . . "Emerson adds another smoothly written book to his popular series." --The Seattle Times "GRITTY." --Publishers Weekly show lessTags
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Author Information
26+ Works 2,557 Members
Earl Emerson was born July 8, 1948 in Tacoma, Washington. He is the author of the very popular Mac Fontana series as well as the Thomas Black detective series. He won the Shamus Award in 1985 for Poverty Bay, his second novel in the Thomas Black series. He was again nominated for a Shamus for his novel The Vanishing Smile in 1996 (another in the show more Thomas Black series). Emerson's writing is described as vivid with witty dialog and complex but impeccably credible plots. Emerson remains a lieutenant with the Seattle Fire Department (his Mac Fontana character is a small town fire chief) and lives in North Bend, Washington. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Awards and Honors
Awards
Series
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Vanishing Smile
- Original publication date
- 1995
- People/Characters
- Thomas Black; Marian Wright; Kathy Birchfield; Deana Ayers; Randolph Vanderhoef
- Epigraph
- "I do not draw a very sharp line between business and sex" she said evenly. "And you cannot humiliate me. Sex is a net with which I catch fools. Some of these fools are useful and generous. Occasionally one is dangerous." --... (show all)Raymond Chandler
..... A good detective never marries. -Raymond Chandler - Dedication
- To Sandy, whose smile never vanishes
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Statistics
- Members
- 136
- Popularity
- 239,319
- Rating
- (3.55)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 4
- ASINs
- 2
