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Frank Coffin Mysteries #3
Fire Season
Beleaguered Police Detective Frank Coffin is on the trail of a firebug in Fire Season, the third in this sharply witty mystery series set in Provincetown, Massachusetts
Until a replacement can be found, Frank Coffin is pulling double duty as a detective and interim police chief for the Provincetown, Mass. Police. The off-season has just started for this tourist town and the streets should be quiet. But they’re not.
When three fires are sparked in quick succession, it looks like there’s a firebug on the loose. A firebug who doesn't care who he hurts. With a deputy terrified of UFOs, a severed head in a lobster tank, and the fact that Frank's mother is setting some fires of her own, it’s another busy season in P’town in Fire Season, an excellent addition to Jon Loomis’ acclaimed series.
Until a replacement can be found, Frank Coffin is pulling double duty as a detective and interim police chief for the Provincetown, Mass. Police. The off-season has just started for this tourist town and the streets should be quiet. But they’re not.
When three fires are sparked in quick succession, it looks like there’s a firebug on the loose. A firebug who doesn't care who he hurts. With a deputy terrified of UFOs, a severed head in a lobster tank, and the fact that Frank's mother is setting some fires of her own, it’s another busy season in P’town in Fire Season, an excellent addition to Jon Loomis’ acclaimed series.
320 pages, ebook
First published July 17, 2012
131 people want to read
About the author
Jon Loomis
8 books14 followersJon Loomis is an American poet and writer. He is a professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Vanitas Motel, his first book of poetry, won the 1997 annual FIELD prize in poetry. He is also the author of the Frank Coffin mysteries set in Provincetown, MA.
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August 29, 2022While in Provincetown, Massachusetts, earlier this summer, I purchased Fire Season, a novel by Jon Loomis, from Tom’s Bookstore. The mystery takes place in Provincetown and the villages south along Highway 6 to Orleans. Having been there twice now in the past year, I could relate to much of the physical and cultural setting of this novel. Since Loomis achieved that bridge with me so easily, I only had to build a connection with the characters. And that was easy, too.
Detective Frank Coffin, Officer Lola Winters, and Coffin’s family members are engaging. They’re complex, diverse humans living and working in a tourist town. I’m in a period where I’m enjoying murder mysteries in print and on screen when the characters (detectives, villains, and bystanders) are complex: The Wire, Shetland, Raven Black, Tony Hillerman’s novels, Bang, Loch Ness, Longmire. Fire Season definitely joins this party.
The story itself is similar to one I’d like to try writing someday: a serial arsonist is terrorizing the community. Loomis cleverly weaves other nefarious happenings into the tale causing readers to parry and thrust with the P’town police at solutions to the crimes. But he also writes so that we readers learn what Coffin is thinking simultaneously; he doesn’t save the big reveal for a rushed end as the book’s page quota runs dry. Fire Season is the third Frank Coffin mystery. I plan to read the first two as soon as I can find them.
Detective Frank Coffin, Officer Lola Winters, and Coffin’s family members are engaging. They’re complex, diverse humans living and working in a tourist town. I’m in a period where I’m enjoying murder mysteries in print and on screen when the characters (detectives, villains, and bystanders) are complex: The Wire, Shetland, Raven Black, Tony Hillerman’s novels, Bang, Loch Ness, Longmire. Fire Season definitely joins this party.
The story itself is similar to one I’d like to try writing someday: a serial arsonist is terrorizing the community. Loomis cleverly weaves other nefarious happenings into the tale causing readers to parry and thrust with the P’town police at solutions to the crimes. But he also writes so that we readers learn what Coffin is thinking simultaneously; he doesn’t save the big reveal for a rushed end as the book’s page quota runs dry. Fire Season is the third Frank Coffin mystery. I plan to read the first two as soon as I can find them.
May 3, 2013
I love mysteries! This sounds like a great fun mystery! I love that it is a series. My favorite books are series so I can't wait to read all the books in this one!
May 13, 2018
I love the way that Loomis weaves themes throughout the book; you can tell he is a poet from this. Honestly, I wasn't expecting as much fire as was in the book, but I loved the way it was described and, with all the characters there are in the book, he does a great job keeping the characters memorable, with their own place in Provincetown or the surrounding area. The tension in this book made it difficult to put down. A thriller mystery--incredibly refreshing.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book! I already picked up High Season from the library.
(I'm totally biased about this book--I know the author and his wife, they are professors at the university I attend(ed); both talented and a joy to know. This has never really happened to me before & it's freaking awesome.)
I thoroughly enjoyed this book! I already picked up High Season from the library.
(I'm totally biased about this book--I know the author and his wife, they are professors at the university I attend(ed); both talented and a joy to know. This has never really happened to me before & it's freaking awesome.)
September 4, 2018
I like this author and his funny hero!
April 24, 2024
First read with this author. Won't be back.
July 14, 2013
Humorous crime fiction is hard to pull off. (We’re leaving Donald Westlake out of this discussion. He could make anything work, from Dortmunder to Parker.) Elmore Leonard has a reputation for being funny, but, with the possible exception of Get Shorty, his books aren’t written to be funny. The humor is endemic to the situation, and to the intellectual capacity of the characters, who are most often inadvertently funny. (The characters, I mean. Leonard has no accidents in his writing.)
A lot of authors try to write tongue-in-cheek crime fiction; none blends the elements better than Jon Loomis. His Frank Coffin mysteries never make light of the seriousness of the crimes, but juxtapose them against what may be absurd conditions to create a unique atmosphere.
Loomis’s newest is Fire Season. The book opens with the killing of a restaurant’s tame seals, kept in their own tank near the beach as a tourist attraction in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Soon a series of increasingly serious arson fires breaks out, and a local doctor is found dead in gruesome fashion. Whether any of these are related is a key element of the story, so we’re not going to discuss it here.
There are two keys to the success of Loomis’s stories, and Fire Season is no exception. First is Coffin, a Provincetown detective and acting chief of police. He worked homicide in Baltimore for several years, finally leaving because he’d developed a phobia about corpses. He returned to his native Provincetown to get away from that, but they insist on popping up in the least expected places. His girlfriend is pregnant and hyperaware of things, and his mother is suffering from Alzheimer’s, which leaves her prone to what she thinks of as pranks and the other residents of her nursing home consider terrorist acts.
The other thing the series could not exist without is Provincetown as a setting. The town on the farthest tip of Cape Cod, always a summer tourist attraction, has become an enclave for the LGBT community, often flamboyantly so. It’s P’town that makes the humor work, as the bizarre settings allow Loomis to make the comedy endemic to the scene without diminishing the seriousness of the situation. Everything is held together by Loomis’s acceptance of everyone in Provincetown as they are. He never condescends of make fun of them, rather welcomes them as the engine that makes his stories fun to read. How do you make murder scene interviews funny without minimizing the brutality of the crime? Interview half a dozen Tall Ships (male transvestites) in various stages of undress, and capture their side conversations.
Coffin is not alone. The supporting cast more than carries its weight. Even those who aren’t P’town crazies realize they live in a sometimes surreal environment, and make their decisions accordingly. The normal rules of logic don’t always apply in Loomis’s Provincetown, but Loomis sticks to the rules he has created so the reader never feels cheated, but also never quite sure how each event will be received.
Fire Season is the third Frank Coffin mystery, after High Season and Mating Season, both of which are also highly recommended. (Especially the premiere, High Season.) Enough loose ends are left for the characters to carry on should Loomis decide to keep writing them. Let’s hope so. He’s carved out a unique niche in crime fiction. It would be a shame to lose it.
A lot of authors try to write tongue-in-cheek crime fiction; none blends the elements better than Jon Loomis. His Frank Coffin mysteries never make light of the seriousness of the crimes, but juxtapose them against what may be absurd conditions to create a unique atmosphere.
Loomis’s newest is Fire Season. The book opens with the killing of a restaurant’s tame seals, kept in their own tank near the beach as a tourist attraction in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Soon a series of increasingly serious arson fires breaks out, and a local doctor is found dead in gruesome fashion. Whether any of these are related is a key element of the story, so we’re not going to discuss it here.
There are two keys to the success of Loomis’s stories, and Fire Season is no exception. First is Coffin, a Provincetown detective and acting chief of police. He worked homicide in Baltimore for several years, finally leaving because he’d developed a phobia about corpses. He returned to his native Provincetown to get away from that, but they insist on popping up in the least expected places. His girlfriend is pregnant and hyperaware of things, and his mother is suffering from Alzheimer’s, which leaves her prone to what she thinks of as pranks and the other residents of her nursing home consider terrorist acts.
The other thing the series could not exist without is Provincetown as a setting. The town on the farthest tip of Cape Cod, always a summer tourist attraction, has become an enclave for the LGBT community, often flamboyantly so. It’s P’town that makes the humor work, as the bizarre settings allow Loomis to make the comedy endemic to the scene without diminishing the seriousness of the situation. Everything is held together by Loomis’s acceptance of everyone in Provincetown as they are. He never condescends of make fun of them, rather welcomes them as the engine that makes his stories fun to read. How do you make murder scene interviews funny without minimizing the brutality of the crime? Interview half a dozen Tall Ships (male transvestites) in various stages of undress, and capture their side conversations.
Coffin is not alone. The supporting cast more than carries its weight. Even those who aren’t P’town crazies realize they live in a sometimes surreal environment, and make their decisions accordingly. The normal rules of logic don’t always apply in Loomis’s Provincetown, but Loomis sticks to the rules he has created so the reader never feels cheated, but also never quite sure how each event will be received.
Fire Season is the third Frank Coffin mystery, after High Season and Mating Season, both of which are also highly recommended. (Especially the premiere, High Season.) Enough loose ends are left for the characters to carry on should Loomis decide to keep writing them. Let’s hope so. He’s carved out a unique niche in crime fiction. It would be a shame to lose it.
August 18, 2012
Frank Coffin, police detective and interim chief of Provincetown, Massachusetts, is undergoing a lifestyle change. As a typical middle-aged man who's mind tells him he's invincible while his body reminds him of his mortality, Coffin is attempting to eat better, exercise more, and quit smoking. He's been recognized for his dedication to his job, is surrounded by supportive friends, and his girlfriend has just revealed that she is pregnant with his child. As the tourist season draws to a close, life is good for Frank Coffin. With all this considered, he has decided he would like to live a little bit longer to enjoy it.
Of course, the quiet off-season is soon interrupted. It all begins when an arsonist sets fire to a dumpster. As more fires begin to pot up around the city, Coffin attempts to catch the arsonist before he escalates to burning down the small town and killing anyone who stands in his way.
Even more troubling is the mental state of Coffins cousin Tom, who is also one of his police officers. For years, Provincetown has fostered rumblings of UFO's in the surrounding area. Locals remain divided on the issue, but Frank becomes directly involved in the matter as Tom begins to speak of his own sightings. As he rambles about being abducted by the invaders, Frank must find a way to ease his cousin's fears and stop the arsonist before the entire town goes mad.
I was very impressed with this novel. While it is certainly not the biggest or most ambitious mystery that I've read, I really appreciated Loomis's subtle way of crafting this delightful story. Frank Coffin immediately comes off as a kind of every man who is easy to root for. Provincetown has the perfect combination of small town setting and quirky characters, allowing a sense of reality to permeate the story. Loomis writes with a refreshingly frank style that makes this novel a quick, suspense driven read.
Of course, the quiet off-season is soon interrupted. It all begins when an arsonist sets fire to a dumpster. As more fires begin to pot up around the city, Coffin attempts to catch the arsonist before he escalates to burning down the small town and killing anyone who stands in his way.
Even more troubling is the mental state of Coffins cousin Tom, who is also one of his police officers. For years, Provincetown has fostered rumblings of UFO's in the surrounding area. Locals remain divided on the issue, but Frank becomes directly involved in the matter as Tom begins to speak of his own sightings. As he rambles about being abducted by the invaders, Frank must find a way to ease his cousin's fears and stop the arsonist before the entire town goes mad.
I was very impressed with this novel. While it is certainly not the biggest or most ambitious mystery that I've read, I really appreciated Loomis's subtle way of crafting this delightful story. Frank Coffin immediately comes off as a kind of every man who is easy to root for. Provincetown has the perfect combination of small town setting and quirky characters, allowing a sense of reality to permeate the story. Loomis writes with a refreshingly frank style that makes this novel a quick, suspense driven read.
March 22, 2013
Strongest point of the book is the local setting; I've never been to P-town, but feel as though I know that place fairly well after three stories set there. Coffin himself is quite a likeable fellow, and Lola makes for a terrific partner. I'm not that keen on Uncle Rudy, the big time crook, but he is what he is. Unfortunately, Coffin's girlfriend Jaimie really mars the experience each time for me, with her ticking biological clock (previously, she had threatened to leave Coffin if he wouldn't impregnate her); people use a stronger word to describe him, but I'll stick with "wuss" here. As for the "queer" angle, sometimes it felt as though the straight author was trying a bit too hard, though I do like Coffin's best (only!) friend Kotowski. The rest of the LGBT's are presented as either cross-dressers or stereotypical gay guys; I grew very tired of the term "Tall Ship" by the end of the book.
Bottom line: Loomis ought to end the series here, as a trilogy. If it continues, I'm not sure if I could deal with more of Jaimie's attitude.
Bottom line: Loomis ought to end the series here, as a trilogy. If it continues, I'm not sure if I could deal with more of Jaimie's attitude.
March 13, 2014
As he tries to solve the mystery of some dead seals, a serial arsonist, and the murder of a local doctor whose head was found in the lobster tank of a local restaurant, the eternally put-upon Frank Coffin, acting chief of the Provincetown, Mass. Police Department, deals with a number of offbeat characters including: his shady uncle Rudy; a patrolman who thinks he's being abducted by aliens; and a flotilla of drag queens locally known as the Tall Ships. Coffin's an engaging character, a good-natured Everyman who provides the perfect foil for the quirky ensemble around him. Jon Loomis deftly keeps the light and the dark elements in balance in this comic murder mystery, and that's a lot harder than it looks. Recommended.
August 24, 2012
Frank Coffin is Acting Police Chief of Provincetown and his long-time girlfriend, Jamie is pregnant. Someone has shot the domesticated seals at a local restaurant. A severed head is found in the lobster tank of another. And someone is setting fires that are rapidly escalating in severity. This is not what Frank signed on for but he means to stop it. Provincetown is already crazy enough. The wacky world unto itself that is P-Town, a cast of characters that could only come from there, and some mysterious UFOs all combine with an intriguing mystery to provide a highly entertaining reading romp.
August 7, 2014
I got this from ILL by accident, I ordered a different Fire Season but go this one instead, but I ended up really enjoying it!
First off, spent many summers on Cape Cod so it was good to hear about some of the places I knew. Second, the characters really were funny, the author does a great job with dialogue that brings the characters to life. This is my first Frank Coffin mystery, and I had no trouble keeping up with the characters. I am going to go back and read the previous books.
Especially loved the description of the artist Kotowski's Frog March on page 167...what an intriguing character. Looking forward to more from Jon Loomis.
First off, spent many summers on Cape Cod so it was good to hear about some of the places I knew. Second, the characters really were funny, the author does a great job with dialogue that brings the characters to life. This is my first Frank Coffin mystery, and I had no trouble keeping up with the characters. I am going to go back and read the previous books.
Especially loved the description of the artist Kotowski's Frog March on page 167...what an intriguing character. Looking forward to more from Jon Loomis.
March 20, 2015
I gave the Frank Coffin Mysteries books a shot, and by this third one, I thought I'd have come to like the series, but I didn't.
Detective Frank Coffin's character did not appeal to me. And if he did, on a very small scale. The impression I got was of a husky, old geezer behind a desk dragging himself through investigations, no excitement except in describing his hometown, an unhappy, unhappy man. He bummed me out in some instances. He should have been in retirement rather than still in active duty. Now Lola, or Kotowski, I could read about. They had life.
Detective Frank Coffin's character did not appeal to me. And if he did, on a very small scale. The impression I got was of a husky, old geezer behind a desk dragging himself through investigations, no excitement except in describing his hometown, an unhappy, unhappy man. He bummed me out in some instances. He should have been in retirement rather than still in active duty. Now Lola, or Kotowski, I could read about. They had life.
July 17, 2012
Review TK. The first book I'm reviewing for Macmillan as a paid blogger. I KNOW right!
Updated 7/17 -- Review linked below!
http://www.criminalelement.com/blogs/...%%
Updated 7/17 -- Review linked below!
http://www.criminalelement.com/blogs/...%%
July 1, 2012
This is a free book from Goodreads First Reads.
This is my kind of book. I haven't read anything by Jon Loomis before Fire Season but I will be catching up with the other books in the Frank Coffin series. The story is realistically written with likable main characters.
Thank you for a great read.
This is my kind of book. I haven't read anything by Jon Loomis before Fire Season but I will be catching up with the other books in the Frank Coffin series. The story is realistically written with likable main characters.
Thank you for a great read.
September 10, 2012
The characters in Fire Season do not take themselves to seriously and I loved them for it! In this Frank Coffin mystery acting police cheif Frank coffin deals with murdered domesticated seals, a novice arsonist, his messed up family and his pregnant girlfriend. I really enjoyed this book and will be reading the others in this series.
I won this entertaining read through a Goodreads giveaway.
I won this entertaining read through a Goodreads giveaway.
January 28, 2013
Actual rating: 3.5 stars
This is another one of those books that I read a while ago, so I'll keep this short.
I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it. It was enjoyable. It wasn't in my roundhouse, but I liked it anyway. If it sounds interesting to you, it's worth it.
*I won a free copy of this through Goodreads/ First Reads.*
This is another one of those books that I read a while ago, so I'll keep this short.
I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it. It was enjoyable. It wasn't in my roundhouse, but I liked it anyway. If it sounds interesting to you, it's worth it.
*I won a free copy of this through Goodreads/ First Reads.*
December 30, 2012
A received this book as a GoodReads book giveaway.
I liked the book.. it was funny, entertaining, unpredictable in some areas.. but something was missing. I can't figure out what it was.. just something that prevent a good book from being great.. something that prevented me from giving it an extra star..
I liked the book.. it was funny, entertaining, unpredictable in some areas.. but something was missing. I can't figure out what it was.. just something that prevent a good book from being great.. something that prevented me from giving it an extra star..
July 30, 2012
I'm not sure if these characters have been used in some of the authors other books, but for me as a new reader of his books, I didn't feel like you had time to get to know the characters before he was shifting off to another group of people and angle.
I'm not likely to read any of his other books.
I'm not likely to read any of his other books.
July 23, 2012
I have received this book from Goodreads! I thought this book was absolutely amazing and I couldn't put it down! It's full of action and adventure and something is constantly happening, there's no time for nothingness lol amazing book
September 8, 2012
I won this book through FirstRead giveaway.
This was first time I read a book by Jon Loomis and I enjoyed it very much. The main character, Frank Coffin is such as likable guy. All the characters in this town are well-written.
This was first time I read a book by Jon Loomis and I enjoyed it very much. The main character, Frank Coffin is such as likable guy. All the characters in this town are well-written.
August 17, 2012
Funny at times. Interesting comments about pregnant women and women in general.
August 28, 2012
Loved the P'town setting more than the plot. And no, it's not like Robert Parker at his best as a blurb intimated.
September 14, 2012
Loved this book!! Third in a series. Great and believable dialogue and unique characters! I laughed out loud several times and may family wanted to know about the book.
January 31, 2016
Another chapter in the Coffin story. While Jamie is pregnant & nesting, Frank is out trying to capture both a fire bug & a drug dealing murderer. Full of intrigue & local color.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews