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Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 364.164
EAN num: 9780060095284
ISBN number: 0060095288
Label: Avon
Manufacturer: Avon
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 416
Printing Date: June 01, 2003
Publishing house: Avon
Release Date: May 27, 2003
Sale Popularity Level: 134390
Studio: Avon
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Product Description:
On an October evening in South Pasadena, a horrifying wave of flame swept through a large home improvement center, snuffing out the lives of four innocent people, including a two-year-old boy. Firefighters rushed to the scene, even as a pair of equally suspicious fires broke out in two nearby stores. Silently watching the raging inferno in the midst of the heat, smoke, and chaos was a man respected as one of California's foremost arson investigators, a captain in the Glendale Fire Department ...
From Joseph Wambaugh, the critically acclaimed,nationally bestselling author of The Onion Field, comes the astonishing true story of a nightmarish obsession -- and the hunt for a brilliant psychopath who lived a double life filled with professional tributes and terrifying secrets.
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Rated by buyers -
I very first encountered the story of John Orr in an American Justice episode. Something about an arson investigator who sets fires along the way to an arson conference, like a child leaving a trail of blueberries in hopes a rabbit will follow, was unforgettably improbable. The full story of the Glendale fire captain and his little habit is told by true crime great Joseph Wambaugh in his patented police-procedural-style.
Even if he hadn't been a arsonist, John Orr would have been a notable jerk. Apparently Orr yearned to join the LAPD but didn't make the cut and subsequently nursed a resentment toward police and life in general. (Wambaugh declares that the LAPD was Harvard of policing in the 1970s. He may be prejudiced just a tad being a former LAPDer himself. Of course, being an East Coast native my immediate reaction was "No way someone would rather work on the LAPD than the NYPD!" And that was based on no very first hand knowledge so, who knows, maybe Wambaugh is right.) Orr instead gets a job as a fireman, ultimately becoming an arson investigator in Glendale all the while complaining about the arrogance of the police. He also, bizarrely, becomes obsessed with catching shoplifters in his spare time, an activity which instead of earning the respect of the police actually annoys them. Once Orr catches the proverbial punks red-handed, the police have to come and arrest the perp and confiscate their ill-gotten gains of, oh, $25 or so.
How, when and why Orr turns to arson is unclear but turn he does moving from brush-fires to his favorites, starting fires in home improvement stores, one of which results in four deaths. Not content with committing the arsons and in some cases showing up later to film the resulting fire, Orr writes a novel detailing his crimes. A bad novel. A bad novel in which the arsonist is turned on by "his fire." The few passages quoted were enough to convince me that John Orr needs to do hard time just for his writing.
Wambaugh isn't one to dig too deeply into the motivations of criminals beyond what's needed to understand them enough to catch them. I can easily imagine Wambaugh muttering "scumbag" when he wrote about Orr. Not that I disagree. Orr was a scumbag, but his crimes were more interesting than he was.
This is not an easy story to tell because, let's face it, an arsonist works alone. Nor is it the sort of story that is action-packed, most of the police work involves looking at fingerprints and maps. So it's impressive that Wambaugh manages to tell a story that is not only interesting but worthy of the Edgar Award it was given. (I've read two of the other Fact Crime books nominated that year and this book is the best of the three.) Wambaugh does a good job of giving the reader a sense of who the investigators are and what the case means to them without falling into the usual traps of adding in pointless details about their personal lives or fashion choices. This book isn't for all True Crime fans but it's a sure-bet for Wambaugh and police-procedural fans.
Rated by buyers -
Readers know from the beginning that John Orr, ace arson investigator, and the mysterious serial arsonist he investigates are one and the same. We also know that such cases are, alas, not so unusual: fire bugs are often firemen. Even so, Wambaugh's writing skill maintains the suspense of this story to the bitter end. Will justice be done for Matt, the little boy who never got that chocolate mint ice cream cone?
BOOK lovers will be struck by the central role of the perp's autobiographical novel in the case. Can the jury really believe that there is a reasonable doubt that the little boy in the book was named Matt by coincidence?
Rated by buyers -
I thought that Ken Howard's reading added to the drama of this story about an arson investigator who set and then videotaped his own fires. The author paid appropriate homage to those whose tenacity finally brought John Orr to trial. The trial (transcript) was pretty much verbatim, but that is a plus because the attorneys were so eloquent.
Rated by buyers 
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Nobody does non-fiction crime reporting like Joe Wambaugh. Like The Onion Field and The Blooding, this is a non-stop read. Wambaugh's insight into human behavior and motivations is fascinating. Joe Wambaugh is an american treasure.
Rated by buyers -
Even though you know how the true story ends it is a page turner. The arsonist's mind is beyond comprehension. Wambaugh does a great job with this account.
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