fire lover
Then a fire investigator in Bakersfield who was investigating two same-day arson fires there came to a startling conclusion: the fires were being set by a fireman. ... In time, though, the investigation proved the Bakersfield fire investigator right: John Orr, one of southern Californias leading arson investigators (and the man who had trained many of the men investigating his fires), was responsible. Wambaugh spends the first half of Fire Lover tracing Orrs firesetting efforts and providing the sort of biographical details that might help us understand why he set the fires. ... Since The New Centurions appeared in 1970, Wambaugh has built a reputation as the countrys premiere cop writer, but he shows here that hes equally adept at presenting the intricacies of fire fighting--from the technical elements of the tasks to the subtle politics that drive firefighters and the cops they sometimes have to work with. ... But "Fire Lover" is a very good book. ... The interplay between the police departments, the fire departsments, the Federal Arson invesigators, etc, is very very interesting. Fire lover is a true story about a serial arsonist who is also the arson investigator for Glendale, California. ... I think over the writing career of Joseph Wambaugh, we owe him a debt for telling us outsiders how police departments and now fire departments actually work. ... Im glad he decided differently, because I really enjoyed FIRE LOVER. ... But Im glad I bothered to read FIRE LOVER. ... Ive read all of Joseph Wambaughs books, from THE NEW CENTURIONS to FIRE LOVER, and this was the least enjoyable. FIRE LOVER probably doesnt measure up because theres not a whole lot of suspense. ... But he makes one big mistake, leaving his fingerprint on yellow legal paper that was used, along with a cigarette, a rubber band and three matches, to start a fire similar to the one at Oles Home Center. ... Fire Lover: A True Story came out earlier this year.