A review by rosemaryandrue
Fire Lover: A True Story by Joseph Wambaugh
dark
funny
informative
medium-paced
4.0
Serial arsonists and pyromaniacs are a strange, uncommon sort of criminal, but the impact they have on their communities can be devastating. One of the worst was the so-called Pillow Pyro, whose day job was being an arson investigator.
This a fast-paced, surprisingly funny book - the author used to be a police officer in California himself and is familiar with the often absurd vagaries of that state's courts. And this case is really such an odd one, with that strange premise of an arson investigator investigating his own crimes as an arsonist. However, I did think the courtroom section got too long-winded - even with the author's tongue-in-cheek attitude toward it, I feel that we could have cut down on sections which extensively quoted the lawyers.
This a fast-paced, surprisingly funny book - the author used to be a police officer in California himself and is familiar with the often absurd vagaries of that state's courts. And this case is really such an odd one, with that strange premise of an arson investigator investigating his own crimes as an arsonist. However, I did think the courtroom section got too long-winded - even with the author's tongue-in-cheek attitude toward it, I feel that we could have cut down on sections which extensively quoted the lawyers.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Death
Minor: Police brutality