American Fire, Monica Hesse
American Fire, Monica Hesse
4 Rating(s)
List: $24.99 | Sale: $17.50
Club: $12.49

American Fire
Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land

Author: Monica Hesse

Narrator: Tanya Eby

Unabridged: 7 hr 27 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/11/2017


Synopsis

Shocked by a five-month arson spree that left rural Virginia reeling, Washington Post reporter Monica Hesse drove down to Accomack County to cover the trial of Charlie Smith, who pled guilty to sixty-seven counts of arson. But Charlie wasn't lighting fires alone: he had an accomplice, his girlfriend Tonya Bundick. Through her depiction of the dangerous shift that happened in their passionate relationship, Hesse brilliantly brings to life the once-thriving coastal community and its distressed inhabitants, who had already been decimated by a punishing economy before they were terrified by a string of fires they could not explain. Incorporating this drama into the long-overlooked history of arson in the United States, American Fire re-creates the anguished nights that this quiet county spent lit up in flames, mesmerizingly evoking a microcosm of rural America - a land half gutted before the fires even began.

About Monica Hesse

Monica Hesse is a feature writer for the Washington Post. A finalist for a Livingston and James Beard Award, she is also the author of Girl in the Blue Coat. She lives in Washington, DC.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Jaline on July 19, 2018

Arson is a terrible crime. Not that there is anything great about crime of any sort, but arson is one of the most difficult to obtain evidence for because it pretty much gets burned up. It is also difficult to catch an arsonist because by the time someone sees the fire and law enforcement or firefig......more

Goodreads review by JanB on July 30, 2017

4.5 stars This is fascinating journalism, telling the story of a 2012/2013 crime spree in rural Virginia where arsonists started 80+ fires over a period of a few months. All were set in abandoned buildings, in a struggling county that had no shortage of abandoned buildings. Some nights there were mu......more

Goodreads review by Sharon on April 01, 2025

Fascinating true crime story of a dynamic duo in love who set 67 fires in a five-month period in a rural Virginia town of 300 people. The initial fires were in abandoned structures and the local fire department rarely slept because fires were occurring in rapid succession. The book references Bonnie......more