[book_talk] Fire Lover
- From: "Sue Ellen Melo" <susan.melo@xxxxxxx>
- To: <book_talk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 13 Jul 2013 02:05:37 -0400
The other day, during an extended power outage, I took the time to finish
reading Fire Lover by Joseph Wombau . I first became aware of this book
during an eppisoad of Forensic Files on True TV I was watching with my
former boyfriend. Part of the program included comments from the author and
at the end, they said this particular case inspired him to write fire Lover.
So when I stumbled over it on BARD, I picked it right up. For some reason I
had it in my head that Fire Lover itself was fact based fiction. I guess I
had been mixing details of the program because in fact, Fire Lover is true
crime.
This book is about the case of John Leonard Orr, a fire captain at the
Glendale fire department and the head of the arsen investigations unit
there. John was very respected in his field. However, John Leonard also
dirived great pleasure from setting fires and watching people scurry for
their lives and lose their livelyhood. Not all the people in the path of
Orr's fires survived though. This book takes you first through the life of
John Leonard Orr, his supposedly idealic childhood that changed when his
mother left home without telling anyone. You will follow him through his
carer in the airforce and the jobs he couldn't hold down because he got
board, the relationships he couldn't maintain for similar reasons, both
personal and professional. Then the author takes you through the fires John
Orr was acused and later charged with setting. He starts with the one fatal
fire at a hardware store that among other's killed a woman and her 2 year
old grandson. That whole section will break your hearts. Then you learn
about the many other fires set in stores during business hours, in the brush
near the residential area of College Hills that dammaged 60 homes, and 2
series of fires in stores along a rout to and from Arsen conventions.
The author introduces you to the men and women who investigated this case
and shows how they, in spite of many mistakes, eventually caught Orr and
brought him to justice. You meet the lawyers from both sides of the iasle.
Honestly, as I read this I kept thinking if I were the jury I'd have been
temped to throddle these lawyers or at least send them to Journalism school
to learn brevity. lol My only complaint is that in spite of the author's
obvious disdain for the lawyer's profession, he seemed fond of putting down
every word they uttered in their arguments.
Robert Sans did a fine bit of narration work, lending a bit of humor in the
more sardonic passages and getting across a sense of incredulity that these
cases ever got solved at all.
This is some powerful stuff, some rough language will be found and some of
that coarseness is of a sexual nature. Especially when they get into talking
about the manuscript John Orr wrote suppposedly based on the fires he set.
It was that manuscript that played a major part in this case.
If you are interested in the differences between police and fire
investigations and in the cultures of these 2 professions, or even if you
are just interested in fire, you will find this book most interesting.
though the are.
Jonathan Jackson and Enation
Sue Ellen
contact info
dawndark1sueellen642
Facebook Susan Ellen Melo
livejournal roselee64
twitter sueellen1964
___
Where you come from isn't who you are.
Jonathan Jackson and Enation
Sue Ellen
contact info
dawndark1sueellen642
Facebook Susan Ellen Melo
livejournal roselee64
twitter sueellen1964
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