Fantastic, exactly what a true crime book should be.
The crime becomes an embodiment of the time and place, gives you insight into the community, society and psychology .
It is sad at times for both the individuals and for what it reveals about parts of the country that are going through similar economic and social pressures,but it is an informative read. ( )

As a narrative, this exceeded expectations—I enjoyed Hesse's accomplished but down-to-earth prose, and felt she did a decent job capturing the feel of rural Virginia without succumbing to simplistic narratives about small-town decay and obsolescence. While the book markets itself as depicting a "vanishing land," I don't think Hesse's narrative frames it quite that way.

Any prose work is going to be hard-pressed to capture as surreal a series of crimes as the Eastern Shore arson cases. I thought the story was at its best when depicting the community response, from volunteer firefighter camaraderie to Facebook speculation. Yet I'm not convinced there's any "there there" when it comes to analyzing the motivations of the perpetrators. It's true that the Eastern Shore is an ideal landscape for a would-be arsonist, but the events that led to the crimes feel more-or-less universal.

Perhaps this is its own lesson—if you approach a crime story looking for a metaphor, and find it, you may simply be a very good writer. Hesse dodges the trap, but what's left is just a very weird story.

On the Virginia Eastern Shore, where people are born heres or moved heres scores of abandoned properties were burned down over a few months. The culprits story, so far as it is known, and the investigators story are interleaved after the history and peculiarities of the local are given. Sometimes absorbing and sometimes dragging, the narrative makes the obvious points. ( )

Monica Hesse has written a page turner in her new nonfiction book, “American Fire: Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land”. Hesse covers a rash of over sixty fires set in a small, rural Virginia community. From the start to the final trial, the story is told in engaging prose that will try to unravel the motivation behind the arsons and why it was so hard to catch the pair involved. I read a review that indicated the first and last chapters were a bit “gushy” but I didn’t find that to be the case. I lost track of time as I finished this book. Good stuff! ( )

I worked a lot on the eastern shore in the late 1980s and thru the 1990s and knew each of the small towns mentioned here. And I witnessed the growing number of abandoned houses (some converted to migrant labor camps, then abandoned) and sheds. And the change from locally owned farms to corporate farms. I’m glad these and other socio-economic factors are addressed in the book.
The book is well researched and well written. I like that we’re told who dunit right up front, then are along for the ride as the locals and other law enforcement try to figure it out. And it drove them crazy knowing it had to be one of their own. ( )