Download or read book The Arsonists City written by Hala Alyan and published by Houghton Mifflin. This book was released on 2021 with total page 467 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Arsonists' City delivers all the pleasures of a good old-fashioned saga, but in Alyan's hands, one family's tale becomes the story of a nation--Lebanon and Syria, yes, but also the United States. It's the kind of book we are lucky to have."--Rumaan Alam A rich family story, a personal look at the legacy of war in the Middle East, and an indelible rendering of how we hold on to the people and places we call home The Nasr family is spread across the globe--Beirut, Brooklyn, Austin, the California desert. A Syrian mother, a Lebanese father, and three American children: all have lived a life of migration. Still, they've always had their ancestral home in Beirut--a constant touchstone--and the complicated, messy family love that binds them. But following his father's recent death, Idris, the family's new patriarch, has decided to sell. The decision brings the family to Beirut, where everyone unites against Idris in a fight to save the house. They all have secrets--lost loves, bitter jealousies, abandoned passions, deep-set shame--that distance has helped smother. But in a city smoldering with the legacy of war, an ongoing flow of refugees, religious tension, and political protest, those secrets ignite, imperiling the fragile ties that hold this family together. In a novel teeming with wisdom, warmth, and characters born of remarkable human insight, award-winning author Hala Alyan shows us again that "fiction is often the best filter for the real world around us" (NPR).
Download or read book The Arsonists and what Happened to Them written by Mary Ann Wilby and published by . This book was released on 1995 with total page 2 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book American Fire Love Arson and Life in a Vanishing Land written by Monica Hesse and published by Liveright Publishing. This book was released on 2017-07-11 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times Notable Book of the Year A Washington Post Notable Book of the Year One of Amazon’s 20 Best Books of the Year Named one of the Best Books of the Year by Buzzfeed, Bustle, NPR, NYLON, and Thrillist Finalist for the Goodreads Book Award (Nonfiction) Finalist for the Edgar Award (Best Fact Crime) A Book of the Month Club Selection A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice Selection “A brisk, captivating and expertly crafted reconstruction of a community living through a time of fear.... Masterful.” —Washington Post The arsons started on a cold November midnight and didn’t stop for months. Night after night, the people of Accomack County waited to see which building would burn down next, regarding each other at first with compassion, and later suspicion. Vigilante groups sprang up, patrolling the rural Virginia coast with cameras and camouflage. Volunteer firefighters slept at their stations. The arsonist seemed to target abandoned buildings, but local police were stretched too thin to surveil them all. Accomack was desolate—there were hundreds of abandoned buildings. And by the dozen they were burning. “One of the year’s best and most unusual true-crime books” (Christian Science Monitor), American Fire brings to vivid life the reeling county of Accomack. “Ace reporter” (Entertainment Weekly) Monica Hesse spent years investigating the story, emerging with breathtaking portraits of the arsonists—troubled addict Charlie Smith and his girlfriend, Tonya Bundick. Tracing the shift in their relationship from true love to crime spree, Hesse also conjures the once-thriving coastal community, decimated by a punishing economy and increasingly suspicious of their neighbors as the culprits remained at large. Weaving the story into the history of arson in the United States, the critically acclaimed American Fire re-creates the anguished nights this quiet county lit up in flames, evoking a microcosm of rural America—a land half-gutted before the fires began.
Download or read book The Arsonist written by Chloe Hooper and published by Seven Stories Press. This book was released on 2020-09-29 with total page 195 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The true story of one of the most devastating wildfires in Australian history and the search for the man who started it. On the scorching February day in 2009, a man lit two fires in the Australian state of Victoria, then sat on the roof of his house to watch the inferno. What came to be known as the Black Saturday bushfires killed 173 people and injured hundreds more, making them among the deadliest and most destructive wildfires in Australian history. As communities reeling from unspeakable loss demanded answers, detectives scrambled to piece together what really happened. They soon began to suspect the fires had been deliverately set by an arsonist. The Arsonist takes readers on the hunt for this man, and inside the puzzle of his mind. But this book is also the story of fire in the Anthropocene. The command of fire has defined and sustained us as a species, and now, as climate change normalizes devastating wildfires worldwide, we must contend with the forces of inequality, and desperate yearning for power, that can lead to such destruction. Written with Chloe Hooper’s trademark lyric detail and nuance, The Arsonist is a reminder that in the age of fire, all of us are gatekeepers.
Download or read book The Arsonist written by Sue Miller and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2014-01-01 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fleeing the end of an affair, and troubled by the feeling that she belongs nowhere after working in East Africa for fifteen years, Frankie Rowley comes home to the small New Hampshire town of Pomeroy and the farmhouse where her family has always summered. On her first night back, a house up the road burns to the ground. Is it an accident? Over the weeks that follow, as Frankie comes to recognise her father's slow failing and her mother's desperation, and she tentatively gets to know the new owner of the local newspaper, another house burns, and then another. These frightening events open the deep social fault lines in the town and raise questions about how and where one ought to live, and what it really means to lead a fulfilling life.
Download or read book The Dreadful Judgement written by Neil Hanson and published by Corgi Books. This book was released on 2012 with total page 447 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "If the story that struck the Grand Banks off Newfoundland in October 1991 was The Perfect Storm, the fire that destroyed London in September 1666 was The Perfect Fire. A fire needs only three things: a spark to ignite it, and the fuel and oxygen to feed it. In 1666, a ten-month drought had turned London into a tinderbox. The older parts of the city were almost entirely composed of wood-frame buildings and shanties. The riverside wharves were stack with wood, coal, oil, tallow, hemp, pitch, brandy, and almost very other combustible material known to seventeenth century man. On 2 September 1666, London ignited. Over the next five days the gale blew without interruption and the resulting firestorm destroyed the whole city. THE DREADFUL JUDGEMENT tells the true, human story of the Great Fire of London through the eyes of the individuals caught up in it. It is a historical story combining modern knowledge of the physics of fire, forensics and arson investigation with the moving eye-witness accounts to produce a searing depiction of the terrible reality of the Great Fire of London and its impact on those who lived through it."
Download or read book The Arsonist written by Stephanie Oakes (Young adult author) and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2017 with total page 498 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Molly Mavity and Pepper Yusef are dealing with their own personal tragedies when they are tasked by an anonymous person with solving the decades-old murder of Ava Dryman, an East German teenager whose diary was published after her death.
Download or read book Fire Raisers Freaks and Fiends written by Ed Nordskog and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2013-09-18 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An award winning arson investigator brings you over thirty cases from his own files and those of his colleagues. These true case histories cover the entire spectrum of arson crimes from the hapless goof to the most evil and obsessive fiends of them all. Among this collection are the erratic street denizens who are the serial arsonists. This group wanders your streets at night igniting anything that strikes their fancy. A more dangerous and dedicated group is the "mission men" who are trying to set a fire or explosion of cataclysmic proportions, with deadly intentions. The most colorful and odd group in this book has been labeled "whackjobs, weirdos and wannabes". This group consists of phonies masquerading as firefighters, cops, secret agents and others. The chapter on "mad men" shows how much a man's hate will drive him until all rational thought goes out the window. The author, Ed Nordskog has been a police detective for over 23 years and a specialist in arson and bomb investigations for the past 17 years. His beat is the sprawling Los Angeles basin with its over nine million citizens. His case histories in this book are a mere sampling of his 1,700 arson investigations. He has arrested and sat face to face in cramped interview rooms with over 300 arsonists and bombers. Some of these people are also rapists, murderers, gang members, devil worshipers, child molesters, and child murderers. Nordskog's first book, "Torchered Minds-Case histories of notorious serial arsonists", has been widely accepted and lauded in the arson investigation field. This exhaustive study focused on over 60 case histories of the more famous serial arson investigations. Nordskog's current book goes into much more depth to chronicle the various subtypes of the more dangerous arsonists he's come across. He shows obsessive-compulsive stalkers and rapists. He meets and speaks with several dangerous paranoid-schizophrenics who have voices within their heads telling them to burn and kill. He highlights a few suspects who went out on a fiery mission with very little expectation to survive the day, and with the stated goal of taking as many victims with them as possible. He introduces you to people who maim, torture and kill helpless animals and family pets with poison and fire. Lastly, Nordskog introduces true crime readers to the shadowy world of arson investigation and to the investigators themselves. The cases in this book are weirder or more bizarre than can be dreamt up by a Hollywood screenwriter. They are all also 100% true. These cases cover an area from the Los Angeles basin, through the desert region and along the foothills and forests that run up and down the entire state of California. Det. Ed Nordskog has been and arson/bomb investigator, undercover narcotics detective, and a detective working burglaries, robberies, auto theft and other major crimes. He has a Master's Degree and has received over 85 awards for his investigative work to include "Law Enforcement Officer of the Year" and "International Arson Investigator of the Year". He continues to work as an arson/bomb investigator for the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department. He is an active lecturer and instructor in this field for the State of California, the California Conference of Arson Investigators and the International Association of Arson Investigators.
Download or read book Arsonist written by Jared Fernandez and published by Page Publishing Inc. This book was released on 2017-09-15 with total page 159 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What happened when I felt let down by the world around me and shamed by who I had become and the destruction that was to follow once I gave up on it all and no longer cared who was to suffer by my own hands, long ready to strangle so many for so long. So much had formed and gathered, the colliding fragments from all directions, coming together to produce the fire eventually to be. And the energy to linger and litter the surrounding environment with anger and question to the cause is what remains. For a moment in my shoes, this is what it looks like, and this is what it feels like. From my view and perspective, here is my story, or at least what I can resurrect and unload to conclude as possibility and the pieces ready to decipher. A fire, a suicide, and a crime? And here is what comes along with the territory after such an event. Is it ever what it seems or is it always? At what point do we seek the truth and reason, or is it always the search for what can become opportunity for those involved? This is the true story of my attempt to uncover the reason behind the unexplained events that occurred on March 2, 2015, at 11211.
Download or read book Fire on the Mountain written by Dale A. Johnson and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2008-08-28 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Biography of experiences by an American living in Southeast Turkey and Northern Iraq during and after the first Gulf War.
Download or read book The Arsonist Profiles written by Ed Nordskog and published by . This book was released on 2016-08-18 with total page 688 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author, Detective Ed Nordskog is an internationally recognized expert on arson, serial arson, criminal bombers and arsonists. The Arsonist Profiles is his third book describing the unique crimes of arson and serial arson, and the individuals who commit them.Nordskog approaches this subject from a very unique perspective. He is the senior arson investigator for the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department (largest and busiest arson/bomb unit in the United States) and has personally conducted over 2,000 arson investigations. He has been a cop for over thirty years and a Detective for twenty-six years. Nordskog not only has studied and written extensively about serial arsonists, he has been a Lead Investigator or co-Investigator on over 55 serial arson investigations, and has advised other police and fire agencies on several more. He has personally studied over 900 serial arson cases from around the world.Nordskog is one of only a small handful of arson profilers in the world and probably the only one working as an active detective on arson and bomb cases. As part of his daily duties, Det. Nordskog visits arson scenes, processes evidence, develops leads, and then tracks down the fire offender. He has been involved in the arrests and prosecutions of over 300 arsonists in his career. Several of those arsonists have been sentenced to decades in prison, while a couple more have been sentenced to Death.Det. Nordskog differs from other profilers in this field as he is able to sit face to face and interview the arsonist in their most vulnerable and candid moments; that first few hours after their arrest. It is at this important juncture that the truth often comes out. The arsonist is usually too exhausted or disoriented to form coherent lies and has not been contaminated with alibis and excuses by jailhouse lawyers, defense attorneys, and psychologists. Nordskog has looked into the eyes of the arsonists as they speak. He has talked to their victims, their families, and their friends. He has searched their homes and rooms and read their emails, texts, computer searches and journals. He has delved into the lair of the arsonist and has found as much truth as there is to find.By these standard investigation techniques, Nordskog has accumulated information and helped refine and develop profiling techniques for these unique offenders. He has learned that arsonists are not easily defined and are extremely complex criminals. No single profile fits all and Nordskog has learned of several types and sub-types in this genre. He knows that most arsonists are classified best by the motive of their attacks and by the sophistication of the ignition scenario.In The Arsonist Profiles, Det. Ed Nordskog breaks down the motives of arson and the sub-types within the motives. He talks about the "red flags of arson", staging arson scenes, targeting methods of arsonists, pattern analysis and incendiary device analysis.Nordskog describes the sub-types of arsonists to include; females, juveniles, gang/organized crime groups, profit related arson, extremist groups, and the most common motive of all, the revenge based arsonists.As usual Nordskog tells his stories through detailed analysis of his own arson investigations and from those of other recognized investigators in the field. The short case histories are raw and honest and highlight both the good and bad of arson investigation and the criminal justice system.This third book, The Arsonist Profiles is a natural follow-up by Nordskog to his first two books; "Torchered Minds-Case histories of notorious serial arsonists"; and "Fireraisers, Freaks, and Fiends-Obsessive Arsonists in the California foothills". Nordskog's books are "must reads" for all criminal investigators, prosecutors, fire chiefs and true crime buffs. They should also be required reading for any mental health professionals who are dabbling in this field.
Download or read book Arsonists in California and New York written by William G. Bradshaw and published by . This book was released on 1985 with total page 6 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A nonrandom sample of 90 arsonists in California and New York was interviewed for the California Department of Forestry from 1977 to 1979. About two-thirds of them were in prison for arson, and the others were in mental hospitals. The 90 interviewees were mostly unmarried males ranging in age from 17 to 51 years. Survey results show that those who set their first arson fire at a young age tended to set many fires, and had more arson convictions and repeated visits to mental hospitals than those who set their first fire at an older age.
Download or read book Torchered Minds written by Ed Nordskog and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2011-10 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Detective Ed Nordskog's "Torchered Minds" is true crime at its best. These stories of over sixty serial arsonists are re-told by an award winning arson investigator and expert in the field. The arson cases are taken from famous, nationally known events and from the author's own case files. These arsonists include serial murderers, serial rapists, serial poisoners, firefighters, phony cops, "wannabes", and others masquerading as heroes. These true characters are sometimes so bizarre, sinister, and devious that Hollywood's best writers could not imagine some of their deeds."
Download or read book The Library Book written by Susan Orlean and published by Simon & Schuster. This book was released on 2019-10-01 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Susan Orlean’s bestseller and New York Times Notable Book is “a sheer delight…as rich in insight and as varied as the treasures contained on the shelves in any local library” (USA TODAY)—a dazzling love letter to a beloved institution and an investigation into one of its greatest mysteries. “Everybody who loves books should check out The Library Book” (The Washington Post). On the morning of April 28, 1986, a fire alarm sounded in the Los Angeles Public Library. The fire was disastrous: it reached two thousand degrees and burned for more than seven hours. By the time it was extinguished, it had consumed four hundred thousand books and damaged seven hundred thousand more. Investigators descended on the scene, but more than thirty years later, the mystery remains: Did someone purposefully set fire to the library—and if so, who? Weaving her lifelong love of books and reading into an investigation of the fire, award-winning New Yorker reporter and New York Times bestselling author Susan Orlean delivers a “delightful…reflection on the past, present, and future of libraries in America” (New York magazine) that manages to tell the broader story of libraries and librarians in a way that has never been done before. In the “exquisitely written, consistently entertaining” (The New York Times) The Library Book, Orlean chronicles the LAPL fire and its aftermath to showcase the larger, crucial role that libraries play in our lives; delves into the evolution of libraries; brings each department of the library to vivid life; studies arson and attempts to burn a copy of a book herself; and reexamines the case of Harry Peak, the blond-haired actor long suspected of setting fire to the LAPL more than thirty years ago. “A book lover’s dream…an ambitiously researched, elegantly written book that serves as a portal into a place of history, drama, culture, and stories” (Star Tribune, Minneapolis), Susan Orlean’s thrilling journey through the stacks reveals how these beloved institutions provide much more than just books—and why they remain an essential part of the heart, mind, and soul of our country.
Download or read book Burned written by Edward Humes and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2019-01-08 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Was a monstrous killer brought to justice or an innocent mother condemned? On an April night in 1989, Jo Ann Parks survived a house fire that claimed the lives of her three small children. Though the fire at first seemed a tragic accident, investigators soon reported finding evidence proving that Parks had sabotaged wiring, set several fires herself, and even barricade her four-year-old son inside a closet to prevent his escape. Though she insisted she did nothing wrong, Jo Ann Parks received a life sentence without parole based on the power of forensic fire science that convincingly proved her guilt. But more than a quarter century later, a revolution in the science of fire has exposed many of the incontrovertible truths of 1989 as guesswork in disguise. The California Innocence Project is challenging Parks's conviction and the so-called science behind it, claiming that false assumptions and outright bias convicted an innocent mother of a crime that never actually happened. If Parks is exonerated, she could well be the "Patient Zero" in an epidemic of overturned guilty verdicts—but only if she wins. Can prosecutors dredge up enough evidence and roadblocks to make sure Jo Ann Parks dies in prison? No matter how her last-ditch effort for freedom turns out, the scenes of betrayal, ruin, and hope will leave readers longing for justice we can trust.
Download or read book Arson written by Richard N. Kocsis and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 6 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The arson rate in Australia has climbed significantly over the past 30 years ... This paper explores the possible motives for arson, with special attention given to psychological disorders that may be associated with fire-starting. Also investigated are methods to tackle the problem of arson, including public awareness campaigns and fire safety education for young people ... The current shortage of scientific research on arsonists is a significant obstacle to reducing the problem of arson in Australia.
Download or read book Fire Lover written by Joseph Wambaugh and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2016-10-18 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The hunt forthe most prolific American arsonist of the twentieth century—in this Edgar Award–winning true crime story that’s “stranger than fiction” (The New York Times). From Joseph Wambaugh, the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of such classics as The Onion Field and The Choirboys, comes the extraordinary story of the chase for the “Pillow Pyro,” led by one ambitious firefighter. Growing up in Los Angeles, John Orr idolized law enforcement. However, after being rejected by both the LAPD and LAFD, he settled for a position with the Glendale Fire Department. There, he rose through the ranks, eventually becoming a fire captain and one of Southern California’s best-known and most respected arson investigators. But Orr led another, unseen life, one that included womanizing and an insatiable thirst for recognition. While Orr busted a slew of petty arsonists, there was one serial criminal he could not track down. Nothing was safe from the so-called Pillow Pyro’s obsession. Homes, retail stores, and fields of dry brush all went up in flames. His handiwork led to millions of dollars worth of property damage and the deaths of four innocent bystanders. But after years of evading the police, he made a mistake—one that would turn Orr’s life upside down. The Washington Post raves, “When [Joseph Wambaugh] talks about the culture of cops versus the culture of firemen, we get no speculation, only hard-earned details.” Based on meticulous research, interviews, case records, and thousands of pages of court transcripts, Fire Lover is Wambaugh at his best.
