From the Bookshelf of Around The World…

[close] American Fire by Monica Hesse
4★

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 survey them all. Accomack County, Virginia was desolate―there were hundreds of abandoned buildings. And by the dozen they were burning.

I liked this story much more than I thought I would when I picked the book up because it fit a category of a challenge. The story really isn't the fires as much as it's a story of a rural community that has fallen on drastically devastating hard times with irrational behavior thrown into the smoldering pot. The author does a fantastic job of presenting a vivid picture of the situation. A visit to Accomack County, Virginia is not necessary in order to picture what life had become there. You didn't have to met Charlie to know who he is. What could be a straightforward story about a series of fires in this rural area suddenly becomes a story about