Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | American Fire | 2017 | Monica Hesse | Buy |
Monica Hesse’s non-fiction work is American Fire (2017), a true crime account of a devastating arson spree in Accomack County, Virginia, where dozens of buildings were set ablaze. The book investigates the fires, the suspects, and the rural community affected by the crimes.
Hesse was a reporter at The Washington Post when she covered the Accomack arsons, and American Fire grew from that reporting. The book follows both the arsonists and the volunteer firefighters trying to stop them in a rural area where many structures were old and uninsured. It reads more like investigative journalism than a standard true crime narrative.
Readers who know Hesse from her young adult historical novels will find a very different kind of writing here, though her attention to place and community carries across both genres.