Rating: 
Summary: Good Read
Review: I have always enjoyed Joseph Wambaugh. It seems a few years ago, he went through a "dark" period when his books were almost if not actually depressing. But "Fire Lover" is a very good book. What I like about Wambaugh is his insight into people and organizations. The interplay between the police departments, the fire departsments, the Federal Arson invesigators, etc, is very very interesting. Fire lover is a true story about a serial arsonist who is also the arson investigator for Glendale, California. He may have been the most prolific arsonist of the 20th century. My only complaint is that the trial part of the book might be too long. But as usual, Wambaugh shows his insights into how the system works, or sometimes does not work. The system worked here, but it was a very long journey. I think over the writing career of Joseph Wambaugh, we owe him a debt for telling us outsiders how police departments and now fire departments actually work. I feel we owe them a debt that they do work. The book is a very good read.
Rating: 
Summary: He just hates him......
Review: I have enjoyed Wambaugh's other true crime books, and watched for this one to go on the Best Seller lists. When it didn't, I decided to buy it anyway.....And I wish I hadn't. Wambaugh obviously despises the man he refers to as "the fire lover". He holds him in such contempt that this is in no way an unbiased account, but on the contrary it is a diatribe against this man. Admittedly, the "fire lover" has done some despicible things, but, please, let the reader come to that conclusion. Why write 338 pages about a man you hate? Spare me......I'll read a more objective account of this in the newspapers.
Rating:
Summary: Finally something to explain more than the Nova special does
Review: I have the Nova program on John Orr and it is really good, but this book does more to describe the sociopathic nature of Orr. I have never read Wambaugh before but I am really taken by his style. I reccomend that you read this and find a copy of the "serial arsonist" that was done by PBS (Nova) to get a complete picture of this guy.
Rating: 
Summary: Too long
Review: I think he could have written in 200 words or less that he hated John Orr, thinks cops are better than firemen, and thinks prosecutors should always have the upper hand. One thing he could have included was photos, to make the book less boring. And, he could have explained just how we went from the judge disallowing Orr's manuscripts into evidence to the prosecution being allowed to use them as evidence.
Rating: 
Summary: Strange fish
Review: I've read all of Joseph Wambaugh's books, from THE NEW CENTURIONS to FIRE LOVER, and this was the least enjoyable.
FIRE LOVER probably doesn't measure up because there's not a whole lot of suspense. We know from the synopsis that arson investigator John Orr may have been the most notorious arsonist since Nero. Orr was a brazen offender, setting fires in the middle of the day when customers were in the stores, leading to the death of four at Ole's Home Center in South Pasadena. But he makes one big mistake, leaving his fingerprint on yellow legal paper that was used, along with a cigarette, a rubber band and three matches, to start a fire similar to the one at Ole's Home Center. The fingerprint was almost ignored because of the jealousy between firemen and police arson investigators.
Much of the book involves courtroom gymnastics. There are so many closing statements that you tell yourself, "this must be the last one." But you're wrong. There are more of them during the penalty phase and Wambaugh cites them all, practically verbatim.
Wambaugh is also famous for his irreverent narrative tone. This works in CHOIRBOYS, where we assume the narrator is a man in blue, but here he's supposed to be an objective journalist. He refers to jurors, lawyers, and judges as "...strange fish that lazily glide, blowing gas bubbles that pop ineffectually on the surface of the litigation tanks in which they live and breed." He likes this strange fish motif so much he uses it over and over again.
All of this said, I'm still looking forward to Wambaugh's next fictional tome. It seems an eternity since FLOATERS.
Rating:
Summary: What Wambaugh Does Best
Review: James Wambaugh has a long and somewhat successful history of writing both fictional and non-fictional stories. From Onionfield to The Blooding his style remains the same, detailed but fast-paced enough to always keep the reader interested with the feeling that he has been there and done all this before. The greatest criticism of Wambaugh is his sometimes quirky use of syntax, which leaves the reader with the question of what is the meaning of his sentence or paragraph. Putting that aside, as in The Blooding, Wambaugh makes a factual and sometimes boring story come alive for the reader of Fire Lover. He even did quite well in the middle of the book when he had to cover the second trial and all of its detail without being too repetitious and going over all that went on in the first trial. After all there is only so much you can write about a fire and keep the reader's interest alive. In all, I liked the book and give it my recommendation.
Rating: 
Summary: Good
Review: Joseph Wambaugh said a couple books ago that he would never write nonfiction again since he always got sued. I'm glad he decided differently, because I really enjoyed FIRE LOVER. The writing is good, it's gripping, and a good character study, too. It does slow down a bit during the trial, but obviously the prosecuting of the crimes is going to be less rivetting than the actually comitting of the crimes. An inadvertant red herring is thrown into the mix, that disappoints in the end. But Wambaugh couldn't change the facts just to suit me. But overall a fine book. I thought the GOLDEN ORANGE was so bad, I'd given up on Wambaugh and didn't bother to read FINNEGAN'S WEEK. But I'm glad I bothered to read FIRE LOVER. In reference to a previous comment of why didn't Wambaugh include photos and diagrams; Wambaugh has always based the style of his nonfiction books on Truman Capote's IN COLD BLOOD. When Wambaugh asked Capote why he didn't include photos, Capote said he wanted IN COLD BLOOD to read like novel, and have the narrative alone serve the reader, and Wambaugh has followed Capote's lead ever since.
Rating:
Summary: Just a few items
Review: Rather than go into an in-depth review, I'll just make note of a couple of things that I found to detract from this book. Wambaugh notes that John Orr set a number of fires over a period of several years. A chart listing the fires and their dates (and, even better, a map of their locations) would have made the narrative much easier to follow, but alas there's nothing of the sort. I repeatedly found myself paging back through the book when Wambaugh mentioned a fire that had occurred months or years earlier. Photographs also would have helped. Wambaugh notes that Orr's completely ordinary, undistinguished appearance made it easier for him to escape notice when he set fires in occupied businesses. It would have been nice if we could have seen for ourselves. Finally, whenever Wambaugh refers to a vehicle making a U-turn - which he does incessantly - he uses the very annoying phrase "pulling a U-ee." Please, a little less slang would be appreciated.
Rating:
Summary: Great Read!
Review: Right after this book arrived in the mail, Court TV ran a show on John Orr's case. I thought I'd seen the cat let out of the bag. I'm glad I read the book. It had much greater detail than the TV show did. I was concerned about Wambaugh the former policeman writing about a fire investigation story but it was excellent! Glad to see he's still writing great stuff.
Rating:
Summary: Fire Lover:
Review: Sorry, This book [stinks]!! There is too much court house dialog.
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