Like yesterday I remember the trial of John Leonard Orr as it was heavily covered in the Los Angeles Times at the beginning of the new century. It was truly unbelievable. John Leonard Orr was an arson investigator for the Glendale Fire Department at the time of his arrest. Turns out that this very arson investigator was, in fact, the CAUSE of a huge series of fire that started wherever he happened to be. And who better to tell the story than Joseph Wambaugh, whose writing style is perfect for this particular true crime story.
And like a lot of us looking back on an incident with 20/20 hindsight, you can't help but feel the old cliche of "Why in hell didn't anyone catch on to this guy sooner? How was that possible?" Wambaugh shows you with his top-notch writing style how it was possible. Though I knew how the story would turn out, it was amazing the amount of suspense this book generated. It's been a while since I read a true-life crime story, but glad I happened upon this book. I really recommend it.