This leaves the whole story a bit short of real meaning - these horrible fires are the product of a lonely, unwell man who has been bullied for years and is barely aware of the magnitude of his crime. Partly this comes from the story she's chosen - the titular arsonist is vague, potentially intellectually disabled and seemingly unable to process much of what's happening around him. Hooper is a smart and compelling writer - I smashed through this in a day, almost unable to stop myself - but I was left feeling like it was a bit heavy on drama and a bit light on illumination. This is an incredibly readable, upsetting and sometimes insightful book about one of the fires from Victoria's black saturday and the subsequent investigation and prosecution of the man who lit it. Because of the content of this book I’m not sure it’s a book that everyone would want to read, but if you think it’s a book you might like to read then please give it a go as it really is well worth reading. Aussie author Chloe Hooper has performed an incredible job in researching and writing this book. This book was at times a hard and emotional read, but one that needed to be read but also written in my opinion. The investigation then goes on to trying to work out why somebody would want to start a fire in the first place.

As the detectives gather information they trust they are getting closer to who is responsible and it’s only a matter of time before they catch the fire bug. The Arsonist deals more with the investigation on how the fires started and who lit them. The first book I read was a fiction novel whereas this one The Arsonist is a non fiction. This is the second book that I’ve read of late about the horrific fires that swept through a country town in Victoria in 2009 known as Black Saturday.

The arsonist a mind on fire