American fire: love, arson, and life in a vanishing land
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Published:
New York : Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2018.
Format:
Book
Physical Desc:
252 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 21 cm
Status:

Description

"The arsons started on a cold November midnight and didn't stop for months. Night after night, the people of Accomack County--once the richest rural county in the nation--waited to see which building would burn down next, regarding one another with compassion at first, and, later, suspicion. Vigilante groups sprang up, patrolling the rural coast. Volunteer firefighters slept at their stations. Local police were stretched thin. The arsonist seemed to target abandoned buildings, and by the dozen they were going up in flames. Over two years of investigation, Monica Hesse uncovered the motives of troubled mechanic Charlie Smith and his struggling accomplice, girlfriend Tonya Bundick. In depicting dangerous shifts in their fraught relationship, Hesse introduces the once-thriving coastal community, decimated by a punishing economy and increasingly afraid. American Fire re-creates the anguished nights when this quiet county was set on fire, evoking a microcosm of rural America--a land gutted before the fires even began."--Back cover.

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Location
Call Number
Status
Essex Adult Paperback
PBK 364.1 HES
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More Details

Language:
English
ISBN:
9781631494512

Notes

Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references.
Description
"The arsons started on a cold November midnight and didn't stop for months. Night after night, the people of Accomack County--once the richest rural county in the nation--waited to see which building would burn down next, regarding one another with compassion at first, and, later, suspicion. Vigilante groups sprang up, patrolling the rural coast. Volunteer firefighters slept at their stations. Local police were stretched thin. The arsonist seemed to target abandoned buildings, and by the dozen they were going up in flames. Over two years of investigation, Monica Hesse uncovered the motives of troubled mechanic Charlie Smith and his struggling accomplice, girlfriend Tonya Bundick. In depicting dangerous shifts in their fraught relationship, Hesse introduces the once-thriving coastal community, decimated by a punishing economy and increasingly afraid. American Fire re-creates the anguished nights when this quiet county was set on fire, evoking a microcosm of rural America--a land gutted before the fires even began."--Back cover.

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Citations

APA Citation (style guide)

Hesse, M. (2018). American fire: love, arson, and life in a vanishing land. Liveright Publishing Corporation.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)

Hesse, Monica. 2018. American Fire: Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land. Liveright Publishing Corporation.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)

Hesse, Monica, American Fire: Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land. Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2018.

MLA Citation (style guide)

Hesse, Monica. American Fire: Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land. Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2018.

Note! Citation formats are based on standards as of July 2022. Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy.

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Grouped Work ID:
e6e563c2-7183-34a0-d0d2-cfa324c869f1
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Record Information

Last Sierra Extract TimeJun 24, 2025 08:30:48 PM
Last File Modification TimeJun 24, 2025 08:31:24 PM
Last Grouped Work Modification TimeJul 05, 2025 10:18:25 PM

MARC Record

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0504 |a HV6638.5.U6 |b H47 2018
1001 |a Hesse, Monica, |e author. |0 http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/nb2014003399
24510 |a American fire : |b love, arson, and life in a vanishing land / |c Monica Hesse.
2641 |a New York : |b Liveright Publishing Corporation, |c 2018.
300 |a 252 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : |b illustrations ; |c 21 cm
336 |a text |b txt |2 rdacontent
337 |a unmediated |b n |2 rdamedia
338 |a volume |b nc |2 rdacarrier
504 |a Includes bibliographical references.
5050 |a "Charge that line!" -- "The South starts here" -- "Orange in the sky" -- Charlie -- Monomanie incendiaire -- Tonya -- "Like a ghost" -- "Tell us what you know about that" -- Charlie and Tonya -- Schrödinger's evidence -- The eastern shore arsonist hunters -- "I've seen enough ass to know" -- "Like hell was coming up through the ground" -- Tonya and Charlie -- "They're not hunters at all" -- "I didn't light them all" -- "Someday they'll go down together" -- "Everybody has a reason for why they do things in life" -- "I can't tell you something I don't know" -- "Midnight without makeup" -- The broken things -- "Time to wake up" -- Burned -- "We'd done it before" -- "They came out of everywhere" -- "Moral turpitude" -- What happened next -- "It's over."
520 |a "The arsons started on a cold November midnight and didn't stop for months. Night after night, the people of Accomack County--once the richest rural county in the nation--waited to see which building would burn down next, regarding one another with compassion at first, and, later, suspicion. Vigilante groups sprang up, patrolling the rural coast. Volunteer firefighters slept at their stations. Local police were stretched thin. The arsonist seemed to target abandoned buildings, and by the dozen they were going up in flames. Over two years of investigation, Monica Hesse uncovered the motives of troubled mechanic Charlie Smith and his struggling accomplice, girlfriend Tonya Bundick. In depicting dangerous shifts in their fraught relationship, Hesse introduces the once-thriving coastal community, decimated by a punishing economy and increasingly afraid. American Fire re-creates the anguished nights when this quiet county was set on fire, evoking a microcosm of rural America--a land gutted before the fires even began."--Back cover.
60010 |a Smith, Charlie |c (Arsonist) |0 http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n2017042426
60010 |a Bundick, Tonya |c (Arsonist) |0 http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n2017042429
6500 |a Arson |z Virginia |z Accomack County.
6510 |a Accomack County (Va.) |x Economic conditions.
6557 |a True crime stories. |2 lcgft |0 http://id.loc.gov/authorities/genreForms/gf2014026203
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998 |e - |d a  |f eng |a ex