After graduating from Susquehanna University, Jay Varner got a job back in his home town reporting about fires for the local newspaper. That's all well and good, but throughout the course of this book, you get an interesting family background. Jay's reporting fires. His late father was a well-loved fire chief. His father's father? The town arsonist.

This book examines Jay's relationship with his father and grandfather through this connection of fire. A very interesting take on such relationships.

On a more personal note, because I was also at Susquehanna University at the same time as Jay Varner and I knew who he was, I was really excited to read this book. Though we weren't friends, we had mutual connections and shared experiences through the Susquehanna University Writer's Institute, and I am familiar with the town to which he returns after college to write for the newspaper. For this reason, I felt that I could visualize everything pretty well. I'm not sure if that's good or bad (perhaps some things are better when left to the imagination) but it is what it is, and I still thought this was a really great debut book.