"Torchered" Minds: Case Histories of Notorious Serial Arsonists

This is for my colleagues the detectives, special agents, and arson investigators worldwide who work every day to identify, track down, arrest, and convict those most cowardly, sick, and devious of all criminals. It is an extraordinarily difficult task that on a daily basis is fraught with pitfalls and rife with myths and misconceptions. It is doggedly carried out by men and women who are routinely assailed by critics, stymied by bureaucrats, second-guessed by chair-warming administrators, avoided by many prosecutors, and eviscerated by defense attorneys, learned psychologists, and other hired guns. If it was easy, anybody could do it. It's not, and they can't. -Ed Nordskog, Detective, 2011