
The Arsonist
A Mind on Fire
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $20.00
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Cat Gould
-
By:
-
Chloe Hooper
About this listen
The true story of the most devastating wildfire in Australian history and the search for the man who started it.
What kind of person would deliberately start a firestorm? What kind of mind?
On the scorching February day in 2009 that became known as Black Saturday, a man lit two fires in Victoria's Latrobe Valley, then sat on the roof of his house to watch the inferno. In the Valley, where the rates of crime were the highest in the state, more than thirty people were known to the police as firebugs. But the detectives soon found themselves on the trail of a man they didn't know.
The Arsonist takes listeners on the hunt for this man, and inside the strange puzzle of his mind. This book is also the story of fire in Australia, and of a community that owed its existence to that very element. The command of fire has defined and sustained us as a species - understanding its abuse will shape our future.
A powerful true-crime thriller written with Hooper's trademark lyric detail and nuance, The Arsonist is a reminder that in an age of fire, all of us are gatekeepers.
©2018 by Chloe Hooper. Afterword © 2020 by Chloe Hooper. (P)2020 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
When the Moon Turns to Blood
- Lori Vallow, Chad Daybell, and a Story of Murder, Wild Faith, and End Times
- By: Leah Sottile
- Narrated by: Leah Sottile
- Length: 10 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When police in Rexburg, Idaho perform a wellness check on seven-year-old J.J. Vallow and his sister, sixteen-year-old Tylee Ryan, both children are nowhere to be found. Their mother, Lori Vallow, gives a phony explanation, and when officers return the following day with a search warrant, she, too, is gone. As the police begin to close in, a larger web of mystery, murder, fanaticism and deceit begins to unravel. Vallow’s case is sinuously complex. As investigators prod further, they find the accused Black Widow has an unusual number of bodies piling up around her.
-
-
More than true crime
- By Tanny M. Martin on 07-06-22
By: Leah Sottile
-
Empire of Pain
- The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty
- By: Patrick Radden Keefe
- Narrated by: Patrick Radden Keefe
- Length: 18 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The prize-winning and best-selling author of Say Nothing presents a grand, devastating portrait of three generations of the Sackler family, famed for their philanthropy, whose fortune was built by Valium and whose reputation was destroyed by OxyContin. Empire of Pain is a masterpiece of narrative reporting and writing, exhaustively documented and ferociously compelling.
-
-
Full Account of the Sackler Conspiracy
- By Edward Bisch on 04-13-21
-
Motor Spirit: The Long Hunt for the Zodiac
- By: Jarett Kobek
- Narrated by: Iphgenia Baal
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There’s a California that everyone imagines, a world of Hollywood glitz and Silicon Valley, and then there’s the real California. The one where everything is the color of dirt. Where the speed freaks gangbang on Haight Street, where evil is lurking, where violence erupts like cystic acne. The place was never crazier than the ’60s and the ’70s, a time when Dad transformed from a hippie-hating Reagan voter into a weed-addled swinger with a crash pad in the Valley. And right in that moment? There’s this guy who calls himself Zodiac.
-
-
The definitive book on Zodiac
- By Anonymous User on 04-24-25
By: Jarett Kobek
-
Rogues
- True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks
- By: Patrick Radden Keefe
- Narrated by: Patrick Radden Keefe
- Length: 15 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the prize-winning, New York Times bestselling author of Empire of Pain and Say Nothing—and one of the most decorated journalists of our time—twelve enthralling stories of skulduggery and intrigue.
-
-
Too political
- By Xi Chen on 07-11-22
-
Unmasked
- My Life Solving America's Cold Cases
- By: Paul Holes, Robin Gaby Fisher
- Narrated by: Paul Holes
- Length: 8 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
I order another bourbon, neat. This is the drink that will flip the switch. I don’t even know how I got here, to this place, to this point. Something is happening to me lately. I’m drinking too much. My sheets are soaking wet when I wake up from nightmares of decaying corpses. I order another drink and swig it, trying to forget about the latest case I can’t shake. Crime solving for me is more complex than the challenge of the hunt, or the process of piecing together a scientific puzzle. The thought of good people suffering drives me to the point of obsession.
-
-
I gave it the old college try
- By Hobbes on 05-06-22
By: Paul Holes, and others
-
Say Nothing
- A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland
- By: Patrick Radden Keefe
- Narrated by: Matthew Blaney
- Length: 14 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jean McConville's abduction was one of the most notorious episodes of the vicious conflict known as The Troubles. Everyone in the neighborhood knew the I.R.A. was responsible. But in a climate of fear and paranoia, no one would speak of it. In 2003, five years after an accord brought an uneasy peace to Northern Ireland, a set of human bones was discovered on a beach. McConville's children knew it was their mother when they were told a blue safety pin was attached to the dress--with so many kids, she had always kept it handy for diapers or ripped clothes.
-
-
On a par with I'll Be Gone in the Dark, plus...
- By Grace O'Malley on 03-01-19
-
When the Moon Turns to Blood
- Lori Vallow, Chad Daybell, and a Story of Murder, Wild Faith, and End Times
- By: Leah Sottile
- Narrated by: Leah Sottile
- Length: 10 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When police in Rexburg, Idaho perform a wellness check on seven-year-old J.J. Vallow and his sister, sixteen-year-old Tylee Ryan, both children are nowhere to be found. Their mother, Lori Vallow, gives a phony explanation, and when officers return the following day with a search warrant, she, too, is gone. As the police begin to close in, a larger web of mystery, murder, fanaticism and deceit begins to unravel. Vallow’s case is sinuously complex. As investigators prod further, they find the accused Black Widow has an unusual number of bodies piling up around her.
-
-
More than true crime
- By Tanny M. Martin on 07-06-22
By: Leah Sottile
-
Empire of Pain
- The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty
- By: Patrick Radden Keefe
- Narrated by: Patrick Radden Keefe
- Length: 18 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The prize-winning and best-selling author of Say Nothing presents a grand, devastating portrait of three generations of the Sackler family, famed for their philanthropy, whose fortune was built by Valium and whose reputation was destroyed by OxyContin. Empire of Pain is a masterpiece of narrative reporting and writing, exhaustively documented and ferociously compelling.
-
-
Full Account of the Sackler Conspiracy
- By Edward Bisch on 04-13-21
-
Motor Spirit: The Long Hunt for the Zodiac
- By: Jarett Kobek
- Narrated by: Iphgenia Baal
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There’s a California that everyone imagines, a world of Hollywood glitz and Silicon Valley, and then there’s the real California. The one where everything is the color of dirt. Where the speed freaks gangbang on Haight Street, where evil is lurking, where violence erupts like cystic acne. The place was never crazier than the ’60s and the ’70s, a time when Dad transformed from a hippie-hating Reagan voter into a weed-addled swinger with a crash pad in the Valley. And right in that moment? There’s this guy who calls himself Zodiac.
-
-
The definitive book on Zodiac
- By Anonymous User on 04-24-25
By: Jarett Kobek
-
Rogues
- True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks
- By: Patrick Radden Keefe
- Narrated by: Patrick Radden Keefe
- Length: 15 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the prize-winning, New York Times bestselling author of Empire of Pain and Say Nothing—and one of the most decorated journalists of our time—twelve enthralling stories of skulduggery and intrigue.
-
-
Too political
- By Xi Chen on 07-11-22
-
Unmasked
- My Life Solving America's Cold Cases
- By: Paul Holes, Robin Gaby Fisher
- Narrated by: Paul Holes
- Length: 8 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
I order another bourbon, neat. This is the drink that will flip the switch. I don’t even know how I got here, to this place, to this point. Something is happening to me lately. I’m drinking too much. My sheets are soaking wet when I wake up from nightmares of decaying corpses. I order another drink and swig it, trying to forget about the latest case I can’t shake. Crime solving for me is more complex than the challenge of the hunt, or the process of piecing together a scientific puzzle. The thought of good people suffering drives me to the point of obsession.
-
-
I gave it the old college try
- By Hobbes on 05-06-22
By: Paul Holes, and others
-
Say Nothing
- A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland
- By: Patrick Radden Keefe
- Narrated by: Matthew Blaney
- Length: 14 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jean McConville's abduction was one of the most notorious episodes of the vicious conflict known as The Troubles. Everyone in the neighborhood knew the I.R.A. was responsible. But in a climate of fear and paranoia, no one would speak of it. In 2003, five years after an accord brought an uneasy peace to Northern Ireland, a set of human bones was discovered on a beach. McConville's children knew it was their mother when they were told a blue safety pin was attached to the dress--with so many kids, she had always kept it handy for diapers or ripped clothes.
-
-
On a par with I'll Be Gone in the Dark, plus...
- By Grace O'Malley on 03-01-19
-
Fatty Fatty Boom Boom
- A Memoir of Food, Fat, and Family
- By: Rabia Chaudry
- Narrated by: Rabia Chaudry
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the bestselling author and host of the wildly popular Undisclosed podcast, a warm, intimate memoir about food, body image, and growing up in a loving but sometimes oppressively concerned Pakistani immigrant family.
-
-
Liked it.
- By Tariq Butt on 04-24-24
By: Rabia Chaudry
-
Cruel Deception
- The True Story of Multiple Murder and Two Devastated Families (St. Martin's True Crime Library)
- By: Gregg Olsen
- Narrated by: Kevin Pierce
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In and out of hospitals since birth, angelic nine-month-old Morgan Reid finally succumbed to what appeared to be sudden infant death syndrome. Morgan's Texas-born mother, Tanya, a nurse and devoted wife, pulled up stakes with her grieving husband, Jim, and moved on. It was the best way to put the past behind them. Until their son, Michael, a boy who by all accounts was terrified of his mother, began showing signs of the same affliction that stole the life of his baby sister....
-
-
Deadly Mystery
- By Judy on 06-07-22
By: Gregg Olsen
-
Tell Me Everything
- The Story of a Private Investigation
- By: Erika Krouse
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Erika Krouse has one of those faces. “I don’t know why I’m telling you this,” people say, spilling confessions. In fall 2002, Erika accepts a new contract job investigating lawsuits as a private investigator. The role seems perfect for her, but she quickly realizes she has no idea what she’s doing. Then a lawyer named Grayson assigns her to investigate a sexual assault, a college student who was attacked by football players and recruits at a party a year earlier. Erika knows she should turn the assignment down.
-
-
Love this author
- By Jessica on 04-08-22
By: Erika Krouse
-
American Predator
- The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21st Century
- By: Maureen Callahan
- Narrated by: Amy Landon
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The names of notorious serial killers are usually well-known; they echo in the news and in public consciousness. But most people have never heard of Israel Keyes, one of the most ambitious and terrifying serial killers in modern history American Predator is the ambitious culmination of years of interviews with key figures in law enforcement and in Keyes's life, and research uncovered from classified FBI files. Callahan takes us on a journey into the chilling, nightmarish mind of a relentless killer, and to the limitations of traditional law enforcement.
-
-
Why you shouldn’t listen to Reviews
- By jofi00 on 10-23-19
By: Maureen Callahan
-
In Light of All Darkness
- Inside the Polly Klaas Kidnapping and the Search for America's Child
- By: Kim Cross
- Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan
- Length: 13 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On October 1, 1993, a 12-year-old girl was kidnapped at knifepoint from her bedroom in Petaluma, California, during a sleepover with two friends, while her mother slept soundly in the room next door. This rarest of all kidnappings—a stranger abduction from the home—triggered one of the largest manhunts in FBI history. New York Times bestselling author Kim Cross has written the first comprehensive account of what happened on that fateful night in October, as well as how the case forever transformed the Bureau’s approach to solving crimes.
-
-
Haunting
- By Lil Momma Reader on 11-18-23
By: Kim Cross
-
Trailed
- One Woman's Quest to Solve the Shenandoah Murders
- By: Kathryn Miles
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In May 1996, two skilled backcountry leaders, Lollie Winans and Julie Williams, entered Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park for a week-long backcountry camping trip. The free-spirited and remarkable young couple had met and fallen in love the previous summer while working at a world-renowned outdoor program for women. During their final days in the park, they descended the narrow remnants of a trail and pitched their tent in a hidden spot. After the pair didn’t return home as planned, park rangers found a scene of horror at their campsite.
-
-
Far Too Long
- By Judy on 06-21-22
By: Kathryn Miles
-
No Stone Unturned
- The True Story of the World's Premier Forensic Investigators
- By: Steve Jackson
- Narrated by: Kevin Pierce
- Length: 14 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No Stone Unturned recreates the genesis of NecroSearch International: a small ,eclectic group of scientists and law enforcement personal, active and retired, who volunteer their services to help locate the clandestine graves of murder victims and recover the remains and evidence to assist with the apprehension and conviction of the killers.
-
-
Forensic Superheroes
- By Mark on 09-14-16
By: Steve Jackson
-
Last Call
- A True Story of Love, Lust, and Murder in Queer New York
- By: Elon Green
- Narrated by: David Pittu
- Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Townhouse Bar, midtown, July 1992: The piano player seems to know every song ever written, the crowd belts out the lyrics to their favorites, and a man standing nearby is drinking a Scotch and water. The man strikes the piano player as forgettable. He looks bland and inconspicuous. Not at all what you think a serial killer looks like. But that’s what he is, and tonight, he has his sights set on a gray haired man. He will not be his first victim.
-
-
shockingly sad but so informative
- By Kelly on 08-30-21
By: Elon Green
-
The Want Ad Killer
- By: Ann Rule
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After his first grisly crime, Harvey Louis Carignan beat a death sentence and continued to manipulate, rape, and bludgeon women to death - using want ads to lure his young female victims. And time after time, justice was thwarted by a killer whose twisted legal genius was matched only by his sick savagery. Here, complete with the testimony of women who suffered his unspeakable sexual abuses and barely escaped with their lives and of the police who at last put him behind bars, is one of the most shattering and thought-provoking true-crime stories of our time.
-
-
Paul Booooomer
- By Murder Fancier on 04-08-17
By: Ann Rule
-
American Fire
- Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land
- By: Monica Hesse
- Narrated by: Tanya Eby
- Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Shocked by a five-month arson spree that left rural Virginia reeling, Washington Post reporter Monica Hesse drove down to Accomack County to cover the trial of Charlie Smith, who pled guilty to 67 counts of arson. But Charlie wasn't lighting fires alone: he had an accomplice - his girlfriend, Tonya Bundick. Through her depiction of the dangerous shift that happened in their passionate relationship, Hesse brilliantly brings to life the once-thriving coastal community and its distressed inhabitants.
-
-
Narration is horrible
- By Bryan Campbell on 08-17-17
By: Monica Hesse
-
Blood Ties
- By: Brian McGilloway
- Narrated by: Owen McDonnell
- Length: 8 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How can a dead woman avenge herself on her killer 20 years after her murder? This is the puzzle facing Ben Devlin in his latest case. He is called to the scene of a murder - a man has been stabbed to death in his rented room, and when his identity is discovered, Devlin feels a ghost walk over his grave, as he knows the name Brooklyn Harris well. As a teenager, Harris beat his then-girlfriend Hannah Row to death, and then spent 12 years in prison for the murder.
-
-
Outstanding
- By Patricia on 07-19-21
By: Brian McGilloway
-
The Forever Witness
- How DNA and Genealogy Solved a Cold Case Double Murder
- By: Edward Humes
- Narrated by: Edward Humes
- Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In November 1987, a young couple on an overnight trip to Seattle vanished without a trace. A week later, the bodies of Tanya Van Cuylenborg and her boyfriend Jay Cook were found in rural Washington. It was a brutal crime, and it was the perfect crime: With few clues and no witnesses, an international manhunt turned up empty, and the sensational case that shocked the Pacific Northwest gradually slipped from the headlines.
-
-
Compelling
- By MLB on 01-17-23
By: Edward Humes
Critic reviews
"A masterclass in engaging true crime." --Herald Sun
"Hooper gives a cool appraisal of a hot issue...even-handed and nuanced." --The Guardian
"The Arsonist [is] by turns a fascinating real-life thriller, police procedural, intense sociological study and the long-overdue story of fire in Australia.... Powerful and nuanced.... In Hooper's sure hands the grimmest details become exquisite imagery. " --The Sydney Morning Herald