{"product_id":"book-1m3f","title":"The Acre on Fire","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e“Tragic, infuriating, impeccably researched…. [A] remarkable story, brilliantly told.” — John Grisham\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA shocking story of fire science gone wrong and mob mentality run amok, when Victor Rosario, an immigrant in Lowell, Massachusetts, is wrongfully convicted following a deadly blaze and exonerated after 30 years in prison—from the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eBlack Mass\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eWhitey.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe fire began on the first floor. No smoke alarms. No sprinkler system.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTen or so residents escaped, but others could not see their way through the thick smoke. In a tiny bedroom on the first floor, a young mother draped herself like a blanket over her three children. In a rear stairwell, a couple held tightly to their two toddlers. Two hours later, eight corpses were found in the tenement turned tomb.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe fire that swept through the unassuming apartment building known as the Acre was the deadliest in the history of Lowell, Massachusetts, a mill town thirty miles northwest of Boston and a work destination for generations of immigrants. Responding along with dozens of firefighters were Lowell’s two crack arson investigators, Harold Waterhouse and William Gilligan. On inspection, the blackened remains spoke to them: arson. Their suspect: Victor Rosario, age 24, out-of-work, a drinker and drug user. Rosario just so happened to be there.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eConvicted one year later of arson murder, Rosario was sentenced to life in prison. He insisted that he was innocent and that he’d actually been trying to help rescue people.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDecades later, award-winning veteran reporter Dick Lehr was teaching an investigative reporting clinic at Boston University and got a tip about the Rosario case. Lehr and his students reported for more than a year and uncovered shocking defects in the fire investigation, the fact that Rosario’s lawyer, an alcoholic, was in no shape to defend him, having been arrested for killing two elderly people while driving drunk, and that, in prison, Rosario had become a steady presence, a spiritual leader, and a marathon runner. Their reporting culminated in a front-page exposé in the \u003ci\u003eBoston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e in 2010 that set the stage for a state judge to throw out Rosario’s conviction. Rosario was finally set free after 32 years.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNow, in \u003ci\u003eThe Acre on Fire\u003c\/i\u003e, Dick Lehr dramatically reconstructs and reexamines the case that has dogged him for more than a decade. He unravels the true and vexing story of Rosario’s wrongful incarceration and the junk fire science, lynch mob mentalities, and sensational press coverage that put him there.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"HarperCollins","offers":[{"title":"Audio CD","offer_id":67724865601840,"sku":"ZE1m3f","price":49.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Audio MP3-CD","offer_id":67724865634608,"sku":"ZM1m3f","price":45.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Audiobook [BD]","offer_id":67724865667376,"sku":"BD1m3f","price":28.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0879\/2784\/9264\/files\/1m3f-Square-cover.jpg?v=1788457482","url":"https:\/\/downpour.com\/products\/book-1m3f","provider":"Downpour","version":"1.0","type":"link"}