If you are reading it because of the Mark Twain/Tom Sawyer connection, you may be disappointed. I enjoyed the study of San Francisco at the time and of fire fighting in general , but felt a little cheated as I had been hooked by hopes of Twain stories ( )

It's a very interesting subject, and, though I am not familiar with San Francisco, Graysmith did a fine job of conveying where the fires went and what they destroyed. And how stupidly the residents leaped into rebuilding, even before the smoke had faded.

He stumbles, though, in his efforts to drag Mark Twain into the story. That's really another book. Tom Sawyer is not the hero of the fire, he's often peripheral to the events.

I read it pretty fast -- I'm interested in fires. ( )