Fire in the Grove: The Cocoanut Grove Tragedy and Its Aftermath

A gripping account of the disastrous Cocoanut Grove fire in Boston - the most deadly nightclub fire in American history - and the pursuit of justice that rose from its embers On the night of Saturday 28th November, 1942, Boston suffered its worse disaster ever. At the city's premier nightspot the Cocoanut Grove, the largest nightclub fire in US history claimed the lives of 492 people - nearly half of those on the premises at the time. A flash of fire that started in an imitation palm tree rolled through the overcrowded club with breathtaking speed and in a mere eight minutes anyone left in the club was dead or doomed. The Grove was a classic firetrap, the product of greed and indifference on the part of the owners and politicians who had knowingly allowed such conditions to exist. Against the backdrop of Boston politics, cronyism and corruption, author John C Esposito re-creates the drama of the fire and explores the public outcry that followed. In chronicling the horrific events of one of America's most cataclysmic tragedies, Esposito has fashioned both an incomparably gripping narrative and a vibrant portrait of the era. But it is the intense detailed narrative of the fire - harrowing yet compulsively readable - and the trials that followed that will stay with readers well after they finish this remarkable book.…