Molly Mavity is not a normal teenage girl. For one thing, her father is an infamous serial arsonist and murderer, and his execution date is fast approaching. For another, Molly refuses to believe that her mother is dead, and she waits for the day when they'll be reunited... despite all the evidence that this will never happen.

Pepper Al-Yusef is not your average teenage boy. A Kuwaiti immigrant with epilepsy, serious girl problems, and the most useless seizure dog in existence, he has to write a series of essays over the summer... or fail to graduate high school.

And Ava Dreyman - the bold and beautiful young East German resistance fighter whose murder in 1989 led to the fall of the Berlin Wall - is unlike anyone you've met before.

When Molly gets a package leading her to Pepper, they're tasked with solving Ava's murder. Using her diary for clues, Molly and Pepper realize there's more to her life - and death - than meets the eye. Someone is lying to them. And someone out there is guiding them along, desperate for answers. At turns heart-racing and heartbreaking, The Arsonist is an intricate tapestry - of love, loss, and the mysterious connections among us all.