S.C. drought is backdrop to tale of withered love

Atlanta writer Jack Riggs' debut novel, "When the Finch Rises," explored the lives of two adventure-seeking boys who struggle to overcome poverty, racism and dysfunctional families in a 1960s North Carolina mill town.

Praised by fellow authors Lee Smith, Terry Kay and Clyde Edgerton, "When the Finch Rises" was named among the Top 10 First Novels of 2003 by Booklist magazine and garnered Riggs, a writer in residence at Georgia Perimeter College's Writers Institute, the Georgia Writer of the Year Award.

Five years later, Riggs has moved on from the coming-of-age story to a more adult theme. Or should we say adulterous theme?

"The Fireman's Wife" is about a love triangle set in the South Carolina Lowcountry in 1970. Much of the state is suffering through a drought, conditions for wildfires are at their peak and the heat is unbearable. It is a dangerous time for firemen, especially one with an unhappy wife.

Cassie Johnson has reached the breaking point in her 15-year marriage to Peck, a small-town fire chief who spends more time saving lives than trying to save his relationship. Forced to marry Peck when she was a pregnant teenager, Cassie is bitter about putting her life on hold and watching her dreams slip away. She also hates the smothering heat of the coast and longs to return to the cool breezes of her home in the South Carolina mountains.

She believes the answer to her problem is in the arms of Clay Taylor, a fireman who works with her husband. Cassie has kept their affair secret from Peck and their teenage daughter, Kelly, but she knows they suspect something.

Then everything seems to fall into place. Kelly, a star athlete, is invited to a prestigious softball camp in the mountains near Cassie's home, and Clay is offered a job as fire chief in a town in the same area. Cassie can escape the stifling heat and her stifling marriage at the same time.

Cassie has other problems to face when she returns home. She has never gotten over how her late father, a pastor, had banished her from the church when she became pregnant. Now she learns that her mother may be forced to move from her home because of a land title dispute. And there's still the issue of Kelly, who openly dislikes Clay.

Meanwhile, Peck is left to deal with wildfires, betrayal and the prospect of celebrating his birthday without Cassie and Kelly.

Riggs effectively uses the oppressive nature of the drought and heat as a part of the plot as he skillfully portrays two sides of this troubled triangle. Cassie and Peck tell their stories in alternating chapters that are sometimes poignant, sometimes annoying. In one chapter, Cassie reminds herself that her affair with Clay had been going on for eight months, since the drought first began. "He keeps joking that if he quit seeing me, maybe it would start raining again," Cassie says. "But he won't do that. Whenever Peck's working at the station, Clay makes sure he's off duty so he and I can be together. It doesn't work all the time, so lately he's even started calling in sick."

All we learn about Clay is that he wants to be with Cassie and that he's angry that Peck got the promotion he thought he deserved. Otherwise, he doesn't generate much sympathy as "the other man." Neither does Cassie until near the end of the book. It is Peck who emerges as the real hero, despite any shortcomings he might have as a husband.

Riggs is a talented writer who understands the complexities of the human heart and who knows how to convey the conflicting emotions of a romantic triangle. He also knows, as did Tolstoy when he wrote "Anna Karenina" and Fitzgerald when he created "The Great Gatsby," that rarely do all the parties in such a relationship live happily ever after.