Linda Jacobs Summer of Fire

Summer of Fire

Linda Jacobs

Medallion, Jun 2005, $6.99

ISBN: 1932815295

In the summer of 1988 in Houston, firefighter Claire Chance watches her best friend and peer Frank Wallace die in an inferno in which she hopelessly observes his death just before she could grab him. Needing time away, Claire accompanied by her teenage daughter Devon accepts a temporary assignment at Yellowstone National Park battling a wildfire.

During an out of control wildfire, Claire rescues Park Ranger Steve Haywood, who she learns survived a plane crash in which his wife Susan and their child Christa died. He escapes his survivor guilt by overindulging in alcohol. Meanwhile Devon blames the split of her parents on her mother though her father Jay was sleeping with another woman whom he married immediately after their divorce. In a fight with Claire, Devon runs off at night with an inferno heading their way. Distraught Claire obtains some comfort in Steve's arms as they have fallen in love, but first must find a missing seventeen year old before the fire finds her first.

The lead couple is a courageous admirable duo while the support cast especially the rescue workers are also brave individuals. However, the star of the tale is the 1988 fire that engulfed Yellowstone National Park threatening the entire wooded treasure. Linda Jacobs, researching the devastation of seventeen years ago, provides a deep passionate thriller in which the romance and the family drama, though well written and entertaining in their own right, take a back seat to a fiery "villain". Ms. Jacobs pays homage to those intrepid firefighters and other responders who risked their lives to battle a raging conflagration

Harriet Klausner