Who is Rich Devlin from Heat and Light: A Novel?

Rich has lived in Bakerton, Pennsylvania, for almost his entire life. He joined the military and was deployed in Afghanistan after high school, but returned to Bakerton as soon his tour of duty was over. When Rich came back to his home town, he was determined to settle down. He got a job at the Deer Run Correctional Facility, and he quickly began dating the significantly younger Shelby Vance. Even though his mother suggested that he reconsider marrying someone so young, Rich proposed to Shelby on the steps of his grandfather's farm house.

After almost ten years of marriage, the couple has two young children, Braden and Olivia, and, though the farm house no longer stands, the family lives on Rich's inherited farmland. Rich still works at Deer Run Correctional Facility. He is kind and respectful to the inmates, and he looks down on other COs that do not treat the men inside with common courtesy.

Although Rich does well in his job, he dreams of an escape. Rich fears financial ruin, which he considers the “bogeyman of his adulthood, the subject of every nightmare” (323). He dreams of a way out of paycheck-to-paycheck existence as a CO, and he believes that starting a farm, or more specifically rejuvenating his grandfather’s farm, will provide that and more for him and his family. This sense of responsibility and desire to maintain his family’s livelihood drives Rich, and it drives him to sign the lease with Dark Elephant.