About the Author:
Vicki Delany lives in Oakville, Ontario, where she is employed as a systems analyst, but her first love is the Canadian wilderness where her novels are set. She is a member of Crime Writers of Canada and is the editor of the Sisters in Crime, Toronto Chapter, newsletter. Burden of Memory is her second novel, following Scare the Light Away.
Review:
The best Canadian novels are always firmly set in a place. We think of Giles Blunt's icy Algonquin Bay, William Gough's gritty Vancouver, Gail Bowen's Saskatoon, Kathy Reichs's Montreal. Ontario's Muskoka playland has been a draw for more than a century. The Group of Seven painted it and Margaret Millar set her first novel in its woods. Vicki Delany's second
novel effectively uses the Muskoka setting for a very fine novel about memory and class and caste in old Ontario. Elaine Benson is a writer, researcher and PhD in Canadian history. She's written two novels about women who confronted nature, men and propriety to survive and thrive in the Canadian wilderness. But Benson didn't learn from her forebears. She's spent the last decade working on television scripts for
a husband who dumped her the second he sold a successful series. She's starting over, and the chance to write the memoirs of Moira Madison seems
made in heaven. Madison is a member of one of the oldest and wealthiest families in Canada. She's lived a long and very successful life, which saw her on the front lines of the Second World War as a nurse and, later, participating in international medical charities. She is also, as Benson quickly discovers, a woman of intelligence and stature. Someone who has lots of stories to tell. Benson and Madison seem ideally suited and Benson is happy to take up
residence in the lavish Madison "cottage," full of history and luxuries. But someone doesn't want the story of Moira Madison written, and is willing to
kill to keep the family secrets. Delany has done a great job with this book, much better than her debut,
Scare the Light Away. This is, obviously, ideal reading for a weekend at the cottage, or as a hostess gift for visitors. Read it under the trees and see
every page come to life.
--The Globe and Mail (7/8/2006)
Delany's fine second mystery (after 2005¹s Scare the Light Away) offers a breath of fresh air from north of the border. Soon after Elaine Benson agrees to assist Miss Moira Madison, who served with the Canadian Army Nursing Sisters during WWII, with her memoirs, Elaine learns that the first writer Moira hired drowned in the lake by Moira¹s summer ³cottage² after less than a week on the job. Later, as members of the privileged Madison clan gather at the cottage in Ontario¹s Muskoka region for Thanksgiving, tensions mount, culminating in a fire. Elaine suspects that someone will go to great lengths to prevent Moira from revealing certain family secrets.The alternating rhythm of chapters of contemporary narrative and shorter sections of Moira¹s recollections of life as an army nurse helps build suspense. The striking setting, the picture of the Canadian social elite and several deftly handled subplots make for a richly textured and highly satisfying read. -- Publishers Weekly (4.24.2006)
Praise for Scare the Light Away
"Not so much reveling in family secrets as insisting that families can overcome them, debut novelist Delany is adept at ratcheting up the emotional tension. . . ."
--Kirkus Reviews
"After a messy divorce, Elaine Benson thinks that taking a job helping wealthy Canadian matriarch Moira Madison write her memoirs might be just the thing to get her nonfiction writing career back on track. Unfortunately, she didn't bargain for Moira's contentious extended family––three generations of relatives full of opinions and resentments about Moira's project and about one another. The contemporary family story, viewed through Elaine's outsider perspective, alternates with Moira’s disjointed recollections of years as a nurse in Europe during World War II, where she meets the love of her life and learns a secret about her beloved brother that she guards long after his death. Although Moira and her household are distinctive, it's difficult to keep some of the numerous other supporting characters straight, and hints of mystery and the supernatural (Is there a ghost, or isn't there?) never expand into real suspense. Even so, readers who favor leisurely puzzles steeped in family dynamics and flavored with descriptions of beautiful scenery may find this just what they’re looking for."--Booklist
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