Burden of Memory

Vicki Delany's BURDEN OF MEMORY presents Elaine, a successful novelist who has failed in the uncertain world of a screenwriter's career and is now interviewing for a job in a remote rural area with an elderly rich woman who needs a writer to help her with her memoirs. It's not until she's hired that Elaine discovers the writer before her died a mysterious death: a death she too may be facing because of her position. It's refreshing to see a sleuth story based around a character who doesn't professionally sleuth.

Elaine Benson is picking up the pieces of her professional life by helping the rich, elderly, and very independent Moira Madison write her memoirs. Elaine is getting over a husband who left her for a bimbo, after convincing her to give up her own career as a historian in favor of his career as a possible screenwriter.

Moira Madison wants to write mostly about her experiences as A Canadian Army Nursing Sister in World War II, and then her experiences around the world after the War. BURDEN OF MEMORY switches back and forth between present day Canada on Lake Muskoka and Moira's various experiences in England, Africa, and Italy. It will come as no surprise to the average reader that events from the past will not stay there, and the repercussions will come close to destroying Moira's extended family.

One of Delany's skills lies in her writings about setting, about place. Her love of the more untamed areas of Canada shines throughout BURDEN, and she can bring the heat of northern Africa off the page just as eloquently. Delany's characters are very believable; she knows, or seems to know, so much about the mindset of the truly wealthy. Their seeming invulnerability to the harsh realities the rest of the world must deal with is clearly played out for us.

BURDEN OF MEMORY is Delany's second novel; this is not a series. Read this, and you'll likely want to track down SCARE THE LIGHT AWAY. Delany's sophomore effort is well done, and leaves no doubt about her talents as a mystery writer.

Elaine Benson wrote two highly regarded biographies of pioneer Canadian women when she fell in love and married. Her husband persuaded her that the money is in screenplays so they teamed up with Elaine doing the research. However, Elaine obtained a divorce and left Hollywood for Toronto and applied for the job of writing the true story of wealthy elderly Miss Moira Madison. She obtains the position, but learns that Donna Smithton had the job for one week before accidentally drowning in nearby Lake Muskoka.

Moira, as she prefers to be called, fears that the talented Elaine will uncover family secrets from the war days that she does not want revealed. Instead Moira prefers most of the bio to be concentrated on her work with the Canadian Army Nursing Sisters of World War II. However, Elaine, who moves into a nearby cottage, begins to uncover questions that link the so called accidental drowning by Donna to events during the late 1930s and early 1940s. Someone will kill to insure that certain secrets remain buried. She wonders if the man she recently met in Moira's home and is half in love with, Alan Manners, is behind the attempts to keep secrets hidden.

This is an interesting Canadian amateur sleuth thriller that works because Elaine is believable as she has the skills to analyze documents and uncover secrets. Her inquiries start off innocently but as she begins to comprehend what she is digging up, danger mounts and she ponders who to trust including those she cares about like her client and Alan. BURDEN OF MEMORY uses some flashbacks to tell the backdrop WWII story, but whether it is past or present Vicki Delaney provides a wonderful cozy.

Harriet Klausner