Customer Reviews

Burden of Memory

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3 star:		(1)
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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

This was a rather tedious mystery/paranormal story.

The story revolves around Elaine Benson, a struggling writer who needs a job and agrees to write a biography about Moira Madion, who was once a Canadian nurse in World War II in England.

The story moves from present day and to World War II as Moira recounts her life in World War II to Elaine.

Elaine has moved in with Moira and Moira's extended family in the wilds of Canada to complete the biography and through the inteview process, numerous family scandals unfold.

There are a number of mysteries about the previous biographer, who is found drowned under somewhat mysterious circumstances and there is a mystery in the woods surrounding the family compound.

There are a number of unanswered questions in the story which I thought led to an unsatisfactory read. The on-going smell of cloying perfume that Elaine smells in the woods, Ruth,the helpmate to Moira who can not stand Elaine, Moira's downright abusive behavior towards Ruth are all things that are thrown into the story in a hodge podge fashion and are really never explained.

This book does not recommend me to read another of the author's books but it is okay if you have nothing else to read.

Elaine Benson is a well-educated woman who is in need of a writing job. She gets what seems on the surface to be the perfect, cushy position: assembling the memoirs of a rich and aging woman, Miss Moira Madison. The opportunity includes room and board at Moira's cottage on Lake Muskoka, Ontario. Elaine's mornings are spent interviewing her subject, and her afternoons provide enough time to go through family letters in the guesthouse attic or to explore the lakeside property. But as an outsider, there are a few things that Elaine doesn't understand. A nearby cabin in the woods has such a dark and foreboding aura to it that it literally chases her away. A fire breaks out in the guesthouse, threatening to ruin all of the letters and family history that Elaine is so interested in. Moira's first biographer, Elaine's predecessor, drowned in the lake before she barely had a chance to write anything down. And when the Madison relatives arrive for Thanksgiving, tensions run especially high. A little light goes on for Elaine. Is someone perhaps trying to stop Moira from telling her story? And if so, how can Elaine protect the woman she has grown to admire? And protect herself in the process?

The chapters of the book alternate between events in contemporary time and Moira's experiences as a Canadian Army Nursing Sister in Europe during World War II. By juggling the readers' attention back and forth, the author gives us a chance to learn valuable details before Elaine can get them out of Moira. As a result, we know (or think we know) what happened at the cabin and whose spirit continues to haunt it. The war scenes are surprisingly authentic, coming as they do from a female author. She provides no content-note explanations, leaving us to wonder if she might have based her portrayals on someone's actual experiences during the war. Nevertheless, her technique makes for a compelling narrative with likable though fallible characters.

While I very much enjoyed reading "Burden of Memory" and intend to read more of Vicki Delany's books, I wouldn't classify this one as a mystery. There are indeed mysterious elements to it -- as well as mystical ones. And even though Elaine wonders about the history of that cabin in the woods, it is not she who uncovers its truths. Neither does she unveil the individual guilty of supposed sabotage. And those denouements may not even add up to the biggest revelation in Madison family history. This is the kind of book that you might want to finish, then turn right around and read again to catch the hints and clues you missed the first time.

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.