Burden of Memory
by Vicki Delany
Summary
Elaine Benson, a successful novelist who let love in the person of an unreliable screenwriter jettison her career, is now divorced, broke, and come to a “primitive, untamed northern forest” on Lake Muskoka to interview for a job. Elderly Miss Moira Madison wishes to write her memoirs of her years with the Canadian Army Nursing Sisters of World War II. Settling into the family “cottage” and what remains of a lifestyle long gone, Elaine reconnects with her love of researching. But somehow her project--she soon discovers the first writer hired drowned in the Lake--stirs someone to murder.
Excerpt
Chapter 1
A chipmunk dashed out from the shelter of the undergrowth directly into Elaine’s path. From high above, an enormous dark bird swooped silently over the roadway on wide, serrated wings, and snatched the animal in its heavy talons. The pert little mouth stretched into a death scream. The hawk watched Elaine where she sat, shocked, in the illusionary safety of her red BMW. The hawk grinned at the prospect of the meal to come, and perhaps in enjoyment of the crushing of a life in its powerful claws.
The hawk and its prey disappeared behind a line of naked trees without a sound.
Unsure of where she was going, Elaine had been driving so cautiously that a gentle nudge of the pedal sufficed to slow the car down. She pulled over to the side of the dusty road and took a deep breath.
As her heartbeat returned to normal, she checked the scribbled directions one more time. After several false turns at long last this looked as if it might actually be the place she wanted. A handcrafted sign had been nailed to an old pine tree on the other side of the road with the single word Madison written on it in flowery green script.
A narrow driveway ran under the tree, beside it sat a hand-made wooden garbage bin freshly painted gray with a cheerful green trim - the sign and box that she had been told would be her signposts.
She switched the CD player off in mid-song - leaving Springsteen Dancing in the Dark no longer - shifted into gear and pulled into the lane. It was narrow, but paved and in good condition.
Once she left the main road the forest closed like a cape around her. Primitive, untamed northern forest that had never seen a chainsaw or shovel. Large boulders mottled ancient white and gray littered the landscape, some of them cut into pieces under the unrelenting, ruthless work of time, water and ice - nature showing off her power. Trees stretched high overhead where they tried to link arms. Branches reached out and scratched a warning on the sides of the car; long grasses stroked the undercarriage with a seductive whisper. Elaine cringed at the thought of her paint job, but the red car handled the steep hill and sharp curves with ease. It was much more car than she could afford, but in one all-out show of bravado she had sunk a good portion of her divorce settlement into the purchase. The car purred as it crested a sharp rise, and she patted the dash with affection.
The lane was long, very long. But at its end the driveway burst out of the shadows and returned to the warmth of the sun, widening to create enough space for a convoy of cars. A gust of wind blew a snowfall of brown and yellow leaves across the open yard.
Reviews
"Ideal reading for a weekend at the cottage"--Globe and Mail
"A richly textured and highly satisfying read" -- Publishers Weekly
"One of Canada’s most promising new practitioners of the crime genre"--Chicago Tribune
Author's Biography
Vicki Delany took early retirement from her job as a systems analyst and is spending a year traveling throughout North America and working on her next novel.