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Library | Material Type | Item Barcode | Shelf Number | Status |
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Searching... Avon-Washington Township Public Library | Adult Mystery Fiction Book Hardback | 120791001465826 | M DEL | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
"Delany delivers an outstanding debut novel that explores the good, the bad, and the ugly of family relationships." --Booklist
Rebecca McKenzie, a successful Vancouver businesswoman, returns to tiny Hope River after an absence of 30 years to attend her mother's funeral. Estranged from her father and two older siblings, she'd left a brutal childhood and a psychopathic grandfather behind. She expects her visit to be short. But then she discovers the diaries written by her mother, a British war bride with a young baby who came to Canada to join a husband she scarcely knew, and finds her heart wrung by her mother's story. Meanwhile, a young girl has gone missing, and suspicion falls on Rebecca's handsome, charming brother Jimmy. Before long, violence threatens and Rebecca must put aside some long-held grievances to cut to the heart of the crime.
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Well-crafted storytelling and an evocative setting make for a rewarding debut from Canadian newcomer Delany. Prodigal daughter Rebecca McKenzie, a widow and thriving Vancouver executive, returns to Hope River, her suffocating Ontario hometown, for the first time in 30 years, to attend the funeral of her mother, the only family member from whom she's not estranged. While she stays tethered via the phone lines to her office, she struggles to resolve old grudges with her older siblings, further complicated by her brother's possible involvement with a young woman's disappearance. The extra time at home with her seemingly forlorn father reacquaints her with her family in the present; 60 years of her mother's diaries give her a chance to see that things in Hope River aren't how she remembers them and possibly were never really what she thought they were. The diary narrative, presented in alternating chapters, is especially poignant, chronicling the hard life of a young English war bride trapped in the isolation of Canada, where her new father-in-law is as cold and vicious as the winters. The only drawback is the secondary characters-cartoonish villains and too-good-to-be-true allies-who detract from Delany's otherwise skillful and layered depictions. (Mar. 28) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
A dysfunctional Canadian family struggles toward redemption. Janet McKenzie's funeral brings Becky, her youngest daughter, home to tiny Hope River for the first time in 30 years. A posh Vancouver banker coping with widowhood by lavishing all her love on her husband's dog (Sampson), Becky, who now prefers to be called Rebecca, must face a plethora of demons: Shirley, her embittered sister; Jimmy, her ex-con brother; Bob, the alcoholic dad whose grief sends him sliding in and out of dementia; and memories of the tyrannical, abusive grandfather who terrorized the whole family. In sorting through her mother's things, Rebecca finds a series of journals recounting every loathsome deed that befell her since coming to Hope River as an English war bride back in 1946. Appalling as some of them were, they pale beside Rebecca's own horror while she's out walking Sampson--finding first the scarf, then the body of missing teenager Jennifer Taylor. When the townsfolk are quick to blame Jimmy, Rebecca, intent on helping him and his wife Aileen, is harassed, brutalized and ultimately forced to violence herself. 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 but less proficient at making the mystery elements of her story convincing. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Delany delivers an outstanding debut novel that explores the good, the bad, and the ugly of family relationships. Granted, in the case of Rebecca McKenzie's family, it's mostly bad and ugly. A Vancouver business executive, Rebecca returns to her childhood home, the small Canadian town of Hope River, to attend her mother's funeral. Her 30-year absence has done nothing to ingratiate Rebecca with her bitter sister, Shirley, and even more problematic, their brother Jimmy is in trouble--again. A young girl is missing, and the townspeople's rage is focused on ne'er-do-well Jimmy, for whom the girl was working. At first highly skeptical, Rebecca begins to see that Jimmy really has changed and takes steps to protect him from vigilantes when the girl's body is discovered. Meanwhile, Rebecca begins reading her mother's World War II journals and inadvertently causes some oversize skeletons to come tumbling out of the closet. Delany mixes a compelling crime story with a vivid evocation of small-town hostility, revealing in the process that even dysfunctional families have bonds. --Jenny McLarin Copyright 2005 Booklist