Scare the Light Away

By Vicki Delany

Recently widowed Rebecca McKenzie, a successful Vancouver businesswoman, returns to small-town Hope River after an absence of 30 years to attend her mother’s funeral.
Estranged from her father and two older siblings, she’s left a brutal childhood and a psychopathic grandfather behind. She expects her visit home 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. Rebecca finds her heart wrung by her mother’s story.
Meanwhile, a young girl has gone missing, and the suspicions of the townspeople fall on Rebecca’s handsome, charming brother Jimmy. Before long, violence threatens and Rebecca must put aside some long-held grievances to understand the crime.
This debut novel will appeal to readers of Jacqueline Winspear’s Maisie Dobbs and of Pip Granger’s Not All Tarts Are Apple and Trouble in Paradise, evoking admiration, respect, and sympathy for members of The Greatest Generation, both English and Canadian.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
• Release date: May 27, 2010
• ISBN: 9781615950447

Vicki Delany

Vicki Delany is one of Canada’s most prolific and varied crime writers and a national bestseller in the United States. She has written more than 30 books: from clever cozies to Gothic thrillers, gritty police procedurals to historical fiction and seven novellas in the Rapid Reads line. She writes the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop series, the Year Round Christmas mysteries and under the pen name of Eva Gates, the Lighthouse Library series. Vicki is the past president of Crime Writers of Canada. Her work has been nominated for the Derringer, Bony Blithe, Golden Oak, and Arthur Ellis Awards. She lives in Prince Edward County, Ontario.

Reviews for Scare the Light Away

[candacevan_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book is not an easy one to grade with a handful of stars. It was generally well-written, and the plot was not overly obvious. I would probably have given it a solid 4 stars but for the author's tendency to use body weight as an indicator of character flaws. Well, actually, that's not true entirely. At first, heavy people equal not-very-nice or not-very-good people, but then halfway through the book, it appears that being too _lean_ can also be a sign of serious character flaws. (Honestly? I picture some editor or friend pointing out the Fat = Bad/Ignoble Person Motif and the author quickly concocting a skinny, nasty character to provide "balance." And then I get lost in a fantasy about exactly what weight range would characterize a profoundly good human being -- would it be closer to Mother Theresa's BMI or Joan of Arc's? I guess that's one of those unanswerable questions for theologians to ponder....)

So, did I enjoy the book? Yes, except for when people were being characterized by their weight, "podgy"-ness, degree of sweatiness or greasiness, etc. It was a book that grabbed and held my attention, beginning to end. I just wish that the author had a more nuanced view of humanity, or a better way of expressing it, or something.

[cathyskye · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

First Line: I stood outside the hardware store at the unmarked intersection.Widow Rebecca McKenzie has returned to Hope River, Ontario, after an absence of thirty years to attend her mother's funeral. Thirty years ago she was escaping from an abusive childhood and a psychopathic grandfather, and she's never wanted to go back. But here she is, amongst the family members she left behind so long ago, and she can see how much things have both changed... and remained the same. This is a visit that Rebecca vows will be short, but when asked by her father to go through all her mother's things, she discovers that her mother had kept diaries since she was seventeen.At first reluctantly, but then more and more voraciously, Rebecca reads her mother's diaries, and learns of her mother's experience as a bride during World War II, as this young woman brings a baby to a new country, watches her husband change once he's back home, and experiences those family dynamics for herself.All the while, the police of Hope River are searching for a missing girl, and the townspeople have already made up their minds as to the identity of the person responsible: Rebecca's charming brother Jimmy. Some of those people aren't shy about letting their feelings be known, and as the days pass, Rebecca finds herself and other members of her family to be in very real danger.Once I began reading Scare the Light Away, I found it difficult to stop. I, too, come from a small town, and twenty-five years elapsed before I went back. Although my situation was very different from Rebecca's, I found it easy to put myself in her place and to feel her reluctance to be back where she grew up. The reader knows almost from the first page that something is very wrong in Rebecca's family, but Delany takes the time to set her stage and bring out her characters before any real information is given. It's important to get to know Rebecca and to see how much she can be trusted as a narrator before continuing on with the story. I enjoyed that process very much.Much the same process is used when bringing out the diaries. Rebecca's mother's story is brought forth a scene at a time, and months or years can pass between these glimpses. Between Rebecca's story and her mother's, the reader begins filling in the gaps, and the suspense that has been building continues to grow. Delany never relies too much upon those diaries, but makes the reader rely on both Rebecca, her mother, and the reader's own observations to piece everything together.With my small town background, I found the behavior of the more violent residents of Hope River to not only ring true, but to be downright chilling. The combination of the strong character of Rebecca, her mother's diaries, and the present-day crime proves to be an engrossing one. Vicki Delany not only knows how to write excellent series, she writes thrillers that can't be put down, too. Whether you're a series reader or one who prefers standalones, I urge you to read (at least) one of this talented writer's books.