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 (and the reader) find 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 protect Jimmy and find the real killer.

This debut novel will appeal to readers of Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs and Pip Granger's Not All Tarts Are Apple and its sequels, evoking admiration, respect, and sympathy for members of The Greatest Generation, both English and Canadian.

Vicki Delany has a great narrative voice, fine, well-developed characters and a real eye for the small details that keep a novel in place.

Her solid debut is set in the small farming community of Hope River, in northern Ontario. Rebecca McKenzie is a recently widowed financial whiz, who's come from Vancouver for her mother's funeral. This is her first visit to Hope River since she left for university 30 years before. She has no good memories of the place, other than her mother, and she's prepared to believe

the worst of everyone. Including, possibly, that her brother might be a rapist and a murderer.

Rebecca's self-discoveries are the best part of the book, and ultimately, the murder is less a whodunit than a story about coming to terms with loss. This is Faye Kellerman territory.

-- Globe & Mail (Toronto, Canada)

Recently widowed Rebecca McKenzie left her hometown 30 years ago to escape a brutal childhood and psychopathic grandfather. When she returns for her mother's funeral, a diary and her troubled brother cause her to extend her stay.

Vicki Delany lives in Oakville, Ontario, where she is employed as a systems analyst, but her first love is the Canadian wilderness where her novels are set. She is a member of Crime Writers of Canada and is the editor of the Sisters in Crime, Toronto Chapter, newsletter.