Scare the Light Away - Hardcover

Publishers Weekly: '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.' Booklist: 'Delany mixes a compelling crime story with a vivid evocation of small-town hostility, revealing in the process that even dysfunctional families have bonds.'

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 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.