The first novel of a St. Lawrence alumna, known for her work as a short-story
writer, has been published.
Burning Marguerite, by Elizabeth Inness-Brown '76, was published in February of 2002
by Knopf. A faculty member at St. Michael's College in Vermont, Inness-Brown has participated
in the St. Lawrence Writers Series and the University's Young Writers Conference. She is
a native of Ogdensburg, and two volumes of her short stories have been published, Satin
Palms and Here.
The publishers describe her debut novel as "a haunting weave of lives, secrets, and
memories -- a powerful work of psychological suspense and emotional intensity.
"Waking to the chill of a snow-cloaked morning, carpenter James Jack Wright finds
94-year-old Marguerite Deo lying dead in the woods outside his cabin. As he confronts the
mystery of her death -- why would Marguerite, his 'Tante' since his infancy, walk out into
the cold winter night? -- an unexpected tale unfolds, moving from the present back to
James Jack’s childhood, to New Orleans during the Depression and World War II, and finally
to a windswept New England island at the turn of the century. At the heart of the story
are a forbidden love, a violent crime kept secret for years, and above all, Marguerite’s
relationship with a little boy named James Jack, a bond that deepens after a terrible
accident changes both their lives forever."