A former international aid worker with PTSD readjusts to life at home, but finds herself drawn into mysteries as she follows her instinct to help people. Features a passionate, flawed female protagonist struggling but making a difference in the world. Each book is set in a different, rugged locale.

Book #1: Fire in the Stars
Former aid worker Amanda Doucette returns from Nigeria to rebuild her life in Newfoundland after a shocking experience drove her from the field. Seeking a new purpose in life, she soon finds herself putting her crisis-response training to full effect when she’s wrapped up in a murder and missing-persons case and a social media storm.

Book #2: The Trickster's Lullaby
Two young men from disparate backgrounds disappear on a winter camping trip in the Laurentians led by Amanda Doucette. One boy turns up dead, and the other is suspected of having terrorist links. Amanda and Chris Tymko race to find the missing boy, but there is also a killer on their heels.

Book #3: Prisoners of Hope
Set against the stunning backdrop of Georgian Bay, Amanda Doucette finds herself drawn into the world of exploited foreign workers when she meets a Filipino nanny accused of murdering her wealthy employer.

Barbara Fradkin was born in Montreal and attended McGill, the University of Toronto and the University of Ottawa, where she obtained her PhD in psychology. Her work as a child psychologist has provided ample inspiration and insight for plotting murders, and she recently left full-time practice in order to be able to devote more time to writing. Barbara has an affinity for the dark side, and her compelling short stories haunt several anthologies and magazines, including Storyteller, Iced (Insomniac Press, 2001), and the Ladies Killing Circle anthologies, including Fit to Die, Bone Dance and When Boomers Go Bad, published by RendezVous Press. Her detective series features the exasperating, infuriating Ottawa Inspector Michael Green, whose love of the hunt often interferes with family, friends and police protocol. The series includes Do or Die (2000), Once Upon a Time (2002), Mist Walker (2003), and Fifth Son (Fall 2004). Once Upon a Time was nominated for Best Novel at the Arthur Ellis Awards, Canada’s top crime writing awards, and her latest title, Fifth Son won this prestigious award in 2005. The fifth in the series, Honour Among Men, (2006), repeated the honour, the only time that consecutive novels by the same author have won the award. The sixth and seventh novels, Dream Chasers and This Thing of Darkness, followed in 2007 and 2009.

Barbara Fradkin's profile page

★ Fradkin, a retired psychologist, creates well-drawn, complex characters, and she knows how to build tension and drama that hold readers to the end.

Publishers Weekly (starred review of Fire in the Stars)

★ Fradkin, a retired psychologist, creates well-drawn, complex characters, and she knows how to build tension and drama that hold readers to the end.

Publishers Weekly (starred review for The Trickster's Lullaby)