An empty canoe washes up on the shore of the Nahanni River — has the river claimed four more lives?
When his teenage daughter goes missing on a summer wilderness canoe trip to the Nahanni River, Inspector Michael Green is forced into unfamiliar territory. Unable to mobilize the local RCMP, he enlists the help of his long-time friend, Staff Sergeant Brian Sullivan, to accompany him to the Northwest Territories to look for themselves.
Green is terrified. The park has 30,000 square kilometres of wilderness and 600 grizzlies. Even worse, Green soon discovers his daughter lied to him. The trip was organized not by a reputable tour company but by her new boyfriend, Scott, a graduate geology student. When clues about Scott’s past begin to drift in, Green, Sullivan, and two guides head into the wilderness. After the body of one of the group turns up at the bottom of a cliff, they begin to realize just what is at stake.

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

A terrific entry in the Inspector Green series that takes him across the country to hunt for his daughter, gone missing on a deadly kayaking trip.

National Post

. . . Fradkin navigates the reader through every plot piece with quiet expertise and easy confidence, the kind that would get anyone out of a dangerous wilderness situation. The bar is set high for the Inspector’s 10th adventure after such a terrific instalment, but there’s no doubt in my mind Fradkin will clear it with room to spare.

National Post

I suspect the author may have stepped outside of her own comfort zone with The Whisper of Legends but her ability to tell a grand story and address issues of concern at the same time has not lessened since the first book of hers I read long ago.

Buried Under Books

I was cheering Green along as he struggled against his fears and tried his hardest to be an asset, rather than a hindrance, in an investigation that could mean the life or death of his daughter. A really great read!

Merchant of Menace: Sleuths of Bake Street Newsletter

…combines a suspenseful story with plenty of opportunities to see the brook-no-nonsense inspector out of his natural element.

 

Booklist

The Whisper of Legends is at its best and most vivid when Fradkin is describing the grandeurs and perils of the wilderness.

Fradkin deftly captures the spirit of adventure in the North, and incorporates well-integrated commentary about the area’s natural resources and environmental issues.

Barbara Fradkin’s ninth Inspector Green Mystery is a well-written page-turner with a pace as fast as the current in the famous Nahanni River...

Author Barbara Fradkin has written a story worthy of her status as one of Canada's finest story tellers. She pushes the boundaries that little bit further into the labyrinth of "What would I do if it were my child?”

There is an interesting twist to the resolution of this complex tale of adventure and crime and loss. Excerpts from old letters provide an admixture of nostalgia for those possible fortunes to be discovered in forgotten claims in the Canadian wilds . . .Fradkin provides us with another intriguing Inspector Green mystery far from his usual Ottawa beat.

Reviewing the Evidence.com

Ottawa Police Inspector Michael Green has emerged as one of Canada’s best and brightest fictional sleuths. Barbara Fradkin has won two Arthur Ellis Awards for Best Crime Novel and this one, her 11th in the series, is definitely one of her best.

The Globe and Mail

Fradkin deftly captures the spirit of adventure in the North, and incorporates well-integrated commentary about the area’s natural resources and environmental issues.

Quill & Quire