Fradkin, Barbara [Michael Green Series #1], (Do or Die [mass mkt pb, Napoleon & Co., 2000] B01F9FUBTK [pb, Dundurn Press, 2022] 978-1459751026 [Ottawa Homicide Inspector Michael Green is absolutely obsessed with his job, a condition which has almost ruined his marriage several times. When the biggest case of his career comes up, his position, his relationships and several lives are put into grave danger. A young graduate student and scion of a rich family is found expertly stabbed in the stacks of a university library, but no one seems to have the slightest idea why. But as Green probes into the circumstances of the young man’s life, a tangled web of jealousy and intrigue is revealed. Green finds himself in the middle of a rivalry in the delicate arena of university politics, where gigantic egos regularly collide. Was it the diligent but socially inept researcher, or the macho ladies-man golden boy of the laboratory? Or was it a crime of passion involving the over-protective family of his beautiful new girlfriend? When the murderer strikes again, Green realizes that he must waste no time in solving the case, no matter what the consequences may be.- Amazon]
Canada · Fiction author
Barbara Fradkin
Barbara (Currie) Fradkin (born 1947, Montreal, resides in Ottawa, Canada) – veteran child psychologist before becoming a full-time novelist, best-known for her 12-volume Ottawa Homicide Inspector Michael Green series. Green’s Jewish identity is primarily explored through his family history and occasional cultural references:
Holocaust Heritage: He is the son of a Holocaust survivor, which often draws him into cases involving World War II secrets, Nazi atrocities, and unhealed emotional wounds.
Family Life: His Jewish identity appears in domestic scenes, such as references to his children having “dark curls” and “chocolate brown eyes,” or his father using Yiddish terms like ”Zaydie” (grandfather) and ”alter kakers” (old men).
Cultural Knowledge: Green is occasionally called upon to interpret documents or cover community spaces related to Jewish history, such as visiting a synagogue to track down information or investigating leads involving the Holocaust.
Complex Faith: The series portrays a complicated relationship with faith; for instance, Green’s father is described as having “tossed his faith... on the funeral pyres of Auschwitz,” yet he still suggests seeking information at a local synagogue.
Inspector Michael Green Series Bibliography
Fradkin, Barbara [Michael Green Series #2], (Once Upon a Time [mass mkt pb, Napoleon & Co., 2002] B01FKTCU2Q [pb, independently published, 2020] 979-8579710499 [When an old man is found frozen to death in a hospital parking lot, Green refuses to accept the verdict of natural causes, eventually uncovering secrets tied to WWII war crimes.]
Fradkin, Barbara [Michael Green Series #3], (Mist Walker [pb, Napoleon & Co., 2003] 978-1894917032 [pb, ReadHowYouWant, 2013] 978-1459664241 [Innocent scapegoat or monster manipulator? Matthew Fraser was an idealistic young teacher accused of molesting a young schoolgirl and acquitted in a sensational case that left the truth hidden and the young teacher’s life in tatters. Ten years later, his distraught confidante walks into Ottawa Police Inspector Michael Green’s office insisting that Fraser has vanished. Green’s curiosity is piqued when he discovers that Fraser left behind his beloved dog, a half-eaten dinner and an apartment crammed with research related to his case. Has Fraser fled to escape the wrath of victims, new or old? Or was he innocent all along and spent the last ten years trying to clear his name? And who is Fraser’s mysterious email correspondent with the user name Mistwalker? - Amazon]
Fradkin, Barbara [Michael Green Series #4], (Fifth Son [pb, Napoleon & Co., 2004] 978-1894917131 [pb, Dundurn Press, 2022] 978-1459751057 [Accident or suicide? That’s the simple question put to Inspector Michael Green when a derelict stranger falls to his death from an abandoned church tower in a quiet river village at the edge of his jurisdiction. But when the victim turns out be a long lost son of a local farm family cursed in recent years by tragedy, madness and death, Green begins to suspect something far more sinister is at work. Probing the family’s past, he uncovers a toxic mix of rigid fundamentalism, teenage rebellion and a family secret so horrific that twenty years later, someone is still desperate to prevent the truth from coming to light.- Amazon]
Fradkin, Barbara [Michael Green Series #5], (Honour Among Men [pb, Napoleon & Co., 2006] 978-1894917360 [pb, ReadHowYouWant, 2013] 978-1459664111 [Inspector Green is coping with an office job, still eager to get back into the day - to - day fray of policing. His chance comes when an unidentified woman is drowned in the Ottawa River. In her possession is a Medal for Bravery from a peacekeeping mission. As Green and his team dig deeper into the military past, Green finds himself sucked not only into the murky past of a peacekeeping unit but into the high-stakes present of a federal election race. What crime was committed in Yugoslavia more than a decade ago? Is someone still killing to prevent that secret from coming to light? And does the diary of a dead soldier hold the key? - Amazon]
Fradkin, Barbara [Michael Green Series #6], (Dream Chasers [pb, Napoleon & Co., 2007] 978-1894917582 [pb, Dundurn Press, 2024] 978-1459753877 [A seventeen-year-old sets out to meet her secret lover by an Ottawa waterfall. Three days later, her body washes up in the shallows. The public fears a sexual predator is on the loose, but Inspector Green suspects a more personal connection. His search for answers draws him into the world of elite young athletes, drugs and teenage sexuality. Then a social worker who knows too much disappears, and blood is found in the house of a star with NHL prospects. Unless Green can unravel the truth, how many others will pay the ultimate price for a young man’s dreams? - Amazon]
Fradkin, Barbara [Michael Green Series #7], (This Thing of Darkness [pb, Dundurn Press, 2009] 978-1459703773 [pb, Dundurm Press, 2024] 978-1459753907 [In the seventh book in the acclaimed Inspector Green series, an old man is found beaten to death on a street corner in Ottawa’s Byward Market. Initially, the killing appears to be a mugging gone wrong. However, the mystery deepens when the victim is identified as Dr. Samuel Rosenthal, a retired psychiatrist with a contentious approach to life and treatment. Green discovers that the doctor recently changed his will to disinherit his estranged son and to benefit several former patients whom he believed he had failed. But who is the young mystery woman seen visiting Rosenthal’s home every Saturday night? And more importantly, what does she know about the doctor’s death? Green races to track down the young visitor, but he is unprepared for the final resolution, which leaves him grappling with the ultimate meaning of justice. – Amazon]
Fradkin, Barbara [Michael Green Series #8], (Beautiful Lie the Dead [pb, Napoleon & Co., 2010] 978-1926607085 [pb, ReadHowYouWant, 2013] 978-1459664173 [Inspector Green explores a web of betrayal and deceit. In the dead of night, the phone rings in the missing persons unit of the Ottawa Police. A brutal blizzard is howling, and a wealthy social activist has not heard from his fiance in over twenty-four hours. Friends, family and police are mobilized to search the snowbound city. He comes to believe that his partner is fleeing for her life, possibly from his own family. When a frozen body is found in the snow, just blocks from the man’s home, Green knows that someone is conspiring to keep the truth hidden. – Amazon]
Fradkin, Barbara [Michael Green Series #9], (The Whisper of Legends [pb, Dundurn Press, 2013] 978-1459705678 [pb, ReadHowYouWant, 2013] 978-1459664036 [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. – Amazon]
Fradkin, Barbara [Michael Green Series #10], (None So Blind [pb, Dundurn Press, 2014] 978-1459721401 [Twenty years ago, a raw and impressionable Detective Michael Green helped convict a young professor for the murder of an attractive co-ed. From behind bars, the man continued to hound Green with letters protesting his innocence. Shortly after being paroled, he is found dead. Is it suicide? Revenge? Or had Green made the biggest mistake of his career ― a mistake which cost an innocent man his liberty and ultimately his life? To determine the truth, Green is forced to re-examine old evidence and open up old wounds to stare down a far greater evil hiding in plain sight. – Amazon]
Fradkin, Barbara [Michael Green Series #11], (The Devil to Pay [pb, Dundurn Press, 2021] 978-1459743847 [pb, ReadHowYouWant, 2022] 978-0369376978 [Impetuous, exasperating Ottawa Police Inspector Michael Green returns and unwittingly puts his daughter, a rookie patrol officer, in the line of fire.Sidelined to administrative duties, Inspector Michael Green misses the thrill of the chase. – Amazon]
Fradkin, Barbara [Michael Green Series #12], (Shipwrecked Souls [pb, Dundurn Press, 2025] 978-1459753815 [When Anya Kurchenko, a woman recently arrived in Ottawa from Ukraine, is found murdered in an obscure alleyway, the only clue is a scrap of paper in her pocket with the name “Symkha Grunstein” written in three different alphabets. No such person seems to exist. While the police try to trace her past movements, an elderly man named Simon Stone, who lives nearby, is also murdered, and Inspector Michael Green is called in to interpret the mass of documents about the Second World War and the Holocaust stored in Stone’s basement.
What is the link between the two victims? Who is Symkha Grunstein? And could the murders be connected to something that happened during the war? As the police unravel the threads of betrayal and cover-up, Green finds himself on an emotional journey into his own past, where he uncovers long-hidden secrets and makes a startling discovery. – Amazon]
Barbara Fradkin is currently working on a thirteenth volume in the Inspector Green series for publication in 2027. Tentative title: Sins of the Father.