Do or Die

Inspector Michael Green of the Ottawa Police Force came close to provoking me to shout at him to go home. I needed the rest, too. Recently married with a new baby, he just wouldn't leave the case alone. This drove his partner and wife to distraction. Yet, this doggedness results in the crime being solved. This is a wonderful debut novel. The characters are complex, the mystery seems baffling and the suspects are plentiful. The plot does chase some red herrings, which is fair, but there is none of the often found solutions in new mysteries - the detective learns something that we, the reader does not. That is unfair. Fortunately, this is not the case in this mystery. The clues are laid out for us, just as Insp. Green gets them. Well done.

A young graduate student and member of a very wealthy family is found expertly stabbed to death in the stacks of a university library. Homicide Inspector Michael Green is so dedicated to his job that it's come close to ruining his marriage on more than one occasion. Now he is caught up in the biggest case of his career and compelled to put his law enforcement career, his family, and friends in peril as he probes into the circumstances of the young man's life to uncover a tangled web of jealousy and intrigue. Do Or Die is a stunningly well written novel set amidst a scenario of university politics, passion, and murder.

Barbara Fradkin has a winner in her first mystery novel, DO OR DIE. Confronting a bloody opening scene contaminated by bungling, Inspector Michael Green presents a tightly-strung, self-doubting sleuth as he juggles a shaky second marriage, a working wife, and a newborn. Political power struggles are the next barrier in his effort to discover why Jonathan Blair, a young graduate student, was found stabbed to death in the quiet stacks of the university library. An innocent victim in the wrong place at the wrong time? Or a calculated homicide? Evidence seems too scarce for an amateur. An eminently likable man with few enemies, Blair had been involved in ground-breaking neuropsychology. His path had crossed a viper's den of ambitious colleagues led by an arrogant professor with a world-class reputation. In addition to a girlfriend with a grudge, Green must track a Lebanese girl protected by her concerned family. Against the rich tapestry of Canada's multiculturalism (Green has a long-neglected Jewish heritage), the staid city of Ottawa reveal its gritty underbelly and its upscale suburbs. Assisted by the blunt but capable Sgt. Sullivan, Green battles personal demons to bring the culprit to justice. Fradkin paints with deft strokes, dropping fair clues to tempt the reader, then making him sweat for the solution. A sure-footed knowledge of forensics makes this a solid police procedural as well as a taut thriller.