The Trickster's Lullaby
An Amanda Doucette Mystery
Description
A winter camping trip turns deadly as two missing teenagers, a twisted love triangle, and the spectre of radicalism create turmoil in the remote Laurentian wilderness.
Amanda Doucette’s cross-Canada charity tour is in for a cold snap when she organizes a winter camping trip for inner-city young people in the stunning setting of the Laurentian Mountains. With a view to bridging cultural divides, she brings along a mixture of Canadian-born and immigrant youth.
Trouble begins when two of the teenagers disappear into the wilderness during the night: Luc, a French/English-Canadian with a history of drug use, and Yasmina, an adventurous young woman from Iraq who dreams of becoming a human rights lawyer. Although frantic, their parents are strangely secretive amid suspicions of drug use and forbidden romance. But when a local farmer turns up dead and terrorist material is found on Luc’s computer, the dangers turn deadly. Now in a battle against both the elements and police, Amanda and Corporal Chris Tymko discover a far greater web of secrets and deception.
As Amanda races to save the young people from danger, she finds herself fighting for stakes far higher than their own lives.
Reviews
An action-packed story set against a beautiful backdrop.
- Crime Watch
A master of the genre
- Midwest Book Review, on Fire in the Stars (book 1)
When the violence begins, there's less interest in who killed whom than in whether the heroine and her friends can foil a diabolical bombing plot.
- Kirkus Reviews
The landscape means that everything you read is focused and tightly plotted so that the characters have to do everything they can to survive. What do people do when pushed to the limits?
- The Book Trail
Doucette's tendency to rush into action thinking she can solve the problems that arise is at the heart of these novels.
- Reviewing the Evidence
★ 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 book 1
★ A high-adrenaline plunge into the dangerous and murky waters of homegrown terrorism.
- Publishers Weekly (starred review)