Monday, February 15, 2021

The Ancient Dead by Barbara Fradkin

First Line: Beneath the dry, cracked soil, the tufts of sage and prairie wool, lay the graveyard of the ancient dead.
 
A photographer finds human bones deep in Alberta's dinosaur country. Not far away, Amanda Doucette sees an abandoned farmhouse that reminds her of a photo hanging on her aunt's wall. When Amanda asks her aunt about the photo, she learns that she had an uncle who disappeared in Alberta thirty years before.
 
While doing work for her charity, Amanda learns about the human bones. Could they possibly belong to the uncle who disappeared so long ago? When she begins searching for answers, mounting questions soon outweigh them. Determined to learn the truth, Amanda encounters a person who will stop at nothing to force her to abandon her investigation.
 
~
 
I read the first two books in Barbara Fradkin's Amanda Doucette mystery series about three years ago. I loved the first book, Fire in the Stars, but rapidly fell out of love with the main character in the second book, The Trickster's Lullaby. I wish I'd remembered that before reading this fourth book in the series, The Ancient Dead.

Author Barbara Fradkin knows how to write a strong, compelling mystery, and her settings create vivid mental pictures as you read. I felt as though I were in the Alberta badlands as Amanda searched for answers. No, the plots and the settings aren't the problems for me in these Amanda Doucette mysteries. The problem is Amanda herself. 

She is the type of person who can drive me up the wall without her breaking a sweat. Being with her is like being held captive in a room with thousands of ravenous mosquitoes. In "her relentless drive for answers," Amanda has no filter. She badgers the grieving. She has no shame, thinking nothing of insisting that people put themselves in danger or abuse their positions and possibly lose their jobs in order to give her the answers she requires. Amanda Doucette is the squeaky wheel who demands the grease, and she will not stop until she gets it.

Amanda is a former international aid worker who narrowly escaped with her life from a nightmarish situation in Africa. Now she has PTSD, and her canine companion Kaylee is my favorite character in the book. Amanda's behavior may have been necessary to care for people in her former line of work, but having personally had to deal with countless people like her in my line of work, I can do without being in her presence.

If characters like this don't bother you, please, go ahead and read this mystery series because it is very well crafted. You can even say that Fradkin's art of characterization is powerful as well because Amanda Doucette certainly comes to life. However, for the sake of my blood pressure, The Ancient Dead is the last time I'll be spending time with her. Goodbye, Amanda. I do wish you well.


The Ancient Dead by Barbara Fradkin
eISBN: 9781459743830
Dundurn Press © 2021
eBook, 344 pages
 
Amateur Sleuth, #4 Amanda Doucette mystery
Rating: B-
Source: Net Galley

14 comments:

  1. That's the thing, isn't it, Cathy. If you don't like the main character in a book or series, it's really hard to fall in love with the story/stories. Even if you love everything else about a book, disliking the main character pulls you right out of the story. Well, it does me, anyway. Still, this does have an interesting premise, and the setting appeals to me.

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    1. I like everything else about this series except the main character. Nuts, isn't it?

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  2. I'm glad you were able to find some things you liked about the book, even though the main character's behavior was annoying.

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    1. There's plenty to like about the book. Amanda just pushes all the wrong buttons on me!

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  3. The author and book are both new to me. Sad that the characterization was annoying.

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    1. But at least I know that she's not going to be annoying to everyone.

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  4. Yeah, I can tolerate unlikable characters in standalones, but there's no way I would read a lengthy series of books centering on a character that irritates me too much.

    Flawed characters, on the other hand, don't bother me at all, I suppose because they have their good moments and their better nature usually prevails. After all, most of my favorite fictional detectives are burnouts, heavy drinkers, divorced, bad parents to their children, etc. And I keep coming back.

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    1. Same here. Flawed can be interesting and endearing. Irritating is just plain... irritating! LOL

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  5. I guess it's a "goodbye Felicia" moment. Will ponder over this. There is so much to read, so little time.

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    1. She may be the type of character that's right up your alley, Kathy. She fights the good fight for all the right reasons. I just don't like the way she fights.

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  6. A photo on the wall? You never know.

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