Shipwrecked Souls

Inspector Green Mystery #12

by Barbara Fradkin

In the much anticipated next Inspector Green Mystery, the impetuous Ottawa detective sails headlong into the case of an elderly woman from Ukraine — a perfect whodunit for fans of Louise Penny and Tana French.

When Anya Kurchenko, an elderly 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 track her 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.

Genres: Mystery, Canada, Police

351 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 21, 2025

About the author

Barbara Fradkin (nee Currie), an award-winning Canadian mystery writer and retired psychologist whose work with children and families provides ample inspiration for murder. She is fascinated by the dark side and by the desperate choices people make.

Her novels are gritty, realistic, and psychological, with a blend of mystery and suspense. She is the author of three series, including ten novels featuring the exasperating, quixotic Ottawa Police Inspector Michael Green, and three short novels about country handyman Cedric O'Toole which provide an entertaining but quick and easy read. FIRE IN THE STARS is the first book in her new mystery thriller series which stars passionate, adventurous, but traumatized aid worker Amanda Doucette.

Fradkin's work has been nominated for numerous awards, and two of the Inspector Green books have won the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel from Crime Writers of Canada. Fradkin was born in Montreal but lives in Ottawa.

Series:
* Inspector Green Mystery

Awards:
Arthur Ellis Award
◊ Best Novel (2005): Fifth Son
◊ Best Novel (2007): Honour Among Men

Reviews

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars for a cerebral mystery set in Ottawa, Canada. This is book 12 in the Inspector Green series and I have not read any of the other books in the series. I have read other books by this author in in a separate series. It would probably be better to read the series in order, as something happened in a previous book that caused Green to be transferred from his position as chief of the homicide squad to an administrative post at the courthouse.
However Green can't resist investigating the suspicious death of an old woman in a run down neighborhood on his own time. He contributes to the solution to the case, along with the team working on the case and his daughter, a patrol officer. This case would be suitable for those who prefer books without graphic violence or sex. There are only a couple of swear words.
Some elements of interest in the book:
A WWII war criminal
Ukraine war
Genealogy connections
Thank You Dundurn Press for sending me this eARC through NetGalley.
#InspectorGreenMystery #NetGalley

Pub Date Feb 18 2025

[Carolyn Walsh · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars. Thank you, Netgalley and Dundurn Press, for the ARC of this intriguing historical fiction. It focuses on the present ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, and plunges us back to WW2, the Holocaust atrocities, death camps, and war criminals. Publication is set for February 18th.

I have only read the previous Inspector Green #11 and had read and enjoyed all of the author's Amanda Doucette series. The book was well-written and informative. It could be categorized as a police procedural, a criminal investigation, and an international spy story. It covered many threads with characters hiding their nationality, religion, politics, background, and name changes. This is an emotional story, especially involving Inspector Green and family connections.

The story begins with two mysterious murders, and the Ottawa police force is in charge. The body of a new arrival to Canada from the Ukraine is found in an alley in the downtrodden part of the city. Anya Kurchenko's fine clothes indicate she doesn't belong among the homeless and poverty-stricken. What was this older woman doing there, and why was she killed? A note on her body contains the name Symkha Grunstein, written in three languages. It is assumed she was looking for him, but the police cannot locate anyone with that name. Next, a very elderly man, Simon Stone, is found murdered close to the site of Anya's body. Is there a connection?

A search of Simon's home shows he was a hoarder. The house was filled with cartons containing masses of documents from WW2, Auschwitz, names of war criminals in Canada, and commanders in charge of the Holocaust death camps. Inspector Mike Green is no longer Chief of Homicide and has been reassigned to an administrative post. He misses the intense murder investigations and is relieved to be asked to help the police team in sorting through Simon's pile of documents. He follows some clues and 'persons of interest' on his own and is soon called on to assist the police team in this dark, complex and tangled case. He uncovers unnerving secrets in his own family's past.

A third victim is deliberately set on fire. CSIS warns the police to stop their investigation into the murders. Both CSIS and RCMP tell them their cases may have international implications and may be tied to Neo-Nazi terrorism. The police continue to investigate with restrictions. A prominent local business family and other Ottawa citizens may be involved in a far-ranging conspiracy. Police discover that Anya has a son in the Ukraine. CSIS tells them he is on the frontline of soldiers fighting against Russia and cannot be contacted. Is this the truth or a cover-up in the puzzle? I found the story slow-paced and complicated until a dangerous, action-packed ending. The reader's attention to names and details is necessary. I recommend this book to those who enjoy complex mysteries, plots based on historical facts, and family secrets.

[Val Wilde · Rating 5 out of 5]

The deep emotional resonance of a story exploring the generational trauma of Holocaust survivors feels like something a police procedural shouldn’t be able to accomplish, but this book pulls it off . . . and then there’s the added fun of picking out all the Ottawa Easter eggs the author puts in the text. In addition to the usual suspects (Byward Market, Rideau Canal, Château Laurier, etc.) they referenced restaurants where we’ve eaten, roads we’ve walked and driven, even the Costco where we shop! plus recent local history like the Convoy and its impact on public perception of the Ottawa Police. Fun and provocative. I’ll likely look out for more from the series.

[Judy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have read all of Inspector Green’s books and was excited to see a new one after 4 years. I was not thrilled with Shipwrecked Souls. I don’t know why other readers gave this book a 5 star. I didn’t really start enjoying this book until I had only 80 pages left in the story. I didn’t think it was a mystery. It was a book about the holocaust and Inspector Green using genealogy to find out if he had family who survived the holocaust.

[Allie · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's been awhile since I've read an Inspector Green book, and I had a hard time remembering the characters, and there was no help from the author here.
I'll keep reading these, as I love that they're set in Ottawa, but they're not fantastic books.

[Susanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to the author, Dundurn Press (especially for granting me access after I missed the archive date!) and NetGalley, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. My apologies for the delay in posting, I had several familial health challenges to contend with in the past months.

This is the 12th book in a series, but inexplicably the first I have read by this author - and it won't be the last. A classic police procedural with strong cast of characters, an intriguing mystery across international borders and involving current events, this was a great read. This is billed as an Inspector Green mystery, but due to circumstances which I assume are revealed in previous books in the series, Inspector Green is officially relegated to the sidelines. However, bits of his personal and familial history come up and he gets involved - the interaction of this ensemble cast is so well-written that I had a hard time putting it down. Now off to find other books by this author!

[Paula Dembeck · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the twelfth episode in the Inspector Green Series, set in Ottawa Canada.

An anonymous telephone tip has alerted police to the body of an elderly woman lying in an obscure alley in the Britannia area of Ottawa. It is a poorer section of the city, with struggling low rent businesses and poorly maintained apartment buildings with tenants struggling to stay above the poverty line. Homicide Detective Josh Kanner, just a few months into his new job, is the first on the scene and eager to be assigned on his first case. He finds the body of a woman, somewhere between sixty and eighty years old, who is well dressed in worn but fashionable clothing, with a well-cut, expensive wool coat and leather gloves and boots. He notices her gold earrings, so she is obviously not a vagrant, nor the victim of a mugging. She has no ID and there are no visible signs of injury, all leading to several questions: who is she and what was she doing in an alley in this part of town? Is she someone who fell on hard times, or just an elderly woman who wandered outside and got caught in the February cold? Women who are not wealthy but are comfortable, do not usually go wandering down dark alleys, so is this a case of misadventure or a suspicious death?

As the police work to determined her identity, a small but old scrap of paper is discovered in her coat pocket with three lines of writing, each written in a different alphabet, one of which appears to be Russian. Another line has a name: Symkha Grunstein. When the post mortem reveals the woman was smothered, the case immediately becomes a homicide investigation.

The team learns she is Anya Kurchenko, a woman who recently arrived in Ottawa from the Ukraine looking for information about her past. As the initial steps in the investigation are taken, an elderly man named Simon Stone who lived near the scene of the crime is also found dead at the bottom of the basement stairs in his home. Now the Major Crimes Division has two bodies on their hands, both of elderly people who died within a few days and within blocks of each other, both European. When they search Simon’s home, they find several boxes, meticulously indexed and filed in the basement. They are filled with thousands of documents, news clippings and articles about the Second World War, Stalin, Hitler, the Nazis and the Holocaust, most of it in Hebrew or Yiddish. Inspector Michael Green is brought in to help them decipher the documents and determined how and if they are in any way related to the old man’s death.

Green is now in his fifties and has been away from the Major Crimes Unit for five years, far away from the work he loves. He misses the thrill of hunting down the bad guys and the battles with his superiors and the press, all part of the policework he enjoyed and was good at. However, the powers that be decided that a transfer was in order and assigned him to work at the court house, responsible for coordinating security systems, a task for which he has no talent and little interest. It is a job he hates, trapped behind a computer, examining documents, memos, reports, directories and advisories. He is happy to get some relief from the monotony, get out in the field and work with the new detective Josh Kanner, who just happens to be dating his daughter Hannah, now a police officer.

As the investigation unfolds, readers connect with familiar characters from Green’s past in Major Crimes, including Mike Sullivan, Inspector Bob Gibbs and Sue Peters. Gibbs, the lead on the case keeps Josh on the team and they work to determine if the two deaths are connected in any way. Then suddenly the case blows wide open and they are confronted by the RCMP and CSIS who cite international security issues and argue over control of the case. The team struggles to retain authority and jurisdiction over a case which may have far reaching implications beyond the murder of two people in the city. Secrets that have been hidden for years and reach far back in the past have been kept by some who want them to stay buried and are ready to kill to ensure that happens.

Green’s involvement in the case takes him deep into his family history. He discovers startling information that explains much of his father’s behavior which had puzzled him as a young boy growing up. The case leads him on an emotional and thoughtful journey as he examines information about a time when so many Jews suffered and died. His father had always kept information about that time in his life secret, but Green now gains a better understanding of his father’s life.

Once again, Fradkin deserves credit for her meticulous research which adds authenticity to her story and helps it come alive. She is always quick to engage readers from the first pages of her novels, keeps things moving at the right pace and knows when to ramp up the tension, creating an interesting puzzle to solve.

This is another great addition to the series, although I expect it will be some time before there is another installment. I understand from a recent interview Fradkin intends to devote some time to the other series of books she is writing and there will be some time before she writes another Inspector Green story.

[Alison C · Rating 4 out of 5]

An old woman is found dead in an alleyway in a rundown neighbourhood in Ottawa, and newly minted Homicide Detective Josh Kanner is first on the scene. Inspector Mike Green is intrigued, but he has long been sidelined from the homicide division, in fact working in the courthouse now in a job for which he is completely unsuited. Since Josh is dating Green’s daughter Hannah (who has herself become a rookie street cop), Green thinks he can keep his oar in by helping Josh avoid rookie mistakes, even though he knows Josh will be under the watchful eye of cautious Sergeant Gibbs and Mike’s close friend Staff Sergeant Brian Sullivan. But when the woman is found to have been visiting from Ukraine in search of information from the past, and when another person is found dead near the site of the woman’s murder, the deaths seem related to long-ago events and war crimes that were committed…. I have enjoyed Ms. Fradkin’s Inspector Green series, of which this is the twelfth entry, since its inception, but I had lost track of it in recent years (the 11th book was published, I believe, some 5 or 6 years ago) so I was pleased to run across this new addition. Inspector Green is impetuous and insightful, as well as being determined and resourceful; at the same time, there is a deep melancholy in his soul (he is the son of Holocaust survivors) which drives a strong sense of empathy. I don’t always like what he does, sometimes I don’t like his character at all, but these stories are always compelling and this one is no exception. (It’s also a treat to read something set in a place that one knows, at least to some extent, and the Ottawa locale for this series does that for me too.) I think one could start the series by giving this a try, although starting at the beginning (“Do Or Die”) is always best. Recommended!

[Mystica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in Ottawa, it gives a glimpse into the diverse multi cultural scene that is Canada. An elderly woman recently arrived from Ukraine, Anya is found dead in a lonely alleyway. One clue only, a name written in three languages. No such person exists but that could be simply a change of name to an anglicized version that makes blending in easier. A second death also an elderly man Simon Stone, made to look like an accident is murder. The man has a huge collection of Holocaust connected literature, and now the connections get closer. It also starts getting closer to Inspector Greens own family and tightly hidden history.

A story of murder and cover up. Of Nazi persecutors living a very comfortable life in many countries, but they are also aware that they will be followed and there is always someone looking for justice, decades later. It puts the pursuer in grave danger but by the time, the pursuer is not concerned what happens to him. He has seen so much, suffered so much trauma that death may be very comfortable, after of course what he is determined to do. Anya was looking for family, for comfort. She did not find it but Inspector Green did.

The story was convoluted with espionage, secrets in government, cover ups and deaths. It was a detailed progression of methodical detection which solved the mystery and the murders.

[Brenda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Author Barbara Fradkin really hit a home run with Shipwrecked Souls, the 12th in the Inspector Green Mystery series. It feels personal and the World War II connections tugged at my heart.

The RCMP investigates a particularly riveting case of an older woman who is found murdered. But a second murder occurs which necessitates enlisting the expertise of Inspector Michael Green, an Ottawan with a poignant family past. A mysterious piece of paper was found on the woman which was written in three languages. Anya Kurchenko recently immigrated to Canada from Ukraine and the second murder victim's house had an astonishing array of WWII documentation on the "Third Reich", "Dachau" and war criminals. What secrets did Simon Stone know and why? Inspector Green's mind swirled with long-forgotten memories. His struggles and facing the past were the most meaningful parts of the story to me as an avid WWII reader.

The writing is compelling and the characters realistic. This installment was touching and showed a different side to the Inspector. Beautifully done with thoughtful insight into human nature.

My sincere thank you to Dundurn Press and NetGalley for providing me with an early digital copy of this captivating novel.

[Claudete Takahashi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was so engaged with the story that I read it in one day, I just couldn't stop reading it! Shipwrecked Souls although based partially on true facts is a work of fiction but it just grabs the reader's attention as it touches how Nazis and Jews were treated worldwide after WWII and how so many criminals who should be behind bars paying for they crimes where living the good life in Canada, Argentina, Brazil and many other countries throughout the world. The story highlights what I would call somber moments in Canadian history and pictures lives that were intertwined by secrets of war, deceit and lies to uncover someone's heritage and the fear that the madness of WWII would be coming after them again. The plot is well designed and written, the main characters are relatatable, there's mystery, real life troubles and easy family life, and greed for money and power to make a political belief to take over the prevailing one (not far from reality nowadays in many countries). Highly recommended!
I thank the author, her publisher, and NetGalley for this ARC.

[Hannelore Cheney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you NetGalley and Severn House for the eARC.
Wow, what a great book, I really loved it! It's beautifully written and even though there are parts that are terribly sad, it's a book that will stay with me quite a while.
Both my parents were in camps during WWII, so it was easy for me to empathize with Inspector Green. The mystery of the deaths was intense and had a surprise ending on a happy note. It was a moving book and to my mind, Ms. Fradkin's best one yet.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Got a little confused initially and then realized I was mixing up Inspector Green and Detective Greene from the Robert Rotenberg series. There are some similarities as well as their names, both have daughters that they discovered later in life. Anyway once I sorted out which Green/Greene I was reading about, I enjoyed the book. I feel Green's wife is a Saint, he definitely does not pull his weight as a parent, but I have to remember it is a police procedural not a family domestic novel!

[KSue · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding!

Inspector Green at his best. As always the author keeps the suspense tight and the storyline twisted and full of possibilities. Her characters
are so wonderfully portrayed that you want to come to their defense and help them through their darkest hours. You cheer them on and wish they were your friends so you could have a pint with them to celebrate their triumphs. At the end of the book you long to know what is next in their futures.

[Barbi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Present day mystery with ties back to Nazi Germany. The story read well, with a few glimpses into history to build the story.
This is the 2nd book in this series that I've read and I'll have to go back and read the others.

I received an ARC from Netgalley.

[Marcia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m a big fan of Fradkin’s Inspector Green series and was not disappointed with the latest entry. For Green, this mystery hits close to home with questions going back to his late parents and the Holocaust.

[Wendy Hearder-moan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unusually for me, I read this book twice. My excuse was that I wanted to get the plot details clarified, but essentially I think I just didn’t want it to end. I’m a fan of Inspector Green but in this book the characters of Josh, Hannah and Brian Sullivan are also engaging.

[Diane Melanson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started reading this one instead of the earlier one because of the positive reviews. It did not disappoint. I will have to go back and read the others in the series.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Th last in the series (so far).

[Vontel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read every Inspector Green mystery and enjoyed they all. It's thrilling when a new one is published. I have read her Amanda Doucette mysteries as well. I only recently became aware of her Cedric O'Toole books and have started with that series, so far reading only the first one of three.

[Nancy Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very entertaining

[Audrey Lawrence · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this exciting mystery by Fradkin and now look forward to reading her other mysteries!

[Grace Koshida · Rating 4 out of 5]

An unidentified old woman is found murdered in an obscure alleyway on a cold February day in Ottawa. A paper with the name Symkha Grunstein written in three different alphabets is found in her coat. Then Simon Stone who lives nearby is also murdered and Inspector Michael Green is called in to help sift through the horde of material Stone collected about WWII and the Holocaust. The victim is Anya Kurchenko, an academic who recently arrived from Ukraine. Green unexpectedly finds a personal link to his family's sad history. Newly minted Detective Kanner and Green's daughter, officer Hannah Pollock, also play important roles in solving the murders.

This was a complex satisfying mystery in the long-running detective series.

I received a digital ARC from Netgalley and Dundurn Press. All opinions are my own.

[Joan Mettauer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am so surprised that I haven't encountered any books by this wonderful Canadian author before! 'Shipwrecked Souls' drew me in right from Chapter 1, and kept me entranced to the very last page. The story draws on history as well as timely events, and touches many emotions. Her characters are engaging and well-rounded. I loved the speed and complexity of her writing, which I can say without a doubt, in my opinion, rivals Louise Penny and Gail Bowen, two of my very favorite Canadian crime story-tellers. Now I want to track down all of the books written by this wonderful author, and start reading all of her Inspector Green series, as well as her Amanda Doucette thriller series. I won this book on Goodreads Giveaways.