The Night Thief

by Barbara Fradkin

Overview

Simple country handyman Cedric O’Toole relies on his organic vegetable garden to supplement his meager income, so he’s upset when vegetables begin disappearing. After several futile attempts to protect the garden, he stakes it out one night with his shotgun and spots a shadowy figure running into the woods. Cedric follows and finds a young boy living rough on his land. The boy has never been taught to read or write, and no one has reported him missing. No stranger to childhood neglect himself, Cedric takes the boy under his wing and tries to find answers. Who is the mystery boy, and why is he hiding in the woods?

The Night Thief is the third novel in a series featuring reluctant sleuth Cedric O’Toole.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781459808683
Publisher:	Orca Book Publishers
Publication date:	04/01/2015
Series:	Cedric O'Toole Mystery , #3
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	144
File size:	556 KB

About the Author

Barbara Fradkin is a child psychologist with a fascination for how people turn bad. Her compelling short stories haunt numerous magazines and anthologies, but she is best known for her two series of gritty, psychological novels, one featuring Ottawa police inspector Michael Green and the more recent one with foreign-aid worker Amanda Doucette. Barbara won Arthur Ellis Best Novel Awards for both Fifth Son (2005) and Honour Among Men (2007). Her work as a school psychologist helping adolescents and younger children, many of whom struggle with reading, has also made her a strong advocate of programs that help develop reading as a lifelong passion. She lives in Ottawa, Ontario.

Editorial Reviews

"Fradkin’s writing feels pitch perfect for this kind of piece. She largely follows the structure that comes with the mystery genre and employs many of the conventions we’ve come to expect from this kind of book. It’s a testament, though, to her storytelling skills and comfort with the language that these elements which in the hands of another might feel obvious and overbearing are subtle and organic to the story being told...Fradkin has skilfully adjusted the genre to fit the story she wants to tell, making the book appealing to a wide range of readers, both reluctant and eager alike. Highly Recommended."

CM Magazine

"Rick is an engaging character at home with a good mystery to solve but very ill at ease when it comes to talking to the female police detective. Like other amateur sleuths, his presence often irritates the authorities, but ultimately Rick’s help closes the case. This third installment in the Cedric O’Toole mysteries is written to appeal to struggling adult readers looking for a fast-paced mystery story, but it would work equally well for young-adult readers and adults who are simply overscheduled and lack time for reading for pleasure."

Booklist

"Rick is an engaging character at home with a good mystery to solve but very ill at ease when it comes to talking to the female police detective. Like other amateur sleuths, his presence often irritates the authorities, but ultimately Rick’s help closes the case. This third installment in the Cedric O’Toole mysteries is written to appeal to struggling adult readers looking for a fast-paced mystery story, but it would work equally well for young-adult readers and adults who are simply overscheduled and lack time for reading for pleasure."

Booklist

2015-01-07
A sneak thief poses an unusual series of moral dilemmas for a Canadian handyman/farmer in rural Madrid County.At first, Cedric Elvis "Rick" O'Toole thinks his organic vegetable garden is being raided by a hedgehog or a rabbit. But the ingenuity the thief shows in evading the traps Rick sets and the traces he's left of a camp nearby point to a human. Oiling up his shotgun, Rick stakes out the garden and catches a 10-year-old with a strange accent who refuses to identify himself. Dubbing the thief Robin Hood, Rick takes him in and shields him from Constable Jessica Swan, Sgt. Hurley, and the tender mercies of Children's Services, a bureaucracy with which Rick's already tangled on his own. It's an uphill battle. Robin can't read, can't count and has never even held a pencil. He's more than willing to help Rick with chores around the farm, but he seems to be sneaking out every night. One morning, Rick heads off to the woods himself and discovers a young woman whose eyes are as blue as Robin's but who has one feature Robin lacks: a bullet hole in her side. Enlisting his mother's aunt Penny to help Robin nurse the girl they decide to call Marian, he sits out Robin's cryptic hints about Marian's identity and waits for enlightenment from some other quarter. At length, it arrives in the form of an American with Alabama license plates, a short temper and a gun. Child psychologist Fradkin (None So Blind, 2014, etc.) supplies a promising setup and a touching conclusion but not much of a story in between.

Kirkus Reviews