Green's free spirited daughter leaves on a wilderness canoe trip down the Nahanni River. When the group she is with seems to have disappeared, Green flies to the Yukon to search for her. As a man who has lived his entire fife in an urban setting, preparing for and taking part in a canoe trip through Class IV rapids is a huge challenge for Inspector Green. As he is also in another police jurisdiction, he must control his demands on the local RCMP detachment.

When the bodies starting piling up and his daughter is missing with man who Green thinks is mentally unbalanced, the search takes on an urgency he can hardly control.

Another character who plays a large role in the story is RCMP Constable Chris Tymko who fights bureaucracy to search for the missing adventurers and early on suspects their motives aren't entirely about seeking thrills.

This is a entertaining mystery plus one learns a lot about canoeing and surviving the Nahanni wilderness. ( )

I almost did not finish this book, but I kept going and wound up finishing the book at 2 a.m. one night when I finally could not put it down. Inspector Michael Green goes into dense wilderness to find his missing daughter. He's an expert on the "mean" city streets but cowed by the vast and wild Northwest territories. The drive to find his daughter sends him canoeing down stage IV rapids, teaches him to track and sends him climbing mountainous terrain. The first part of the book feels slow and rather tedious, but I believe this mirrors Inspector Green's frustration with the local authorities and his inability to "do something" to find his daughter. Once Green gets on the ground and is actively tracking his daughter, with welcome help, the book charges ahead. There is an old mystery involving a missing person and lost treasure that twines with the Inspector's search. Obsession drove the missing prospector and also drives the Inspector.

Holly S. / Marathon County Public Library
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Fradkin also has a fantastic grasp of human fears and relationships. She gets into the minds of the characters here and tells the readers what they are thinking, even though those characters are fearful of sharing their emotions with others.

http://tinyurl.com/orlh4cs ( )

In The Whisper of Legends, the ninth in the Inspector Green detective series by Barbara Fradkin, Ottawa police inspector Michael Green finds himself far away from his usual haunts: his teenage daughter Hannah has gone missing while white-river rafting in a remote park in the Yukon, and Green is determined to find her. But the wilderness is vast, and Green has no skills in such an environment, so his friend and police sergeant Brian Sullivan joins him and they team up with experts from the area; meanwhile a junior RCMP officer carries on an investigation of his own, over the objections of his superior. When first one and then another body is found, Green knows that he is in a race against time and the elements if he is to find his daughter alive.... This is a complete departure from the other books in the series, except in terms of the personalities and interactions of the primary characters, and the various descriptions of the wilderness and what it is necessary to do to survive in that environment are a far cry from inner-city Ottawa, where the series is often set. I liked this one a lot, in part because there is a lot of discussion and action involving a real-life ongoing debate here in Canada (and elsewhere) between environmental preservation and resource development, and in part because I like these characters, particularly Inspector Green (who can be prickly and downright annoying at times). I also like the fact that one does not have to have read all the previous novels in the series to enjoy this one, although of course it is always best to know the previous stories in any long-running series. I am only sad that now I have caught up to Fradkin's latest, and I don't know how long I'll have to wait for the next one! Recommended. ( )