Review: Dream Chasers

I’ve mentioned before that I’ve learned in the last few years that I’m not into thrillers but I am into crime/detective mysteries. And, boy, does knowing your own reading tastes improve your reading life or what! After going down the Louise Penny rabbit hole with a friend, I’ve been on a hunt for another Canadian mystery writer to read while waiting for the next Gamache novel (which will be this fall! Yay!). When I saw that Dundurn Press was repackaging Barbara Fradkin’s Inspector Green series, I thought, why not give this a whirl? I enjoyed the writing in Dream Chasers, book six in the series, but struggled with the content of the mystery. I’m still intrigued enough to carry on with the series though.

Here’s the book’s description:

A seventeen-year-old sets out to meet her secret lover by Ottawa’s Hog’s Back Falls. Three days later, her body washes up in the shallows. The public fears a sexual predator is on the loose, but Inspector Green suspects a more personal connection.
His search for answers draws him into the world of elite young athletes, drugs, and teenage sexuality. Then a social worker who knows too much disappears, and blood is found in the house of a star with NHL prospects. Unless Green can unravel the truth, how many others will pay the ultimate price for a young man's dreams?

What drew me into this story was the fact that it was a Canadian writer, setting her crime fiction in Canada. I loved that aspect of it. My best friend used to live in Ottawa so I recognized a lot of the place names and actually think I’ve been near where the murder occurred. It’s just always nice to read books set in Canada and I appreciated it a lot.

Since I knew this was the sixth book in the series, I anticipated feeling a bit behind when it came to the characters - which was fine and didn’t bother me all that much. But, for some reason, my brain assumed some things might be updated with the republished version. This novel was originally published in 2007 and, news flash, that was a long time ago which becomes super apparent in genre fiction. I found it a bit jarring when I was reminded that this book took place so many years ago (asking if cell phones had video and photo capability, for example) and I couldn’t get my head around why a book was republished and not updated. (I am aware my head is the problem and my assumption that it should have been updated is probably wrong.)

What made me both sad and mad was that the whole “his future will be ruined” thing with hockey players (and all athletes). Yeah, it’s still very much a thing in 2024. And that makes me rage. We know that this kind of garbage takes place in the world of sports (I love sports but you can love a thing and still recognize how toxic it is.) but we’re still not doing enough about it. I don’t know what we can do but there’s gotta be something. And maybe that was part of my frustration with the story.

Setting aside the toxicity of the hockey world and how it hasn’t changed much, if at all, since 2007, there were a few other suuuper cringey moments in this book that I just could not let go of - whether that’s fair to the story or not. Green goes to visit the alternative high school his daughter attends to try to find her and encounters the guidance counselor. For some reason, Fradkin felt the need to focus on the fact that the woman was braless and it was very much implied that she was a hippie and therefore below Green’s police officer status. It was subtle, but it was there. Speaking of breasts, (yep, there’s more), back at the high school the murdered girl attended, the female guidance counselor there notices the D cups on one of the students, in part because that counselor is also well-endowed. Why. Why is the reader being told how large a teenager’s cup size is?

Now, even with all the above issues, I am still interested in reading more of Fradkin’s novels, including continuing with this series. I had a few of the same problems with Penny’s Gamache series when I read some of the earlier ones so I’m well aware this is just a product of its time and I’m willing to give the author the benefit of the doubt.

Even though the crime itself and how it was connected to hockey made me deeply uncomfortable, I was still invested in finding the murderer. Fradkin kept me guessing right up until the end and I appreciated that.

While Dream Chasers left a lot to be desired for me personally, I’m still interested enough in Barbara Fradkin’s Inspector Green series to keep checking out the next books. I liked how she wrote the mystery, if not the social commentary inherent in the story, so I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next in the series.

*A copy of this novel was provided by the publisher, Dundurn Press, in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*