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.