Prisoners of Hope

Author/Guide: Barbara Fradkin

Why a Booktrail?

2000s: Amanda Doucette finds herself drawn into the world of exploited foreign workers.

ISBN: 978-1459737648
Genre: Mystery

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What you need to know before your trail

Georgian Bay: a spectacular terrain of granite shores, deserted islands, and infinite sparkling bays. As part of her cross-Canada charity tour, Amanda has planned a kayaking trip in the area for families from a poor rural Ontario community.

While exploring some remote islands offshore, she and a local tour guide rescue a frightened young woman whose boat has capsized in the lake. In an apparent act of kindness, the tour guide takes the woman to shore, leaving Amanda stranded on an island. But when news surfaces that a wealthy doctor has died on his island estate and his Filipino nanny has gone missing, Amanda fears far more sinister forces at work. When the young tour guide is found dead on a nearby island, she and RCMP officer Chris Tymko race to prevent more innocent deaths.

Locations

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Travel Guide

Georgian Bay

The book is set in Toronto and the complex archipelago of islands on Georgian Bay’s East coast.

The setting sparked the idea for the book explains the author.

“When I went ton a kayaking trop of my own there a few years ago, I was struck not only by its rugged beauty and dangerous moods, but also by the extraordinary contrasts in wealth. It is a place that inspire grand dreams.”

In Prisoners of Hope, the prisoners are those tho come to these parts in search of a better life. Often they work as staff in the huge rich houses. Their worlds don’t seem to mix and they are worlds apart.

” Some of the dwellings perched on the clifftops or sprawling across the manicured shore were more like palaces, with multiple decks and balconies ,docks , boathouses bigger than most homes and even float plane hangars.”

Booktrailer Review

Susan: @thebooktrailer

A great premise and an equally intriguing cover. This is about an international aid worker traumatized by her experience of working in Northern Nigeria and the massacre she saw. This makes her the kind of person you’d want on your side however as she gets the job done, isn;t afraid to get her feet wet so to speak but she does sometimes take risks too.

She’s in the Georgian Bay area looking for a place to hold an adventure activity for the charity she works with which helps women and children in dangerous situations. A woman is found almost drowned in the stunning Bay area – in the background there are mansions and signs of wealth alongside the poorer ones. And then she gets taken to an island where the adventure day is to be held….and gets stranded there.

There’s a lot of present day themes involved in this novel such as social norms and expectations, abuse of women and children, the coexistence of rich and poor, and the hardships immigrants face when in a new country.

This is one in a series but I didn’t have any problems reading this as a standalone. Characters from the past do come back but then that’s just like in real life – you get to find out their backstories later on!

I really enjoyed this one with its unique setting and characters. More please!