Blood Ties

By Barbara Fradkin

Country handyman Cedric O’Toole finds his life turned upside down when a stranger named Steve shows up at his farm, claiming to be his brother. Steve believes they have the same father, and he is on a quest to find him, as Cedric’s unwed mother took the secret of their father’s identity to her grave.

Together Steve and Cedric embark on a hunt for answers. At every turn, people seem to have secrets: the police officer who investigated a suspicious death years ago and who is now the chief near retirement, Cedric’s aunt Penny, who knows all the gossip in the town but claims to know nothing about the death and, most alarming of all, Cedric’s own grandparents and uncle, who insist no good will come of his questions.

What are they all hiding? And does Cedric really want to know the answers?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
• Release date: Aug 27, 2019
• ISBN: 9781459818279

Barbara Fradkin

Barbara Fradkin is a retired psychologist and the critically acclaimed author of the Amanda Doucette thriller series and the Inspector Green detective series, which has earned two Best Novel Awards of Excellence from Crime Writers of Canada, as well as two additional nominations. Barbara shares her time between her home in Ottawa and her cottage on Sharbot Lake in Ontario.

Book preview

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

One

I SAW THE GUY coming half a mile away, the dust from his pickup blowing across my cornfield. Not many vehicles use the gravel road past my farm, so Chevy and I both stopped to watch. By the time the truck was halfway up my lane, the dog was off the front stoop and running toward it. Tail wagging, tongue lolling. Chevy never has been much of a guard dog.

The truck had Alberta plates, so the dude was a long way from home. He took his time climbing down, like he was stiff from hours of traveling. He limped toward me slowly.

"Cedric Elvis O’Toole?" he said.

I bristled. I’ve heard that little sneer often enough. My mother saddled me with that name, but she is long dead, and she couldn’t help her love for Elvis. With his wraparound sunglasses and his leather cowboy hat pulled low over his eyes, the guy didn’t give much away. But he wasn’t smiling. About three feet from me he stopped.

I think you might be my brother.

Now, I should say here that I have no brother. There’d only ever been my mother and me when I was growing up. We lived together out on this worthless scrub farm. She died when I was seventeen, and no one ever came to claim it from me. The only one of my mother’s relatives who actually spoke to us was her aunt Penny. Getting pregnant at sixteen was an unforgivable sin in the O’Toole clan, Aunt Penny said.

So there could be a whole lot of cousins I know nothing about, but I’d have noticed if there was a brother underfoot.

I said that to the man standing in front of me. I couldn’t see much of his face, but he was built like an oil drum. I’m a beanpole, even though I spend most of my days working on my farm and doing construction.

He grinned. Half brother, I should have said. Steve Lilley’s my name. He shoved out his hand. It was rough and callused, but his grip was friendly. He gestured to my front stoop.

Can we sit down, Cedric? He cocked his head at me. Do people really call you that?

Only my great aunt when she’s mad at me. Rick will do.

Steve limped over to my stoop and eased himself down. You got something cold to drink inside?

Um…Coke?

Steve made a face. I guess that will do.

I went inside to get two Cokes. I don’t drink the stuff often. It’s so sweet it makes my teeth ache. But there were a couple of cans in the back of the fridge. I’m guessing they didn’t have an expiry date. While I was opening them, Steve came into the kitchen and stood looking around. His eyebrows shot up.

I know the farmhouse is nothing fancy. It’s about a hundred years old, and my mother couldn’t afford to fix it up. She put in electric appliances and painted the pine cupboards and the old farm table bright yellow with blue flowers. But we pretty much left the rest of the place alone. I live here by myself, and so far it’s suited me fine. I’ve been thinking I should fix it up a bit now that Jessica is coming over, but that’s a story for another time. Now I could see it was pretty shabby. I felt the tips of my ears grow red.

He peered over my shoulder into the fridge. I grow or raise most of what I eat myself. The fridge had a few vegetables, milk, eggs and goat cheese. I don’t have much right now, I mumbled.

I passed a pub in town, he said. We could grab dinner and a couple of beers there instead.

I thought of all the flapping ears that would be listening to our conversation. By morning the whole town would know about Cedric O’Toole’s long-lost brother coming to town. My poor mother had had enough gossip in her time.

I’ll fix us something. And I’ve got beer in the cellar.

He seemed happy with that news and settled in to watch. I cut up some goat cheese, homemade bread, peppers and carrots, and put them all on a tray.

Back outside on the stoop, he downed half his beer before he said a word. He seemed to be having trouble getting started. Your mother dead? he said finally.

I nodded. Long time ago.

Mine died three months ago. He drank more beer. Cancer. That was a bitch.

Words have never been my strong suit. But I know it must be hard to watch someone die bit by bit. Sorry, I muttered when he’d been quiet too long.

There was just me and her at the end. My dad died ten years ago. At least, I thought he was my dad. He was the only one I knew, and I always thought he was my real dad. But when my mom was dying, she told me he wasn’t.

I finally saw where this was going. My heart raced as I waited. He drained his beer can and crushed it in one fist. This is hard, he said. I’ve been going over it in my mind this whole trip, how I was going to explain it to you.

You want another beer? I needed one. I was about to get the answer to the biggest question of my life, and I wasn’t sure I was ready. Down in the cellar, I breathed in and out to settle my nerves.

I brought us the case, I said when I went back outside. The sun was setting, and long shadows were creeping across the yard. Steve was scratching Chevy’s ears. We used to have a dog, he said. God, I loved that dog. When I went into the service, my mother had her put down. Said she was old and sick, but I’ve always wondered. He paused and took a breath. "We grew up in Calgary. That’s the only home I know. My mother said my real father worked in Fort McMurray during the oil boom. He’d come to Calgary for his holidays. He met

Reviews for Blood Ties

[l4mo · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Reviewing this as an Early Reviewer, and I’m thinking that I accidentally clicked the request button. This is so not my genre.I think the story was slightly intriguing, but not fleshed out the way it could have been. Being published as a “Rapid Read” probably does that to a book though. Some of the dialogue seems likes it’s out of a cheesy detective drama on tv. I won’t read the other O’Toole books, but this was easy and ok.

[norinrad10 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a fun little well-written book. It'll take you little or no time to read. Set in Canada our protagonist is knocked out of his routine when a stranger shows up claiming to be his half-brother. together the two unravel the mysteries about their father that have been hidden for nearly 30 years. This one is all killer, no filler.

[seeword · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I thoroughly enjoyed this short novel about two thirty-something men who think they may be half brothers. As the search for the truth about the "accidental" death of their supposed father, they uncover layers of secrets kept by a family and a small Canadian town. For me, it made for a nice afternoon read.This book is part of Orca Book's Rapid Reads series "designed for the reluctant or emerging reader" so I am not exactly part of its target audience. When I finished it I was thinking maybe three stars because that was my level of engagement with it. However, when considering the stated purpose of the series, it meets the goal so I gave it four stars. I recommend it.

[misstamaradawn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

"I saw the guy coming half a mile away, the dust from his pickup blowing across my cornfield."Thank you to Orca Books and LibraryThing for sending my review copy from a giveaway I won! This is my first time being introduced to Barbara Fradkin. And at first I thought this was a standalone book, but it turns out, this is book number 4 from the Cedric O'Toole series. So I will definitely be checking out the other 3 soon!This book got straight to the point from the first page. And I honestly couldn't put it down. I read this whole book in one sitting. Cedric O'Toole was pretty much your average guy who kept the spotlight off of him. Especially in a little town where everyone knows everyone. His "brother" shows up unexpected and Cedric was left to adjust to this new life with having a brother after all the years it's just been him and his mother. Finding out his family's secrets and revealing the truth about what his dad is not what he was expecting. Especially after his mother kept all this hidden from him.I really enjoyed this story from beginning to end.Thank you again Orca Books, LibraryThing & Barbara Fradkin for sending me this copy!

[babs605 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A very nice, quick read. I don't normally go for short stories, because I like fully fleshed out characters, and to me, short stories don't go into enough details about the story. This author manages to do both. The story kept me interested, enough so that I'm looking forward to finding the other books in the series so I can find out more about Mr. Cedric O'Toole.

[amkee-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Great short mystery. A quick afternoon read that keeps you guessing at who is the villain and why.

[bayleaf_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the second Cedric O'Toole mystery I've read. In 2015 I read The Night Thief and I remember noting that, while I liked the book, I thought it could have been improved by further development, in the addition of another 100 pages. This book has changed my mind. The author, Barbara Fradkin, has made a career of working with those who struggle to learn to read and these shorter novels with interesting plots are perfect for adult beginning readers or for those of us with little time, but want to spend that time with a good book. I really liked Blood Ties, all 148+ pages of it. Cedric is an endearing character and I was totally caught up in this story.

[samsattler · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Blood Ties is the fourth in a series of what author Barbara Fradkin calls Cedric O’Toole Mysteries. It is my first exposure to Mr. O’Toole and his friends, and I’m still trying to figure out what I really think of the guy – and his friends. Cedric (or Rick, as he prefers to be called) is so laid back about life that he doesn’t get very excited when a man shows up at his door claiming to be the half-brother Rick never knew existed. Well, I figured, maybe this is just the mark of an overly cautious man. But it turns out that even after Rick has decided to help Steve answer some key questions about the father they supposedly share, he is still not willing to approach the very people most likely actually to have the answers they are seeking. Then, just when I was ready to write Rick off as some kind of oblivious weirdo, I decided that he was probably just afraid of what he might learn about his family by asking the wrong questions of the wrong people. Steve, though, was not playing that game. And that got Steve – and Rick - in a whole lot of trouble. The book’s cover describes Cedric O’Toole as a “reluctant sleuth and unlikely hero,” but that description does not much hint at what Rick is capable of when a hero is required and he is the only one around even remotely fit for the role. He can be a hero when he has to be one, Rick just doesn’t really want that job. Barbara Fradkin, who is also a practicing child psychologist in Ottawa, has set Blood Ties in a relatively remote Canadian village, and she uses that closed setting to emphasize how easy it is for a relatively small circle of adults to keep a life-changing secret from someone who was not even born yet when the event in question occurred. Fradkin gives her readers plenty of action and plenty to think about in this novella of only 148 pages – maybe not enough to get me to look for the previous three books in the series, but definitely enough to get me to check out the other two series she is writing. I would call Blood Ties a “cozy mystery,” because it shares most of the key characteristics that I use to define that mystery sub-genre: mild language, behind-the-scene sex and violence, and a community in which everyone seems to know everyone else. If cozies are your thing, this one might be just the thing for you.Orca Book Publishers provided an Advance Reading Copy of Blood Ties for review purposes.

[ehertzfeld-985014 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I haven’t read the other Cedric O’Toole mysteries but didn’t need to to enjoy this “rapid read series”. The theme centers around the discovery of family the characters didn’t know previously and a mystery to hide past mistakes. An easy read. Could be read and discussed with teens without having to spend too much time reading a long text.

[kmjessica · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a short story and it was perfect for my ride home from the lake, It took about 1 1/2 hours to read. This is the first book from Barbara Fradkin I have read.I thoroughly enjoyed it.I have not read many short stories but this was very entertaining and kept me interested through the whole story.This was somewhat of a mystery and the characters were enjoyable.I will be reading more of her Cedric O'Toole Mysteries.4 stars

[christiana5 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I received this from the Early Reviewers program in exchange for an honest review. This was a short story that took only about an hour to read, and is part of a series. I’ve not read the other books in the series, but that wasn’t a hindrance to following the plot, although I may have found the main character, Cedric O’Toole, more understandable with additional backstory. Cedric, a loner, is visited by a man claiming to be his half brother, but neither knows much about their father, so they start trying to find out more. This isn’t a traditional mystery, and the research they conduct is pretty meager, but it does resonate in terms of the psychological impacts of Cedric’s family dynamics. An ok read, but I felt like it still left a significant loose end at the end of the story.

[grumpydan · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Cedric O’Toole is a loner and when a young man who claims to be his half-brother shows up at his home, he brings many questions and soon to be many problems. Cedric never knew his father and his half-brother Steve, says his dad left when he was young. So where did this many go and what mystery does is the town hiding.This was my first Cedric O’Toole mystery and my first Rapid Reads book. I like that it was short and easy to read. A perfect read when traveling. That said, I enjoyed the story and the pace of the narrative. The conclusion left me wanting something more. Overall, an enjoyable way to spend an afternoon.

[erinclark_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

For a short little book 'Blood Ties' truly ticks all the boxes. Decent character development, an intriguing mystery and a satisfying ending. Cedric has never known who his father was. His mother became pregnant with him at age sixteen and would never speak of him. When she died she took Cedric's fathers identity with her. Cedric lives a very isolated life and when one day a man named Steve shows up claiming to be his half brother he is alarmed but also intrigued. Together they must solve the mystery of who their father might have been. Highly recommended. Really like these Rapid Reads:)

[claudiaannett · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Cedric O’Toole is a likable character, I just with the story about his search for his father was a little more complicated. The characters should have been more developed to make it more interesting. The answers are obvious from the beginning. Nevertheless it’s a pleasant quick read, and all too likely in this age of half-siblings showing up after DNA tests.

[librarian1204 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is the second Cedric O’Toole Rapid Read mystery that I have read.It is a good story that deals with the appearance of a young man who claims to be Cedric’s half brother. When Cedric investigates he moves into areas of his life that he has avoided for years. This is most definitely an adult book meant for reluctant readers or adults mastering literacy. The books are high interest. I hope the Cedric series continues and explores more of of Cedric’s life.Read as an ARC from LibraryThing.

[draak_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is the fourth book in the Cedric O'Toole series but my first. Cedric (he prefers "Rick") has lived alone since his mother died when he was 17. One day a man shows up tells him his name is Steve and he believes that they are half brothers. So begins their search to find out who their father is.It's a short story but Cedric and Steve are well written. I kind of like Steve better mainly because Rick is kind of a downer. If it is going to take time to do something he would just as soon not do it. My favorite line was said by Steve to Rick "Jesus H., Rick! Grow a pair!" But all in all a very enjoyable read. Even though it is a short story I don't feel like it was rushed. I would recommend this book. I look forward to the next one to see how the relationship between Rick and Steve is going and also to see if maybe there can be a relationship between Rick and his estranged grandfather.I received this from LibraryThing Early Reviewer for an honest review.

[candyh_64 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was the story of half brothers who randomly get together after not knowing each other for at least 30 years. They work to find out information about the father they share and what happened to him. While it’s an interesting story, there’s really not enough action to keep the reader interested. I appreciate LibraryThing allowing me to read this book but I’m not sure recommend it to others.

[sheriawilkinson · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Blood Ties by Barbara FradkinCedric "Rick" O'Toole never knew his Father, his Mother died taking that secret with her. One day Steve shows up claiming to be his brother, stating they have the same Father. Together Rick and Steve are determined to find the truth, but being in a small town makes it hard. Everyone seems to have a secret, including his (Rick's) own family. Will they get the answers they are looking for, and are they really Brothers? Will Cedric find out who his Father is and learn the mystery surrounding him?The story moves at a steady pace, with originality, intrigue, mystery and a slash of suspense. The characters are well developed and likable. Overall I really enjoyed Blood Ties and feel those who like mystery will as well. Definitely a good read!*I received this book from Library Thing

[lynnb_64 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Cedric O'Toole lives alone....and has done so since his mother died when he was 17. In fact, his whole life has been pretty solitary -- he never knew who his father was, and his mother's family disowned her (and Cedric) when she became pregnant with him at 16. And one day, when Cedric is in his mid-thirties, Steve Lilley shows up, claiming his is Cedric's half-brother on his father's side Steve never knew his father, either, but his mother's death-bed message has led him to Cedric's home town. The two work together (sort of) to discover who their father was, and how he died. Obviously, this brings up a lot of secrets those living in the small town of Cedric's birth would rather leave buried. A short book, but well developed characters and an interesting story with good pacing nonetheless. And topical: as more and more people use DNA kits to find relatives, this kind of story can become a reality for many of us.