Barbara Fradkin, née Currie, is a Canadian mystery writer, and a two-time winner of the Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence, (formerly known as the Arthur Ellis Awards) for Best Novel.
Fradkin was born in Montreal and obtained her B.A. at McGill University and M.A. at the University of Toronto, before moving to Ottawa to work and raise a family. A few years later she obtained her PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Ottawa, and has recently scaled back her full-time practice as a child psychologist in order to devote more time to her writing.
She is an active member of Canada's writing community, she is the past president of Crime Writers of Canada as well as contributes to Sisters in Crime and Capital Crime Writers, an Ottawa mystery writers' group.
Her own experience as a graduate student as well as that of her daughter, supplied the backdrop and detail for Do or Die. Her late husband's experiences in war crimes prosecutions gave her the impetus and background for Once Upon a Time, while Mist Walker and Fifth Son draw on her own experiences as a psychologist.
Fradkin is perhaps best known for her Inspector Green series, a police procedural series set in Ottawa. The main character is "the impetuous, exasperating Ottawa Police Inspector Michael Green, whose passion for justice and love of the hunt often conflicts with family, friends and police protocol."