The Fall Guy

Handyman Cedric O'Toole likes his simple life. He lives by himself on a hardscrabble farm, collecting sheds full of junk and dreaming of his next invention. Then one day a slick city lawyer drives down his lane and his nightmare begins. Lori-Anne Wilkins, the wife of a wealthy local businessman, has fallen to her death from a deck Cedric built, and the furious widower has slapped him with a lawsuit. When Cedric goes to check out the accident site, he discovers that someone has tampered with the railing around the deck. It appears he's been set up to take the blame. But who might want Mrs. Wilkins dead? Then, when someone runs him off the road, he realizes that his life is in danger too. To clear his name and save his life, Cedric has to use his inventive mind to trap the real killer.

Review"Fradkin does a nice job in combining the elements of a good murder mystery with the telling of the story through Rick's character...Constant tension between the narrator and the world around him is one of the novel's greatest strengths...Though The Fall Guy is an easy read targeted at adult readers, it could work in a grade 11 or 12 literature class, particularly the workplace stream. The novel deals with the themes of stereotypes and class-bias that could prove useful for discussion. It also deals with how different people with different intellectual capacities use language to construct meaning, which would also prove useful for discussion. Recommended." (CM Magazine 2011-03-04)

From the Back CoverIf necessity is the mother of invention, fear might be its father. Handyman Cedric O'Toole likes his simple life. He lives by himself on a hardscrabble farm, collecting sheds full of junk and dreaming of his next invention. But all that changes when he discovers the lawsuit he's been slapped with for faulty workmanship might turn into a manslaughter charge.