Libby Fischer Hellmann is one of the more popular of the current school of Chicago crime writers, both for her books and for her appearances. Her books... who else could start a story with the 12-year-old daughter of her protagonist asking, “Mom, have you ever had oral sex?” and get away with it, carry off that mini-scene with panache? And with smart writing like Hellmann’s, is it any wonder that her first book, in which that scene opens chapter 1, got the attention of the judges for the Anthony awards?
Read on. Here’s your chance to get acquainted with Libby Fischer Hellmann.
Chicago mystery writer’s sixth book out this fall
“It’s going to be Double Cross,” Libby Fischer Hellmann says of the title of her sixth book which Bleak House Books brings out in October. “I think that will be the title, but we’re still playing with it.”
The novel is a sequel to Hellmann’s Easy Innocence which Bleak House published last year.
Hellmann’s private investigator, Georgia Davis, returns in the new book. “But I’m also bringing in Ellie Foreman, who was the protagonist in my first four books.”
The two characters know one another. They were in Hellmann’s third book, An Image of Death. Ellie was the lead character; Georgia takes the greater prominence in the new book. “She does the heavy lifting,” Hellmann says.
Heavy lifting?
“You get to a point with amateur sleuths—Ellie is a documentary filmmaker—where it’s hard to establish a credible reason for that amateur sleuth to be involved in a murder investigation,” says Hellmann, “and I hit the wall with my fourth Ellie Foreman book. I needed a better solution to the kinds of stories I wanted to write. Georgia Davis is the solution.”
The book pitch for Double Cross: A little girl is kidnapped on Chicago’s North Shore. She’s returned unharmed, but later her mother is killed. The girl’s father—the former husband of the dead woman—hires Davis to investigate.
The investigation takes Georgia from Chicago to Lake Petenwell in central Wisconsin—the second largest lake in the state—and Lake Geneva in southern Wisconsin, and eventually to the fictional town of Stevens, Arizona.
Here’s Hellmann’s book history:
She hit in 2002 with An Eye For Murder. Poisoned Pen Press brought out the hardback, Berkley Prime Crime the paperback. The book was nominated for an Anthony Award for best first novel.
The same publishers brought out A Picture of Guilt in 2003, An Image Of Death (2004), and A Shot To Die For (2005).
Hellmann, as a novelist, then disappeared from bookstore shelves for three years. She did publish a half-dozen short stories in 2006-2007 and edited Chicago Blues, an anthology of Chicago crime short stories that came out in 2007. Hellmann reappeared as a novelist last year with her fifth book, Easy Innocence, and she came back into the bookstores on the arm of a new publisher—Bleak House.
The move to Bleak House, she says, was easy. “I worked with them on Chicago Blues, and we decided we wanted each other.”
Conversations with Bleak House publisher Ben LeRoy about an anthology started at Love Is Murder, a mystery writers conference held in Chicago. “Ben wanted to call it Hard-Boiled Chicago. I suggested Chicago Blues.” Since LeRoy wanted Hellmann to edit the collection, she won.
“From start to finish, it was probably the best publishing experience I’ve had in my entire life,” Hellmann says. “I loved the editing. I loved Ben and Alison [Alison Janssen, Bleak House editor]. I loved the cover. I loved the reviews. It was one of those golden experiences that reminds us this is what it’s supposed to be like.”
That anthology featured stories by 21 top authors who write about Chicago crime.
Hellmann has taken her turn in the leadership of crime writers organizations. She’s been president of the Midwest chapter of the Mystery Writers of America (2004-2005). That office put her on the MWA’s national board of directors. At close to the same time, she also served as national president of Sisters in Crime.
To find out more about Hellmann and her books—even read some chapters—go to libbyhellmann.com.
© Jerry Peterson.
