Crime fiction author Libby
Fischer Hellmann claims she’s “writing her way around the genre.” With nine
novels and twenty short stories published, she has written thrillers, suspense
mysteries, historicals, PI novels, amateur sleuth, police procedurals, and even
a cozy. At the core of all her stories, however, is a crime or the possibility
of one -- the more political, the better.
She is a transplant from
Washington, D.C., where, she says, “When you’re sitting around the dinner table
gossiping about the neighbors, you’re talking politics.” Armed with a Masters
Degree in Film Production from New York University, and a BA in history from
the University of Pennsylvania, she started her career in broadcast news. She began as an assistant film editor at NBC News
in New York, but moved back to DC where she worked with Robin McNeil and Jim
Lehrer at N-PACT, the public affairs production arm of PBS. When Watergate
broke, she was re-trained as an assistant director and helped produce PBS’s
night-time broadcasts of the hearings.
In 1978, Hellmann moved to
Chicago to work at Burson-Marsteller, the large public relations firm, staying
until 1985 when she founded Fischer Hellmann Communications. Currently, when not writing, she conducts speaker training
programs in platform speaking, presentation skills, media training, and crisis
communications. Additionally, Libby also writes and produces videos.
Her first novel, AN EYE FOR MURDER, which
features Ellie Foreman, a video producer and single mother, was released in
2002. Publishers Weekly called it
a “masterful blend of politics, history, and suspense,” and it was nominated
for several awards. That was followed by three more entries in the Ellie
Foreman series, which Libby describes as a cross between “Desperate Housewives”
and “24.”
A few years later, Libby introduced her second
series featuring hard-boiled Chicago PI Georgia Davis, which Chicago Tribune describes as, “a new no-nonsense
detective …. tough and smart enough to give even the legendary V.I. Warshawski
a run for her money.” There are
three books in that series so far: EASY INNOCENCE (2008) and DOUBLEBACK (2009), which was
selected as a Great Lakes Booksellers’ Association “2009 Great Read,” and TOXICITY
(2011), a police procedural ebook thriller that became the prequel to
the Georgia Davis series.
Her 7th novel, SET
THE NIGHT ON FIRE, (December, 2010) was a standalone thriller that goes
back, in part, to the late Sixties in Chicago. Publishers Weekly
describes it as “top-rate” and says, “A
jazzy fusion of past and present, Hellman's insightful, politically charged
whodunit explores a fascinating period in American history.” It was
short-listed for ForeWord Magazine’s Book of 2010 in the suspense/thriller
category.
Her most recent novel, A
BITTER VEIL, xxx
Libby has also edited a highly
acclaimed crime fiction anthology, CHICAGO BLUES (October, 2007). In
May, 2010, she published a collection
of her own short stories called NICE GIRL DOES NOIR. In 2005-2006
she was the National President of Sisters in Crime, a 3,400 plus member
organization committed to strengthening the voice of female mystery writers.
Libby blogs at “SAY THE WORD
And You’ll Be Free,” http://libbyhellmann.com/wp, and also at “The Outfit Collective” at www.theoutfitcollective.com.
