In 1938 sixteen year old Jake Foreman spends his free time with his friend Barney Teitleman in Lawndale, a prosperous Jewish community on Chicago’s near west side. Jake develops a crush on Miriam Hirsch, an actress in the Yiddish theater who lives at the Teitleman’s boarding house, but Miriam only has eyes for Skull, who might or might not be a gangster. THE DAY MIRIAM HIRSCH DISAPPEARED was the first short story I wrote. Little did I know then that the story would become the “prequel” to my Ellie Foreman series. Or that the Ellie Foreman series would be the prequel to the Georgia Davis series. The story, which won the Bouchercon short story contest in 1999, was first published in the Bouchercon Program book. It was later published in ANTHOLOGY TODAY, where it also won a contest, and in the now defunct FUTURES MAGAZINE.

"Libby Fischer Hellmann has written a wonderful thriller. Triggered by a seemingly trivial exchange of intelligence in Prague near the end of World War II, the story quickly moves to contemporary Chicago, where the already harried life of Ellie Foreman is turned upside down by the death of an elderly man she can't recall ever even meeting. An Eye For Murder is a clever mystery puzzle within a beautifully wrought novel." -Jeremiah Healy author of the John Francis Cuddy mysteries "A masterful blend of politics, history, and suspense, this novel is well worth reading." -Publishers Weekly "Complicated, fascinating. Hellmann has a beautifully tuned ear, which makes many of her scenes seriously funny. Her film-editor instincts tell her when to let a scene run on and when to cut away." -Dick Adler, Chicago Tribune Libby Hellmann holds a MFA in film production from New York University, and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania. She lives and writes in the Chicago area. http: //hellmann.com/mystery-author

The big news story in Chicago is the murder trial of Johnny Santoro, a dock worker whose girlfriend has been killed. Most Chicagoans are betting on a quick guilty verdict, but Ellie Foreman has doubts about his complicity—Santoro is strangely familiar to her. Checking back to the outtakes of a video project in progress while the murder took place, Ellie finds evidence that could save Santoro from a lifetime behind bars. It seems the perfect alibi, but the tape is compromised by radio interference and Santoro goes to jail. Almost immediately, Ellie's world begins to shift: a suspicious vehicle follows her, the Chicago mob shows up, and the FBI wants to question her. She doesn't have answers, but she has questions of her own about the radio transmissions. Everything indicates someone wants something from her, something bigger than the Santoro case. If only she could figure out what it is.... 'A Picture of Guilt' follows Ellie's debut in 'An Eye for Murder.'

Single mom and filmmaker Ellie foreman receives a mysterious video of a young woman's gruesome murder. When she investigates, Ellie is horrified that this reel murder is, in fact, real.

In this fourth title in the Ellie Foreman mystery series, A Shot to Die For, the Chicago documentary filmmaker finds herself in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, producing a video for a popular resort. She is soon drawn into the history of a wealthy and prominent family deeply rooted in its magnificent mansion on the shores of the lake. Ellie, a divorced single mom, finds the issues of trust and loyalties reflect the turmoil of her own life, and soon is wading waist-deep into murder.... Evocative and intelligently crafted, this is a fine addition to an Anthony Award-nominated series that began with An Eye for Murder, A Picture of Guilt, and An Image of Death.

Chicago video producer Ellie Foreman has been absent from thriller author Libby Fischer Hellmann s repertoire for almost a decade. Now, in Jump Cut, she s back...and is soon to find herself entangled in a web of espionage, murder, and suspicion that threatens to destroy what she holds most dear. Hired to produce a candy-floss profile of Chicago-based aviation giant Delcroft, Ellie is dismayed when company VP Charlotte Hollander trashes the production and cancels the project. Ellie believes Hollander was spooked by shots of a specific man in the video footage. But when Ellie arranges to meet the man to find out why, he is killed by a subway train before they can talk. In the confusion, she finds a seemingly abandoned pack of cigarettes with a flash drive inside that belonged to the now-dead man. Ellie gets the drive s contents decrypted, but before long discovers she s under surveillance. Suspecting Delcroft and the ambitious Hollander are behind it, she s unconvinced when Hollander tells her the dead man was a Chinese spy. Ellie and her boyfriend, Luke, try to find answers, but they don t realize how far they have ventured into the dangerous echelons of hidden power. When Ellie s daughter is kidnapped and Charlotte Hollander disappears, it becomes terrifyingly clear that Ellie is in way over her head, and more lives are on the line including her own."

My novel, DOUBLEBACK,(October 2009) features both Ellie Foreman and Georgia Davis as co-protagonists, and I’m often asked how they (fictionally) met. Georgia made an appearance in A PICTURE OF GUILT, and then more substantively in AN IMAGE OF DEATH, but they already had a passing acquaintance. How they met is explained in this short story, written and published in 2009. However it takes place prior to AN EYE FOR MURDER when Georgia was still a cop. The story was published in a limited numbered edition. It can also be found in NICE GIRL DOES NOIR, in print and audio as well as electronic formats.