Libby Fischer Hellmann

A collection of 15 crime fiction short stories in print., some of them award-winners, by author Libby Fischer Hellmann. The collection is divided into two parts: The Ellie Foreman/Georgia Davis stories (5) and Chicago Then and Now; Other Places, Other Times (10)Note: This is the combined print version of Nice Girl Does Noir, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2.

Ellie Foreman is producing a video about foster children that's being financed by a successful Chicago real estate developer. But her plans get thrown for a loop when a mysterious package appears at her door one winter night. Inside she finds a surveillance video showing the murder of a young woman. Who was this woman and what is her connection to Ellie? The cops shunt her aside. But the urgency she feels to find answers, coupled with her professional knowledge of film, compel her to sleuth despite the difficulties borne from a complex history with her lover. A little digging reveals that the murder victim was a courier with a dark history forged in Eastern Europe at the time of the Soviet Union's collapse. And a little more digging reveals dark happenings here at home, money laundering, and the deadly price of dealing in diamonds.... A transplant from Washington, D. C., Libby Hellmann has lived in the Chicago area for thirty years. When not writing fiction, she conducts executive training programs in presentation skills, speech delivery, and media interviews. She also writes video scripts, articles, and speeches. She holds a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and an MFA in Film Production from New York University. After an eight-year stint in television news, including PBS and NBC, she spent eight years at Burson-Marsteller, the large public relations firm. Libby lives on the North Shore of Chicago with her family.

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 strange 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 that 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 award-winning debut in An Eye for Murder. Originally from Washington, DC, Libby Fischer Hellmann has lived in Chicago for 30 years and finds the contrast between the beautiful and the profane in that city a crime writer's paradise. There are four novels in the Ellie Foreman series. www.hellmann.com