DOUBLEBACK by Libby Fischer Hellmann & A Very Special Giveaway

Ellie Foreman's friend calls one day with a plea for help. Her neighbor's daughter, Molly, has been kidnapped. This isn't the type of thing Ellie has any experience with or knowledge of, but she has a friend who might just be able to help - PI Georgia Davis. Despite the kidnappers' insistence that no police be involved, Davis says that is the only option for Molly's mother, Christine. When Davis turns the ordeal over to the cops and Molly is amazingly returned unscathed, Davis believes the issue is behind her - close the books on that case. Until a few days later when Christine dies in a suspicious car accident and her ex-husband hires Davis to investigate what really happened to his ex-wife for fear Molly may still be in danger.

Foreman and Davis team up to investigate Christine's "accident" and find themselves investigating something much larger as they follow the trail from Wisconsin to Arizona and into the ugly depths of a government-contracted security company, illegal immigration, and drug smuggling.

Simply put, DOUBLEBACK is a book that moves. No one told Libby Fischer Hellman that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line because Davis' trip to Arizona is brimming with twists and turns. Yet, I'm certain most readers will arrive in record time. As with EASY INNOCENCE, Hellmann's plot is multi-layered and peppered with heavy social issues, which ultimately draw the reader deeper into the plot line.

Hellmann has filled DOUBLEBACK with a series of insightful juxtapositions, the most obvious being the two main characters, Ellie Foreman and Georgia Davis. Davis even notices the oddity of their friendship, one she wouldn't have expected to develop. And in every one of those juxtapositions Hellmann reveals an unstated message essential to the themes of the novel and the development of the characters.

In EASY INNOCENCE and now again in DOUBLEBACK, Davis is affected by the circumstances of a young girl, but in DOUBLEBACK we see the circumstances of a young boy also take their toll on this strong, independent female PI. Again, another example of the juxtapositions used in this case to develop the depth of Davis' character. There is nothing simple about Georgia Davis.

While Georgia Davis may have needed to, Libby Fischer Hellman doesn't need to "doubleback." She's indisputably crossed the line into the realm of great crime fiction writers. There's no going back now.

DOUBLEBACK will be available from Bleak House Books in October as hardcover (ISBN: 978-1606480526) and trade paper (ISBN: 978-1606480533).

In honor of this release, I have 3 limited edition chapbooks of the short story "The Murder of Katie Boyle" written by Libby in honor of the release of DOUBLEBACK and the re-release of AN IMAGE OF DEATH. The limited edition numbers I have to give away are #56 - #58. If you would like to win one of these beauties, e-mail me (forbyone -at- yahoo -dot- com) your snail mail address. Put "Katie Boyle" in the subject line. I wish I could have this open to anyone, but postage confines me to folks with a U.S. snail mail address only. I will take entries through Friday when we talk to Libby in a special interview. Don't delay! Get your entries in today!!

And for your viewing pleasure, here is the trailer for DOUBLEBACK: