According to the Chicago Tribune, "Libby Fischer Hellmann has joined an elite club: Chicago mystery writers who not only inhabit the environment but also give it a unique flavor." While the Trib was referring to Libby's award-winning amateur sleuth series featuring Chicago video producer Ellie Foreman, her fifth novel, Easy Innocence, promises to do the same.

Easy Innocence is a dark, disturbing tale about high school girls and what they are doing when they're not adequately supervised. It came out of Libby's experience with her own daughter, and what she imagined as "every mother's nightmare." Featuring newly-minted PI Georgia Davis, Easy Innocence is spin-off from her Ellie Foreman series. (Georgia was a character in An Image Of Death.)

That series made its debut in 2002 with An Eye For Murder. In an unusual partnership, Eye was simultaneously published by Poisoned Pen Press (hard cover) and Berkley Prime Crime (mass market). Publishers Weekly called Eye a "masterful blend of politics, history, and suspense." Kirkus Reviews called Ellie "the true stuff of working-mom sleuths." The book was nominated for an Anthony Award for Best First and also won the Readers' Choice award for Best First at the Love is Murder conference.

The second Ellie Foreman novel, A Picture Of Guilt, was released July, 2003, also in dual publication. It won the Reader's Choice award for Best Traditional Series at the 2004 Love is Murder conference, and was a finalist in the Benjamin Franklin Awards (mystery-suspense category) given by Publishers Marketing Association for excellence in independent publishing. An Image Of Death, the third book in the series was released in February, 2004, also in dual publication. Publishers Weekly calls it "a powerful tale," and the Chicago Sun-Times "recommends it highly, even if you don't live in Illinois." Her fourth novel, A Shot To Die For, was released in September, 2005, again in both hard cover and mass market. The Chicago Sun Times raved about it, saying "Hellmann reaches next level with latest mystery novel." It won the 2005 Readers Choice Award at the Love is Murder conference.

Libby has published over 12 short stories, and edited the acclaimed crime fiction anthology, Chicago Blues, which was released in October, 2007 by Bleak House Books.

A transplant from Washington, D.C., Libby has lived in the Chicago area 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. Sadly, her Beagle, shamelessly named Shiloh, recently passed on.

Libby is represented by the Ann Rittenberg Literary Agency.

Listen to Libby's Bleak House Books podcast

Read a Q&A with Libby about Easy Innocence

Listen to the Always Write Podcast featuring Libby being interviewed by Rochelle Melander (23 minutes).
Listen to an audio interview of Libby conducted by Zoë Sharp (16 minutes).

All content © Libby Fischer Hellmann.