Libby Fischer Hellmann | |
---|---|
Education | University of Pennsylvania (BA) New York University (MFA) |
Period | 2002–present |
Genre | Mystery fiction |
Website | |
www |
Libby Fischer Hellmann is an American crime fiction writer who currently resides in Chicago, Illinois. Most of her novels and stories are set in Chicago; the Chicago Sun-Times notes that she "grew up in Washington, D.C., but she has embraced her adopted home of Chicago with the passion of a convert." [1]
Raised in Washington D.C., Hellmann attended the National Cathedral School, followed by the University of Pennsylvania. After graduating with a BA in History, she enrolled in New York University's Graduate Program in Film and Television, earning an MFA in 1972.
She worked in television news as an assistant film editor for NBC in New York City, then relocated to D.C. where she joined National Public Affairs Center for Television, the public affairs unit that first paired Robert MacNeil with Jim Lehrer. Among other programs, she worked on the rebroadcast of the Watergate hearings in 1973. Hellmann also spent time at TVN, the news syndication service underwritten by Joseph Coors, and NBC in Washington, DC. In 1978 she joined Burson-Marsteller's Chicago creative department where she worked until 1985. She founded Fischer Hellmann Communications in 1985, which specializes in video production, speech writing, and spokesperson training.
Hellmann's first crime fiction novel, An Eye For Murder, was published in hardcover in 2002 by Poisoned Pen Press and in paperback by Berkley Prime Crime. It was nominated for an Anthony for Best First, and won the Best First Readers Choice Award at Chicago's Love is Murder conference. Its protagonist, video producer and single mother Ellie Foreman, was featured in three additional novels.
Her second crime fiction series, featuring Private Investigator Georgia Davis, debuted in 2008 with Easy Innocence. Davis had been introduced in the 2004 Ellie Foreman novel An Image of Death, and Hellman said she knew immediately that she would want to write a book with Davis as protagonist. [2] Her next book, Doubleback (October 2009, Bleak House Books), features both Davis and Foreman as co-protagonists. ToxiCity, a prequel to the Georgia Davis series, was published in 2011. A fourth thriller, Nobody's Child was released in 2014.
In 2012, Easy Innocence was translated into Spanish and published under the title Inocencia Fácil.
In 2010 she released Set the Night on Fire, published by Allium Press, a stand-alone thriller that goes back, in part, to the late 1960s in Chicago. A second stand-alone, A Bitter Veil, set largely in Revolutionary Iran, was published by Allium Press in 2012. Hellmann published "Havana Lost" in 2013. Although these three books are each stand-alone thrillers, they all deal with revolution and how it affects individuals, communities, cultures, and countries. Hellmann calls the three her "Revolution Trilogy." [3]
Hellmann has published nearly 20 short stories, most of which are available in a collection called Nice Girl Does Noir. In 2013, this collection was translated into Italian and published under the title Ragazza Insospettabile Scrive Noir.
In 2007 Hellmann edited Chicago Blues, a short story anthology featuring over 20 prominent Chicago crime fiction authors including Stuart Kaminsky, Sara Paretsky, Barbara D'Amato, Sean Chercover, Marcus Sakey, J. A. Konrath, Max Allan Collins, and others.
In 2006 Hellmann founded The Outfit Collective, a blog that was shared by eleven Chicago crime fiction authors. According to Blog Rank, it was the #7 mystery novels blog on the Web. [4]
Hellmann has been nominated for several major mystery awards, including the Shamus Award, [5] the Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense, [6] the Anthony Award (twice) [7] and the Agatha. [8] She has won the Readers Choice/Lovey Award multiple times. Three of her novels have also been finalists in the Thriller of the Year/Foreword Reviews Magazine awards. Her short story "Letters from Havana" won Honorable Mention in the Saturday Evening Post Short Story contest for 2014.
The Ellie Foreman Mysteries
The Georgia Davis Mysteries
Stand-alone thrillers
Anthologies/Collections
| Short stories
|
Karin Slaughter is an American crime writer. She has written 24 novels, which have sold more than 40 million copies and have been published in 120 countries. Her first novel, Blindsighted (2001), was published in 27 languages and made the Crime Writers' Association's Dagger Award shortlist for "Best Thriller Debut" of 2001.
Linda O. Johnston is an American author of mystery and romance novels.
Ken Bruen is an Irish writer of hardboiled and noir crime fiction.
Rick Mofina is a bestselling Canadian author of more than 30 crime fiction and thriller novels, with some 2 million copies of his books sold worldwide in nearly 30 countries. This includes an illegal Iranian translation of his first thriller, If Angels Fall. He grew up in Belleville, Ontario and began writing short stories in grade school. He sold his first short story at the age of fifteen. He sold subsequent short stories while in high school to various magazines. After finishing high school he worked for a few years in factories.
Kelli Stanley is an American author of mystery-thrillers. The majority of her published fiction is written in the genres of historical crime fiction and noir. Her best known work, the Miranda Corbie series, is set in San Francisco, her adoptive hometown.
Tosca Lee is an American author known for her historical novels and thrillers.
Dave Zeltserman is an American novelist, born in Boston, Massachusetts on 23 May 1959. He has published noir, mystery, thriller, and horror novels, including Small Crimes (2008) and Pariah (2009). He won both the Shamus and Derringer awards for his novelette Julius Katz in 2010. He also writes Morris Brick serial killer thrillers under the pseudonym Jacob Stone. His novel Small Crimes was made into a Netflix Original film of the same title starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.
Mystery Scene is an American magazine, first published in 1985, that covers the crime and mystery genre with a mix of articles, profiles, criticism, and extensive reviews of books, films, TV, short stories, audiobooks, and reference works.
Michelle Gagnon is an American crime fiction novelist. Her bestselling thrillers have been published in more than a dozen countries worldwide. She has dual citizenship in the US and Ireland, and currently lives in San Francisco. Her second novel, Boneyard, was nominated for the Daphne du Maurier award for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense Along with Tamim Ansary, Khaled Hosseini, and Kemble Scott, she is part of the San Francisco Writers Workshop . Her Young Adult Persef0ne trilogy received starred reviews from Kirkus, VOYA, and School Library Journal, and was an IndieNext pick for Autumn 2012. It was also selected by the esteemed Junior Library Guild, and by the Texas State Library Association for their recommended reading list for teens.
Jessie Chandler is an American author of mystery and humorous caper fiction, most of which is about lesbian protagonists. Her work includes the Shay O'Hanlon Caper Series, many short stories, and other novels. Chandler has presented talks about the craft of writing, serves as a mentor to many up-and-coming writers, and is a contributing member of The Golden Crown Literary Society, Sisters in Crime, and serves on the board of Mystery Writers of America.
Steven James is an American author who has written more than forty books, including the critically acclaimed Bowers Files, an eleven-book series of psychological thrillers that consists of Opening Moves, Every Crooked Path, Every Deadly Kiss, Every Wicked Man, The Pawn, The Rook, The Knight, The Bishop, The Queen, The King, and Checkmate. The series has received four Christy Awards and numerous other honors.
Jane K. Cleland is a contemporary American author of mystery fiction. She is the author of the Josie Prescott Antiques Mysteries, a traditional mystery series set in New Hampshire and featuring antiques appraiser Josie Prescott, as well as books and articles about the craft of writing. Cleland has been nominated for and has won numerous awards for her writing.
Brad Parks is an American author of mystery novels and thrillers. He is the winner of the 2010 and 2014 Shamus Award, the 2010 Nero Award and the 2013 and 2014 Lefty Award. He is the only author to have won all three of those awards. He writes both standalone domestic suspense novels and a series featuring investigative reporter Carter Ross, who covers crime for a fictional newspaper The Newark Eagle-Examiner, based in Newark, New Jersey. His novels are known for mixing humor with the gritty realism of their urban setting. Library Journal has called him "a gifted storyteller ."
Rebecca Zanetti is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of paranormal romance, contemporary romance, and romantic suspense.
Jeremy Bates is a Canadian/Australian author. He writes suspense and horror fiction, which typically explores the darker side of human nature. His work is rich in atmosphere and sensory details. The novels in his "World's Scariest Places" series are all set in real locations, such as Aokigahara in Japan, The Catacombs in Paris, Helltown in Ohio, and Island of the Dolls in Mexico. They have been translated into several languages including Russian, Czech, and German among others.
Jessica James is an American author of suspense, historical fiction, and military fiction ranging from the Revolutionary War to modern day.
Margot Douaihy is an American writer whose works include Scorched Grace, Scranton Lace, Girls Like You, a Lambda Literary Award Finalist, Bandit / Queen: The Runaway Story of Belle Starr, and the chapbook i would ruby if i could. The sequel to Scorched Grace, titled Blessed Water, published with Gillian Flynn Books in March 2024.
Paul D. Marks was an American novelist and short story writer. His novel White Heat, a mystery-thriller set during the Rodney King riots of 1992, won the first Shamus Award for Independent Private Eye Novel from the Private Eye Writers of America.
Shawn Andre Cosby is an American author of "Southern noir" crime fiction. He resides in Gloucester, Virginia, on the York River. Cosby has published four crime novels: My Darkest Prayer, Blacktop Wasteland, Razorblade Tears, and All the Sinners Bleed.
Lynn Ames is an American writer whose works feature female protagonists, past and present. She has authored sixteen novels spanning a variety of genres, including historical fiction, thrillers, and LGBTQ+ romance, and a biography of softball player and bowler Dot Wilkinson. Ames has collected six Goldie Awards from the Golden Crown Literary Society (GCLS) and was keynote speaker at the 2023 GCLS annual conference. Her contemporary romance novel, All That Lies Within, won the GCLS Ann Bannon Popular Choice Award in 2013 and was a Lambda Literary Award finalist for Lesbian Romance.