An Eye For Murder

A secret shared during World War II causes deadly consequences in the present for Chicago Video Producer Ellie Foreman and her family. The first novel in crime writer Libby Fischer Hellmann’s popular Ellie Foreman mystery series, An Eye for Murder, introduces the documentary filmmaker, single mom, and amateur sleuth in a tale that opens in Nazi-era Prague and closes on the North Shore suburb of present-day Chicago. When an elderly stranger, Ben Sinclair, watches Ellie’s "Celebrate Chicago" cable television show and dies suddenly not long after, Ellie receives a letter from Ben’s landlady, who’s found Ellie’s name on a scrap of paper among Ben’s possessions. Agreeing to help dispose of his effects, but not knowing of any connection, Ellie begins to piece together Ben’s story from the books and wartime relics he’s left behind. Ellie’s search for clues takes her on a dangerous, winding trail from the political present of the North Shore to buried memories of the city’s ethnic neighborhoods and steel mills, an illicit love affair, Nazi-era intrigue, and more than one murder thrown in. An Eye for Murder (published in 2002) is the first in the four Ellie Foreman mystery thrillers from Libby Fischer Hellmann, and was followed by 5 more mystery novels. Ellie Foreman’s first outing was nominated for an Anthony Award (Best First), one of the mystery community’s most prestigious awards. #5, Jump Cut, received a Starred Review from Publishers Weekly.