by Libby
Fischer Hellmann
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GENRE: Mystery
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BLURB:
Hired to produce a candyfloss profile of Chicago-based aviation giant,
Delcroft, Ellie is dismayed when company VP Charlotte Hollander, the architect
of a new anti-drone system for Delcroft, trashes the production and cancels the
project. Ellie believes Hollander was spooked by shots of a specific man in the
video footage. But when Ellie arranges to meet the man to find out why, he’s
killed by a subway train.In the confusion, she finds a seemingly abandoned pack
of cigarettes with a flash drive inside that belonged to the now dead man.
Ellie has the drive’s contents decrypted, but before long she discovers she’s
under surveillance and thrown into the middle of a situation filled with
drones, hacking, and Chinese spies that put her life and those she loves in
mortal danger.
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Excerpt
The sun winked off the frozen surface of Lake
Michigan the next morning as I drove south to McCormick Place. During one of
the most brutal Chicago winters in decades, the smudge of purple clouds tinged
with pink and gold hinted that the fury of winter might—just might—have peaked.
I parked in the overpriced lot, bought half a dozen cups of overpriced coffee,
and carried them into the massive exhibit hall.
The crew was setting up lights and shades, and Mac
was behind the camera framing shots. MacArthur J. Kendall III owns a production
studio in Northbrook. He started out shooting sweet sixteens, bar mitzvahs, and
weddings, but parlayed that into corporate videos. We’ve worked together for
nearly twenty years, from the days of two-inch video, to one-inch,
three-quarter, and now digital.
Mac’s name, salt-and-pepper hair, button-down
shirts, and penny loafers scream WASP, but the nasty scar running down his left
cheek saves him from total Episcopalian infamy. He tells people he was attacked
by a Mexican drug lord and made me swear never to reveal it was from a car
accident.
I went up to him. “What do you need me to do?”
“You have the shot list?”
I nodded and pulled it out of the canvas bag that
doubles as my purse. We went over it. He gestured to the main area of the
Delcroft booth, which featured a large projection screen with the company logo
on both sides, and about twenty chairs arranged theater-style.
“What time’s the first presentation?”
Teresa Basso Gold, our client contact, had told us
to be prepared for a series of short remarks by Delcroft executives touting the
company’s latest innovations.
I checked my watch. Barely six thirty. “The doors
don’t open until nine, and Teresa said not to expect anyone until ten. But you
can get some establishing shots, if you want.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Mac said and strolled over to
confer with the crew.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR Bio and
Links:
Libby
Fischer Hellmann left a career in broadcast news in Washington, DC and moved to
Chicago 35 years ago, where she, naturally, began to write gritty crime
fiction. Twelve novels and twenty short stories later, she claims they’ll take
her out of the Windy City feet first. She has been nominated for many awards in
the mystery and crime writing community and has even won a few. *
With
the addition of Jump Cut in 2016, her novels include the now five-volume Ellie
Foreman series, which she describes as a cross between “Desperate Housewives”
and “24;” the hard-boiled 4-volume Georgia Davis PI series, and three
stand-alone historical thrillers that Libby calls her “Revolution Trilogy.” Her
latest release, The Incidental Spy, is a historical novella set during the
early years of the Manhattan Project at the U of Chicago. Her short stories
have been published in a dozen anthologies, the Saturday Evening Post, and Ed
Gorman’s “25 Criminally Good Short Stories” collection.
*
She has been a finalist twice for the Anthony, twice for Foreword Magazines
Book of the Year, the Agatha, the Shamus, the Daphne and has won the Lovey
multiple times.
Author
of Compulsively Readable Thrillers
Facebook:
facebook.com:authorlibbyfischerhellmann
Google+:
google.com:+libbyhellmann
BUY
LINK:
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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION: Libby will be awarding a $50 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour
a Rafflecopter giveaway
