Book Review: An Eye for Murder

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

An Eye for Murder     Amazon US PB Amazon US TPB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada TPB Amazon Canada HC
Libby Fischer Hellmann
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Woman Main Character   Amateur Sleuth
Series: Ellie Foreman # 1
Poisoned Pen, Nov 2002, $24.95, 316 pp.

Film and TV producer Ellie Foreman lives in a suburb of Chicago. She has gained local fame for her "Celebrate Chicago" televised show. When senior citizen Ben Sinclair dies of an apparent heart attack, his landlady Ruth goes through his things and comes across Ellie’s name. The landlady gets in touch with Ellie whose curiosity takes her to Ruth’s house to see if she ever met the deceased.

She comes away with his zippo lighter and the positive feeling that knowledg she never met the man. When she shows the lighter to her father he recognizes it as belonging to a man he once knew as Ben Skulnick, who fought in the Resistance, but later was sent to prison for murder. Very shortly after that Ben’s landlady dies supposedly of natural causes. A string of murders and attempted murder follow with every victim connected to Ben Sinclair leading Ellie to wander if his death was really natural causes. As she connects the dots to the puzzle, she puts her own life in danger.

Libby Fischer Hellmann’s debut novel is a very entertaining cerebral thriller. The story line is plausible as the characters and their motives are considerably realistic while the link between Nazi war crimes and a present day politician running for office seems plausible too. AN EYE FOR MURDER will not be this author’s sole published mystery as fans will encourage Ms. Hellmann to publish more tales starring a delightful TV producer turn amateur sleuth.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner