An Image of Death: An Ellie Foreman Mystery

by Libby Fischer Hellmann

Book Overview

A surveillance tape showing the murder of a young woman is left on Chicago TV documentary producer, Ellie Foreman's doorstep. When she hands the video to police, they're not interested in who the woman was. Except Officer Georgia Davis, who joins Ellie to solve the crime. A little digging reveals that the murder victim was a diamond courier with a dark history forged in Eastern Europe after the collapse of the USSR. And a little more digging leads...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1590581016
• ISBN13: 9781590581018
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
• Length: 285 Pages
• Weight: 1.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.8" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Will keep you turning the pages!

The lives of two young women from different worlds collide in this fast-paced murder mystery. Fans of Leslie Glass, Lisa Scottoline and J. A. Jance will be thrilled to discover the author Libby Fischer Hellmann and her crime series featuring Ellie Foreman. Ellie is an endearing and precocious young video producer who manages to fight crime, raise a teenager, care for a father and have a relationship with the man she loves. She describes David as too old for "boyfriend," but too young for "companion." He is too conservative for "lover" and not PC enough for "significant other." And, she dreams of producing the next award-winning video documentary. Feeling cozy and safe, Ellie works at home in her small neighborhood north of Chicago. Stolen bikes and drunk driving are the high-profile crimes here. Her teenage daughter answers the door as Ellie is cooking dinner, and returns with a package containing a videotape. The tape is blank and Ellie lets it run as she idly stares at the snowy screen, and thinks it is a prank. Her mind wanders--until after a long lead in, it abruptly changes into a surveillance view of a young woman dressed in jeans and a t-shirt huddled in a small room. Her face looks bruised and her shoulders sag. Suddenly two men in ski masks rush through a door. The woman staggers up to greet them. As a puff of smoke explodes beside her the woman crumples to the floor and something dark begins to creep across her chest. Ellie is stunned. Her intuition tells her that she has just witnessed a murder. Furthermore she feels responsible for solving the crime since the tape was delivered to her doorstep. Arin's tragic story is revealed in surreal flashbacks. The reader is propelled along with Ellie Foreman as she is innocently entangled in this same dangerous world of murder and corruption. We learn she is from the Republic of Georgia whose husband was in the military before he was killed. What is Arin doing near Chicago? How did her life spiral into crime and prostitution? Armchair Interviews says: A mystery that will keep you at the edge of your seat.

Rich, complex mystery

I've read all of Ms. Hellmann's work, and all have been wonderful. This may be her best work yet. The writing is polished, the prose of the back story especially evocative, the tale itself both sad and satisfying. Ellie continues to be a protagonist of real dimensions beset by very real personal problems. Although Chicago is always a marvelous character in Hellmann's work, here the story encompasses a much broader, more ambitious landscape in both time and geography, and the author does a superlative job of making it all vivid. I recommend this book highly.

Thrilling and Engaging

Libby Fisher Hellmann has a remarkable ability to tell the tale of ordinary people who rise to the challenge of extraordinary circumstances. AN IMAGE OF DEATH is a well told thriller.The characters are clearly drawn. Ellie Foreman, must once again investigates a mystery, and what a mystery! It originates in Russia when a woman must overcome poverty, death, and betrayal to rebuild her life in a new country. That is just the beginning, and Ms. Hellmann takes us on a fascinating journey.

entertaining amateur sleuth inside a survivor thriller

When the Soviet Union collapsed, honorable soldiers turned to stealing just to feed their families. When one of these veterans dies, his wife finds out his best friend betrayed him and she doesn't want anything to do with him even though his wife is her best friend. Over time, she learns about the diamond trade and earns enough money to support her family. She takes a vacation to the Grand Cayman Islands where she once again sees and rejects the man most responsible for her husband's death. She goes to the United States where her best friend is working as a prostitute in Chicago.Ellie Foreman, maker of industrial videos receives one in the mail that shows a woman waiting in a room and two naked men who come in and kill her. Ellie investigates the woman's death which leads to her being in a deserted construction site waiting to die at hands of people who believe she knows too much.The link between the Russian woman and the videotape is the beginning of a story of greed, corruption and money laundering by prominent citizens (Russians and others). Libby Fisher Hellmann is a fabulous raconteur who writes about people in dire circumstances doing the best they can to survive. AN IMAGE OF DEATH is an entertaining amateur sleuth novel inside a survivor thriller.Harriet Klausner