The Incidental Spy

Young Lena Bentheim is forced to flee Nazi Germany for Chicago in 1935, leaving her family and boyfriend behind. After learning English, she eventually finds a new life as a secretary in the Physics Department of the University of Chicago. She meets and marries another German refugee scientist and has a child. Then tragedy strikes, and Lena is forced to spy on the nuclear fission experiments at the U of Chicago. A novella set in the early years of the Manhattan Project, The Incidental Spy is another fascinating historical thriller by Libby Fischer Hellmann, also the author of the highly acclaimed stand-alone thrillers Set the Night on Fire, A Bitter Veil, and Havana Lost.

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. Eleven 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 writing community and has even won a few. Her novels include the 4 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 several stand-alone novels that Libby calls her “revolution trilogy:” SET THE NIGHT ON FIRE, A BITTER VEIL, and HAVANA LOST. Her short stories have been published in a dozen anthologies, the Saturday Evening Post, and Ed Gorman’s “25 Criminally Good Short Stories” collection.

Awards and Nominations For Books by Libby Fischer Hellmann

An Eye For Murder

Anthony nomination, Best First

Winner, Best First, Readers Choice Awards (Love is Murder conference)

A Picture of Guilt

Finalist, Ben Franklin Award, Mystery/suspense

Winner, Best Traditional Mystery, Readers Choice Awards (Love is Murder conference)

A Shot to Die For

Winner, Best Traditional Mystery, Readers Choice Awards (Love is Murder conference)

House Rules (Short story in Murder in Vegas anthology)

Agatha nominee

Anthony nominee

Chicago Blues Anthology (Editor)

Stuart Kaminsky story nominated for an Edgar

Deb Brod story winner of Readers Choice Award (Love is Murder conference)

Easy Innocence

Winner, Best PI/Police Procedural, Readers Choice Award (Love is Murder conference)

Doubleback

Chosen as the “Great Lakes Great Read,” Autumn 2009 by Great Lakes Bookseller Association

Set the Night on Fire

Finalist in Foreword Magazine’s Best Suspense Novel of the year, 2010

Toxicity

Winner, Best Suspense Novel 2011 (Love is Murder conference)

A Bitter Veil

Finalist, 2012 Book of the Year, Chicago Writers Association

Winner, Best Suspense Novel 2012 (Love is Murder conference)

Havana Lost

Foreword Magazine Finalist for Best Thriller of the Year — 2013

“Notable Page-Turner,” Shelf Unbound Magazine Fiction Competition — 2014

Honorable Mention, 2014 Book of the Year, Chicago Writers Association

For Reviews, kindly refer to the Book Pages of my website, http://libbyhellmann.com

Ebook Release: Simultaneous with Print Release (End of June, 2015)

Audio Release: Summer 2016

Online marketing and promotion in planning stages but will include blog tour, advertising, and interviews