10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fearless, October 20, 2009
"Doubleback," the latest from Libby Fischer Hellmann,is my first exposure to her work. Hellmann is the author of a series of suspense novels featuring video producer Ellie Foreman, and "Doubleback" is her second novel to feature Private Investigator Georgia Davis. Fans of the Ellie Foreman series will be pleased to learn that Ellie appears in "Doubleback" and helps PI Georgia Davis run down the bad guys. The relationship between these two very independent women is, in fact, so much fun to watch that I will be looking for Hellmann's earlier books.
It all starts for Georgia when Ellie asks her to speak with the mother of a little girl who, only hours earlier, has been kidnapped. Despite Georgia's advice that the police need to be called in immediately, the little girl's mother, Chris, fears for the safety of her daughter and refuses to make the phone call. Three days later, when the little girl is released unharmed and appears at the front door of her house things begin to get strange.
Just a few days after the safe return of her daughter, the brakes on Chris's car fail and she is involved in what the police, at least for the moment, are calling a traffic accident. Georgia, who at times seems to see herself as some kind of avenging angel, has continued to nose around on her own in hope of catching up with the villains who have so badly traumatized the little girl. Consequently, when the child's father, fearing for the immediate safety of his daughter, agrees to hire Georgia to find those responsible for her kidnapping, she is more than ready to continue her efforts. The pieces finally begin to fall into place for Georgia when she learns that Chris may have embezzled $3 million from her bank employer in a scheme that started not long before her daughter was kidnapped.
Georgia is a fearless and dedicated investigator and, with major assistance from Ellie, she begins to make the wrong people very nervous. Her investigation will carry her from Chicago, where it all started, to Wisconsin, and on to an Arizona border town where the rules of the Old West still seem to be in play while illegal immigrants and drugs cross into the U.S.
By the time "Doubleback" reaches its exciting conclusion, Georgia is already battered, bruised and having to compensate for a broken arm. Considering the hornet's nest she has stirred up, though, she is lucky to be alive. She knows that - but she is going to make someone pay, or she is going to die trying, maybe both.
Georgia Davis and Ellie Foreman make a winning team and readers of "Doubleback" will want to see the two work together again in future books. Author Hellman is in the enviable position of being able to continue with two individual series or to merge the two into a new one. Either way is fine with me because I am now a fan of both ladies.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Doubleback, January 16, 2010
Ellie Foreman, single mother of 18-year-old Rachel and an independent commercial video producer and the protagonist in one of the fine mysteries series by Libby Fischer Hellmann, returns in this novel in which she is reunited with another series protag of this author, Georgia Davis, Chicago p.i. When eight-year-old Molly Messenger is kidnapped, her mother seeks help from her neighbor, who in turn turns to her friend Ellie, who has some experience in these matters, and then to Georgia, an ex-cop. Almost incredibly, the child is released three days later, unharmed [other than being wholly traumatized].
The bizarre set of circumstances raises many questions in the minds of Ellie and Georgia, among them the position of the police department, which has marked the case closed, "no statements, no photos, no comment." The child's mother, Chris Messenger, is the recently promoted director of a local bank. There is friction between her and her ex-husband, each of whom is now involved in new romantic attachments. And when Chris' boss dies days later, in an apparent car accident, things get even murkier.
There are several threads to the plot, all of which are tied up adroitly before the end of the book, and include ethanol production, government contractors, and smuggling [both drugs and humans], and the investigative trail stretches from northern Wisconsin to an Arizona border town, holding the reader's attention all the way. Another enjoyable entry in the dual series.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
6 stars!, April 30, 2011
This novel is great. It bursts out of the gate with an action packed first scene, and the action never lets up. There wasn't a single dry moment in the entire book, and it kept me on edge the whole time. Suspense is built masterfully, and the climax is phenomenal. 6/5 stars!!
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