Set the Night on Fire [Paperback]

Libby Fischer Hellmann (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2010

Someone is trying to kill Lila Hilliard. During the Christmas holidays she returns from running errands to find her family home in flames, her father and brother trapped inside. Later, she is attacked by a mysterious man on a motorcycle. . . and the threats don't end there. As Lila desperately tries to piece together who is after her and why, she uncovers information about her father's past in Chicago during the volatile days of the late 1960s . . . information he never shared with her, but now threatens to destroy her. Part thriller, part historical novel, and part love story, Set the Night on Fire paints an unforgettable portrait of Chicago during a turbulent time: the riots at the Democratic Convention . . . the struggle for power between the Black Panthers and SDS . . . and a group of young idealists who tried to change the world.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Decades-old student protests come back to haunt young people who shared an apartment in Chicago in the late 1960s. Dar Gantner has just been released from prison after 40 years for participating in the 1970 bombing of a Chicago department store in which three people died—among them his lover, Alix Kerr, daughter of the store owner. Now it seems his four remaining former housemates are in peril. When two of them, including Casey Hilliard, die in staged accidents within weeks, Dar suspects Ted Markham, who took part in the bombing but wasn’t charged and is now a U.S. senator running for the presidency. When atttempts are made on the life of Casey’s daughter and remaining heir, Lila, Dar has a compelling reason to protect her. Long-held secrets are revealed, as characters scramble for their lives. But what seems all too obvious to readers about the source of danger doesn’t occur to the characters until the eleventh hour. Hellmann, author of the Ellie Foreman and Georgia Davis mystery series, provides a colorful view of youthful antiestablishment activity in the 1960s, but her first stand-alone comes up short on suspense. --Michele Leber

Review

"A tremendous book - sweeping but intimate, elegiac but urgent, subtle but intense.  This story really does set the night on fire." --Lee Child

"A brilliantly-paced thriller, transitioning seamlessly from modern-day Chicago to the late '60s. First-rate characterization...Best to start early in the day, as it is easy to stay up all night reading it." --Foreword Magazine

"RT Top Pick for December: "Electric... a marvelous novel."
--RT Book Reviews

"Set the Night on Fire is a compelling story of love, truth and redemption. This will be a break-out novel for this talented writer. Highly recommended." --Sheldon Siegel, NYTImes bestselling author of Perfect Alibi

"A top-rate thriller that taps into the antiwar protests of the 1960s... A jazzy fusion of past and present, Hellman's insightful, politically charged whodunit explores a fascinating period in American history."
--Publishers Weekly

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 364 pages
• Publisher: Allium Press (November 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0984067655
• ISBN-13: 978-0984067657
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,758,301 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Sixties Terrorism November 30, 2010

By Sam Sattler TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Format:Paperback

Seldom has a novel left me with such a set of conflicted impressions as has Libby Fischer Hellmann's first stand-alone novel, Set the Night on Fire. One part of me loves the book as a solidly written thriller, another part cringes at how accurately Hellmann pegged the absurdity of the 1960s revolutionaries, and a final part of me just cannot take the book's two main villains seriously. The first two points are so solidly in Hellmann's favor, however, that I can easily get past my villain problem.

Lila Hilliard is on the run. Her father and brother have just died in a mysterious house fire and now someone is trying to kill her. Her problem is that she has no idea who is chasing her, or why. What she does know is that she is still alive only because her would-be assassin is not very good at his job - so far - and that she seems to have acquired a human guardian angel somewhere along the way. And when that guardian angel steps forward to identify himself, Lila learns things about herself and her father that turn her life upside down.

She learns that her parents, along with a few thousand other college students and college drop-outs, came to Chicago in 1968 to protest the Viet Nam War at the Democratic National Convention being held there. Unfortunately for Lila, her parents became involved with a small group of domestic terrorists willing to use bombs to make their point. Innocent people were killed, arrests were made, and people went to prison - her father, among them. Now someone wants to kill anyone even remotely connected to that group of friends, including, apparently, their children. This is good thriller material and Hellmann develops it well.

More than a third of the book is told in flashback to the years between 1968 and 1970.... This is the portion of the book in which Hellmann develops her characters and introduces political and personal conflicts between them that will have major repercussions in the present. To Hellmann's credit, this is also the portion of Set the Night on Fire that I found most difficult to read. Her portrayal of the radicals is so accurate that it reminded me of everything I hated about the sixties, especially the naďve pretentiousness of empty-headed terrorists willing to bomb private property at the risk of innocent lives in order to make some political point they only half understood. Sadly, just as in real life, some of the people in Hellmann's novel still live in Chicago where they are corrupting yet another generation of young people. That Hellmann could make me feel the same level of contempt for these people that I felt in the sixties and seventies is, indeed, a credit to her writing skills.

Set the Night on Fire is a nice blend of thriller with historical fiction, one that should be of interest to those that have been around long enough to have experienced the sixties for themselves and to those who only remember hearing their parents speak of those days.

Rated at: 4.0 Read more ›

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Peace, Love and Anything But November 18, 2010

By Kathryn Delaney

Format:Kindle Edition

Lila Hilliard went out to get replacement Christmas lights for the Christmas tree. When she returned home she found her father's house ablaze, her father and twin brother dead and her life turned upside down. Why was the mysterious motorcycle rider trying to kill her? And did she have a savior or a second assassin after her?

Libby Fischer Hellmann has done it again. SET THE NIGHT ON FIRE is a compelling story of old friends, old causes, old secrets. Told in two voices, today's and yesterday's, this thriller will keep you turning the page until all is revealed.

One of the most interesting things I found here is Ms Hellmann's writing style changed between the present day story and the back story. At first it bothered me, but the more I thought about it, the more brilliant it became.

If you're under 45 you will enjoy learning about the attitudes of the country in the late 60's. If you're older you will find yourself nostalgic for your younger passions.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting Trip Back to the 60s February 25, 2011

By James A. Anderson

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Wow! What a great read.

Libby Fischer Hellmann's Set the Night on Fire is an interesting thriller and historical look back to the Summer of Rage in 1960s Chicago. Very authentic feel and trip down memory lane to the music of the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, the Doors and the anti-Vietnam war protests. I knew some of these characters in my university days(though none that set off any bombs).

I highly recommend this book to anyone, but it will be especially meaningful to Baby Boomers.

James A Anderson, Author
DEADLINE

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars 2.5 stars December 19, 2011

By book concierge

Format:Hardcover

Lila Hilliard has reluctantly come home for Christmas; her father is recovering from hip surgery and needs her, but she doesn't really get along with her twin brother Danny any longer. A quick errand to get some new lights for the Christmas tree takes longer than she expected, and when she returns the house is in flames. Both her father and brother perish in the inferno. The official verdict is a faulty string of lights, but Lila was certain she had unplugged the tree before leaving the house. A few days later a stranger on a motorcycle shoots at her, missing only because a good Samaritan intervenes. Clearly someone is after her and her family. But why?

Before Lila (or the reader) can get an answer to this present day mystery, we need some back story. And so Hellmann drops the suspense to take us back to 1968-1970 Chicago and a group of college drop-outs who are passionate about challenging the establishment, ending the war in Vietnam, and changing society.

Hellmann is a good writer. The first and third part of this book prove that she can craft a suspenseful plot with sufficient twists and turns to keep the reader's interest (though I had figured out the bad guys much earlier than our heroine and hero, who seemed ridiculously clueless and naďve in their actions). The main problem I had with this book, however, is the long detour back in time that Hellmann took in the Part Two (Chapters 22 through 44) in order to set up the great conspiracy. This took far too long to explain the important connections and motives, and completely disrupted the flow of the central plot.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A compelling thriller, I too remember the summer of '68 in Chicago. March 28, 2011

By M. Ratcheson

Format:Kindle Edition

I'd actually give this book a 4 1/2 if it were possible.

This was a great read. For me, a real page turner. I admit I might be inclined towards it since about a third of the book was dedicated to a fictional group of people who share my biography; in the summer of '68, I was 18 and in Chicago, and I was between my freshman and sophomore years in college, though I didn't drop out of school. And so far as I know, none of my friends pondered violence to make their (our) point. Though we certainly had a point of view.

As much as I enjoyed the historical link, I actually was more interested in the story of the present. Lila, a strong, smart and competent woman, a person of the *next generation, who has suffered the unfathomable loss of her family, realizes someone is out to get her, but hasn't a clue who it might be or why it might be. And it becomes apparent she has some kind of guardian angel....

I'm sure it did help a bit, that the author referenced a number of places I've known. But I honestly think I would have enjoyed it as much had it been set in San Francisco. Or New York. Or Boston, or Philadelphia. But of course, it was the summer of '68, so it wouldn't have been set anywhere other than Chicago.

Truly a well crafted novel, and I enjoyed my weekend of reading. Thank you, Ms. Hellman.