Doubleback

August 17, 2009
Anthony-finalist Hellmann's taut second novel of suspense to feature Chicago PI Georgia Davis (after Easy Innocence
) teams Davis with video producer Ellie Foreman, the heroine of the author's other series (A Shot to Die for
, etc.). When eight-year-old Molly Messenger is apparently kidnapped, a family friend turns to Ellie for help. Feeling out of her depth, Ellie asks Georgia to get involved, only to have the girl reappear unharmed just days later. After Molly's bank manager mother, Christine, dies in a suspicious car accident, Georgia gets on a trail that leads from Wisconsin to Arizona. Meanwhile, Ellie stumbles onto a paramilitary training camp connected to Christine's bank. Hellmann skillfully juggles disparate threads of bank fraud, extortion, drugs and illegal immigration. While some may find the use of dual narrators confusing, it works with Ellie's cooler-head yin balancing out Georgia's take-no-prisoners yang.