We are delighted to welcome back author Libby Fischer Hellmann to Omnimystery News today.
Libby has a new collection of stories out, War, Spies and Bobby Sox (The Red Herrings Press; February 2017 trade paperback, audiobook and ebook formats), and we are thrilled that she has agreed to share an excerpt from one of them with us, The Incidental Spy.
— ♦ —
Chicago, December, 1942
LENA WAS SURE THEY WERE GOING to kill her when she climbed into the car. There were two of them this afternoon; usually it was only Hans. The second man sat in the back. He wasn’t holding a knife or gun or even piano wire, but there was something chilling about him. He was a beefy, muscled bull of a man, and his presence made her colder than the December day. He refused to smile, and he wouldn’t acknowledge her, as if there was a limited allocation of words and gestures, and any extra would tip the scales into chaos. And Hans, who usually liked to chat, stared straight ahead, pretending to ignore her. She felt like a ghost who’d somehow slipped into the passenger seat.
Her thoughts turned to escape. She could pull the car door handle and throw herself out onto the road. She checked the speedometer. They were cruising south on Lake Shore Drive at about thirty miles per hour. She would surely perish if she did. She might be able to slide over to Hans and stomp her foot on the brake before he could stop her. But the road was icy, and the car would skid. What if it plowed into another car? She squeezed her eyes shut. She thought about smashing the window and screaming for help, but the glass of the Ford was thick, and even if she could shatter it, what would she say? Who would believe her?
She bit her lip and tried to think. Maybe she was imagining it. Maybe it was just the stress of the past six months. Or perhaps it was her time of the month. Hadn’t Karl always teased her about that? Karl. She blinked rapidly, trying to hold back the tears that still threatened at the thought of him.
It had been a routine day of typing and filing, much like all the others. She’d had lunch with Sonia, who’d poured her heart out about her husband, who’d been drafted and had fought in the Battle of Midway last summer. Walking back from the cafeteria, Lena spotted the signal, a small American flag stuck in the snow-covered urn beside the Fifty-Seventh Street florist’s shop. That meant she was to meet Hans as soon as possible.
She considered ignoring it. Just not showing up. But Max was at home with Mrs. McNulty, their upstairs neighbor and babysitter. She would give him supper and make sure he went to sleep if Lena had to “work late,” as she explained whenever there was a meet. She couldn’t risk not meeting him. What if they retaliated against Max?
She leaned back against the seat of the Ford and swallowed. She should have run the moment she spotted the flag, scooped up Max, and boarded the first train out of Chicago. Now it was too late. She was a fool.
The Ford slowed and turned into one of the beaches off South Lake Shore Drive. Then it slowed even more. The man in the seat behind her leaned forward. She knew what was coming. She braced herself and whispered the Sh’ma.
Excerpted from War, Spies and Bobby Sox
Copyright © 2017 by Libby Fischer Hellmann.
Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.
— ♦ —
Photo provided courtesy of
Libby Fischer Hellmann;
Photo credit Michael Candee,
First Light Creative
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. Twelve 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 and crime writing community* and has even won a few. In 2005 Libby was the national president of Sisters In Crime, a 3500 member organization dedicated to the advancement of female crime fiction authors. She also hosts a monthly radio show called “Second Sunday Crime” on the Authors on the Air internet network. She has been a finalist twice for the Anthony, three times for Foreword Magazine’s Book of the Year, the Agatha, the Shamus, the Daphne, and has won the Lovey multiple times.
For more information about the author, please visit her website at LibbyHellmann.com and her author page on Goodreads, or find her on Facebook and Twitter.
— ♦ —
War, Spies and Bobby Sox by Libby Fischer Hellmann
Stories About World War II At Home
Publisher: The Red Herrings Press
As World War II rages across Europe and the Pacific, its impact ripples through communities in the heartland of America.
A farm girl is locked in a dangerous love triangle with two German soldiers held in an Illinois POW camp …
Another German, a war refugee, is forced to risk her life spying on the developing Manhattan Project in Chicago …
And espionage surrounds the disappearance of an actress from the thriving Jewish community of Chicago's Lawndale.
In this trio of tales, acclaimed thriller author Libby Fischer Hellmann beautifully depicts the tumultuous effect of war on the home front and illustrates how the action, terror, and tragedy of World War II was not confined to the front lines.
— War, Spies and Bobby Sox by Libby Fischer Hellmann
