A Shot To Die For: "Desperate Housewives" Meets "24" in Filmmaker's 4th Outing
Written by Libby Fischer Hellmann
Narrated by Nan McNamara
3.5/5
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About this audiobook
In the fourth crime thriller of the Ellie Foreman series, the Chicago documentary filmmaker finds herself in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Returning from a video shoot at the Lodge, a newly renovated, upscale resort, Ellie befriends a woman who claims her ride abandoned her at a highway rest stop. But Ellie’s kindness is brutally cut short when a pickup truck pulls up, the rear window opens, and the woman is shot dead. Even with her history of sleuthing, Ellie is not eager to get involved. Then the victims’s family arrives and begs for information. When the second shooting occurs, Ellie decides to poke around on her own. She is soon drawn into the history of a wealthy and prominent family, deeply rooted in a magnificent mansion on the shores of the lake, and surrounded by an elaborate web of lies, murder, and family secrets that have plagued both them and the town for years—secrets that now place Ellie in the crosshairs of a killer.
Libby Fischer Hellmann has already joined an elite club: Chicago mystery writers who not only inhabit the environment but also give it a unique flavor…Chicago Tribune
Hellmann reaches the next level with her latest mystery novel… Chicago-Sun Times
This Libby Fischer Hellmann book is the best one yet… By every possible measure, Hellmann’s status as a storyteller has grown. Plot development is masterful… intriguing, realistic characters… has me itching for the next book. Midwest Book Review
A traditional mystery with a modern edge… the author’s confidence shows from beginning to end… refreshing as soft serve ice cream on a hot summer night. Crimespree Magazine
Libby Fischer Hellmann
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. With the addition of Jump Cut in 2016, her novels include the now five-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 three stand-alone historical thrillers that Libby calls her “Revolution Trilogy.” Last fall The Incidental Spy, a historical novella set during the early years of the Manhattan Project at the U of Chicago was released. Her short stories have been published in a dozen anthologies, the Saturday Evening Post, and Ed Gorman’s “25 Criminally Good Short Stories” collection. In 2005 Libby was the national president of Sisters In Crime, a 3500 member organization dedicated to the advancement of female crime fiction authors. More at http://libbyhellmann.com * She has been a finalist twice for the Anthony, three times for Foreword Magazines Book of the Year, the Agatha, the Shamus, the Daphne and has won the Lovey multiple times.
More audiobooks from Libby Fischer Hellmann
The Revolution Sagas P.O.W.: A Story About World War II At Home Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNice Girl Does Noir: A Collection of Libby Hellmann's Short Stories Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Incidental Spy: A Story About World War Two at Home Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to A Shot To Die For
Titles in the series (6)
An Eye For Murder: An Ellie Foreman Mystery Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Picture of Guilt: An Ellie Foreman Mystery Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5An Image Of Death: An Ellie Foreman Mystery Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Shot To Die For: "Desperate Housewives" Meets "24" in Filmmaker's 4th Outing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jump Cut: An Ellie Foreman Mystery Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Virtually Undetectable: An Ellie Foreman Mystery Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
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Reviews for A Shot To Die For
15 ratings1 review
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ellie Forman stops at a highway rest stop on her way home from shooting a video at Lake Geneva. She chats with a woman who is is in some distress because her ride hasn't picked her up as expected. In moments, the woman is dead, shot by a sniper while Ellie is standing right beside her.
The shooting is nearly identical to another sniper killing at a different rest stop a few months prior. The woman killed was Daria Flynn, a sous chef at The Lodge in Lake Geneva.
Ellie promises her father, her daughter Rachel, her co-worker Mack, and her friend Susan that she is not getting involved.
That lasts until Irene and Kim Flynn, Daria's mother and sister, come to visit to ask her detailed and persistent questions about Daria's last words, and who Daria was talking to on a borrowed cell phone right before her death. After that, she starts getting way too involved with the investigation, and the local gossip and painful history of the Sutton family, one of the wealthiest families in wealthy Lake Geneva.
For those who read the series in the same slightly random order I have been, this is of course where she meets Luke Sutton and Jimmy Saclarides (Lake Geneva Chief of Police), who will figure in later Ellie Forman and Georgia Davis books.
Ellie is digging into what turns out to be a much older and messier mystery than it first appears, and at the same time she's charting unsettled new waters in her home life. Ex-husband Barry has been seeing the same woman for the last six months, an unprecedented record, and Rachel is developing a relationship with Julia and her two young children. There's lots of insecurity and uncomfortable jealousy in that for Ellie.
It's interesting, it moves, and there's good character development. Recommended.
I received this audiobook as a gift from the author.