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.

As 8-year-old Molly is kidnapped, narrator Katherine Taylor captures the tension with perfection. Then she deftly portrays Molly's mother's puzzled relief at the unexpected return of her daughter, traumatized but unharmed. But it's relief that private eye Georgia Davis finds suspicious. Video producer Ellie Foreman joins Georgia on an investigation that takes them from Chicago to a dangerous Arizona border town that plays by rules of the Old West. Taylor keeps to a relaxed tone as she portrays the relationship between the two women--especially their humorous dialogue. And her ability to project suspense adds to the story as they uncover bank fraud, murder, drug runners, illegal immigrants, and a security contractor with important government ties. G.D.W. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine