The Printed Page

Title: Easy Innocence (A Georgia Davis mystery, book #1)
Author/website(s): Libby Fischer Hellmann
396 pages
Publisher: Bleak House Books
Publication date: June ’08
Genre: Suspense/murder mystery
Review book or pleasure reading: Pleasure reading
New-to-me author: Yes
Would I recommend this book: Yes
Would I read more from this author: I started the 2nd Georgia Davis mystery, Doubleback, as soon as I finished Easy Innocence
Journal notes: Pleasure reading – no review.

In this fast-paced mystery, the author of the Ellie Forman series introduces suspended cop and now PI Georgia Davis. Georgia is hired to help clear a mentally ill man, Cam Jordan, who is accused of killing a teenage girl, Sara Long, in a local forest preserve. It looks like an open-and-shut case; Cam’s fingerprints are on the murder weapon, and the victim’s blood is on his shirt. However, Georgia and Cam’s lawyer suspect Cam is being railroaded. Through her investigation, Georgia finds Sara was killed at a high-school hazing, and a local teenage prostitution ring is operating on the North Shore, a privileged, upper-class area north of Chicago. Also, there is a shady real-estate deal going on. Even when Georgia finds enough evidence to cast doubt on Cam’s culpability, she continues her investigation, intent on finding out who killed Sara and why. Georgia is a loner with a minimalist lifestyle who is recovering from her breakup with her boyfriend. She is a principled, compassionate character, determined to do the right thing, even if it doesn’t follow conventional assumptions.

Title: Doubleback (A Georgia Davis mystery, book #2)
Author/website(s): Libby Fischer Hellmann
344 pages
Publisher: Bleak House Books
Publication date: October ’09
Genre: Suspense/murder mystery
Review book or pleasure reading: Review book
New-to-me author: No
Would I recommend this book: Yes
Would I read more from this author: I’m eagerly awaiting the next book in this series and I intend to read the 4 books in the Ellie Forman series starting with An Eye for Murder
Journal notes: 12 days and 7 books into the new year and I’ve discovered my 1st new favorite/auto-buy author. . The Georgia Davis mysteries are more complex than initially meets the eye and lead the reader to unexpected places. I was hooked from the first page to the last. More from the author will be making appearances here at The Printed Page throughout the year.

Little Molly Messenger is kidnapped on a sunny June morning. Three days later she’s returned, apparently unharmed. Molly’s mother, Chris, is so grateful to have her daughter back that she’s willing to overlook the odd circumstances.

A few days later, the brakes go out on Chris’s car.

An accident? Maybe. Except that it turns out that Chris, the IT manager at a large Chicago bank, may have misappropriated three million dollars. Not convinced that his daughter is safe, Molly’s father hires PI Georgia Davis to follow the money and investigate Chris’s death.

(Doubleback was provided to me by the Librarything Early Reviewers program. I was not paid and this book is being passed along to the another book blogger through Read It Forward )