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About five years ago a hazing incident took place about half a mile from my home (on the North Shore of Chicago). It made the national news – no one was killed, but nearly a dozen girls ended up in the ER, and the aftermath was pretty ugly.

As a writer, I started to play the “what-if” game, wondering what would happen if one of those girls had been murdered and why. At the same time, I started hearing about “suburban prostitution”, a twist on the oldest profession, in which young girls from middle class families, usually in affluent areas, consciously choose to prostitute themselves in order to afford the designer clothes, toys, and gadgets that will buy their admission into the “popular crowd.” I decided to blend both of those issues into Easy Innocence. 

The irony that young girls would choose to become hookers in order to get acceptance from their peers is what’s frightening about Easy Innocence. It raises important questions: What values are we teaching our daughters? Who do we want them to be? When does the pursuit of popularity or acceptance cross the line? Have we let the desire for affluence blind us?  Because of those questions, Easy Innocence has indeed triggered a lot of response. It’s been chosen by a number of book clubs, particularly in suburban areas, because of the issues it raises.

I can’t say it was harder to write than the others; in some ways it was easier, because I know this community… I know teenage girls… and I remember what it was like to be in high school myself. For me the challenge in writing Easy Innocence was to create frightening but believable characters like Lauren Walcher and her mother. I’m thrilled they are resonating with readers.


CJ: Any adventures in research you’d like to share?  Any interesting tidbits you picked up that you’ve made use of in real life?

LH: Tidbits? How about volumes? I do enormous amounts of research for every novel, and for me it’s the best part of the whole gig. I realize it’s probably the legacy of having been in journalism, but I love the idea of continually learning. I could spend hours – and I do – getting lost in the minutiae of the Soviet Union’s collapse … what it was like to be a Playboy bunny … or what Lawndale meant to Chicago’s Jewish community during the War. 

For one book I learned the basics of steganography (hiding bits of code and messages in computer files); for another I’m studying the Iranian revolution. That’s in addition to police procedure, guns and other weapons, forensics, and keeping up with the latest in video production and PI techniques. 

What’s surprised me is how often I’m able to advance plot because of the research,, particularly in An Image of Death and Double Cross. Doing the research presents all sorts of possibilities that I wouldn’t have otherwise considered. I advocate it heartily.


CJ: You blog with other Chicago based authors.  Tell us about The Outfit.  How has your blog helped you to reach readers?  Any fun controversies you’ve stirred up?


LH: When we started The Outfit almost three years ago, I had no idea it would last as long as it has. With the same bloggers – which has to be a record of some kind. The original idea was to reach the crime fiction community, but since we’re all from Chicago, we also wanted to touch the Chicago writing and crime community. Which I think we’re doing.

As a matter of fact, the Outfit has broken some news. Kevin Guilfoile, who blogged about the murder of Chicago dermatologist David Cornbleet, published the first photo of his alleged killer, Hans Peterson. As a result our blog for a time became the forum for intense discussions of the crime between Peterson’s father and members of Cornbleet’s family.

Over the years we’ve been asked to participate in some of the Chicago Public Library’s programs, including their One Book, One Chicago program that featured Raymond Chandler’s The Long Goodbye. And perhaps the best news is that we’ve been selected to be “reprinted” on the Chicago Tribune’s “Best of Chicago Blogs” website. 

CJ: What’s next for you?

LH: Double Cross, my 6th novel, will be out in October, 2009, from Bleak House Books. It pairs both my protagonists, Ellie Foreman and Georgia Davis. They first met in An Image of Death, but weren’t really working together. Now they are. A young girl on the North Shore is kidnapped but returned unharmed. A few days later her mother is killed. At Ellie’s recommendation, the father of the girl hires Georgia to investigate. The story – a thriller— takes Georgia from Chicago to Wisconsin and eventually to the fictional town of Stevens, Arizona.


CJ: Where can readers find out more about you and your work?

LH: My website is www.libbyhellmann.com.
I blog at the Outfit:  www.theoutfitcollective.com
Bleak House is www.bleakhousebooks.com

You can also find me on Twitter at @libbyfh.


About CJ:
As a pediatric ER doctor, CJ Lyons has lived the life she writes about in her cutting edge suspense novels.  Her debut, LIfelines (Berkley, March 2008), became a National Bestseller and Publishers Weekly proclaimed it a “breathtakingly fast-paced medical thriller.”  The second in the series, Warning Signs, was released January, 2009.  Contact her at http://www.cjlyons.net