I received this book for free from the publisher. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Jump Cut by Libby Fischer HellmannNarrator: Nan McNamara
Series: Ellie Foreman #5
Published by Poisoned Pen Press on March 1, 2016
Genres: Fiction / Mystery & Detective / Women Sleuths
Length: 8 hours 8 minutes
Format: ARC, Audiobook
Source: Library, Publisher
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Chicago video producer Ellie Foreman has been absent from thriller author Libby Fischer Hellmann’s repertoire for almost a decade. Now, in Jump Cut, she’s back...and is soon to find herself entangled in a web of espionage, murder, and suspicion that threatens to destroy what she holds most dear. Hired to produce a candy-floss profile of Chicago-based aviation giant Delcroft, Ellie is dismayed when company VP Charlotte Hollander trashes the production and cancels the project. Ellie believes Hollander was spooked by shots of a specific man in the video footage. But when Ellie arranges to meet the man to find out why, he is killed by a subway train before they can talk. In the confusion, she finds a seemingly abandoned pack of cigarettes with a flash drive inside that belonged to the now-dead man. Ellie gets the drive’s contents decrypted, but before long discovers she’s under surveillance. Suspecting Delcroft and the ambitious Hollander are behind it, she’s unconvinced when Hollander tells her the dead man was a Chinese spy. Ellie and her boyfriend, Luke, try to find answers, but they don’t realize how far they have ventured into the dangerous echelons of hidden power. When Ellie’s daughter is kidnapped and Charlotte Hollander disappears, it becomes terrifyingly clear that Ellie is in way over her head, and more lives are on the line—including her own.
I thought that this book was really good! I have had this book on my tbr list forever so when I saw that it was available at my local library, I moved it to the top of the pile. I was hooked by the story from the start and it held my interest until the very end. This is the fifth book in the Ellie Forman series but I read it as a stand-alone which worked perfectly fine. Of course, I do want to go back and read all of the earlier books from the series now that I have read this book.
I liked Ellie from the start. I don’t know that I would have dug into things quite as she did but I sure enjoyed watching her try to figure out exactly what was going on. Ellie is hired to produce a video for an aviation company. She thinks that the project is going well so she is caught off guard when one of the company’s vice presidents gets it canceled. Ellie is suspicious and wants to know why there is a sudden change in attitude so sets up a meeting with a man that she thinks might know more but when he is killed on the way to their meeting, she realizes that things may be more involved than she first thought.
This book was exciting. I had fun watching Ellie fit all of the pieces of the puzzle together as she worked to solve this mystery. Things did get pretty dangerous a few times during the story and I worried about the safety of Ellie and the people close to her. Ellie has a great support system and seems to be able to connect with the right people to solve the case. The mystery was quite complex and kept me guessing until the end.
Nan McNamara did a great job with the narration of this book. I believe that this is the first time that I have had the chance to listen to this narrator and I was very impressed. I thought that her voice was perfect for this story and I loved the way that she brought Ellie to life. I thought that she added a lot of excitement to the story through her reading.
I would recommend this book to others. I thought that this was a very well-done mystery with characters that I enjoyed. I am looking forward to reading the earlier books in this series just as soon as I get the chance.
I received a digital review copy of this book from Poison Pen Press via NetGalley and borrowed a copy of the audiobook from my local library.
This looks good. I will be curious to see your thoughts on the rest of the series.
I really enjoyed it, Kimberly!