The Day Miriam Hirsch Disappeared

The Day Miriam Hirsch Disappeared was the first short story I wrote. My son had been given a book called The Jews of Chicago for a Bar Mitzvah present, and when I thumbed through the photographs, they resonated—especially the ones taken in Lawndale side during the '30s, a prosperous Jewish community on Chicago's near west. Little did I know then that the story I wrote about those photos would become the "prequel" to my Ellie Foreman series. Or that the Ellie Foreman series would be the prequel to the Georgia Davis series. The following story, which won the Bouchercon short story contest in 1999, was first published in the Bouchercon Program book. It was later published in Anthology Today, where it also won a contest, and in the now defunct Futures Magazine.