Dar Gantner wants to make a difference. It is 1968 and Dar
finds himself in Chicago along with Casey, Payton, Teddy,
Rain and Alix who all want to make the world a better
place. Chicago is the place of anti-war demonstrations,
riots, Black Panthers and lots of other groups. The
teenagers all live together, following Dar's example, his
willingness to have a cause and work toward the cause.
However, Dar slowly changes. He falls in love with Alix,
who really isn't political, and as the daughter of a
wealthy businessman, is part of the "establishment" her
friends are so against. As the once-uniform groups slowly
slips apart and Teddy and Payton turn more radical, quiet
Casey, who is in love with Alix, watches Dar and Alix while
Rain watches Casey. All is well until Dar meets Alix's dad,
whose attitude helps reaffirm his beliefs. He goes
underground, not knowing that Alix is pregnant and returns
after she has just given birth to twins, only to set some
events in motion in which Alix dies. Casey decides to raise
Alix's babies and Dar goes to prison.
Forty years later, Dar is out of prison and contacts each
of the friends. By reconnecting, Dar stirs some fear and
one-by-one his friends are killed. When his son Daniel and
Casey are killed, Dar knows he has to protect his daughter,
Lila
Lila knows she unplugged the Christmas tree before she left
the house. Yet, the firemen are quick to blame the tree for
the house fire that killed her father and her brother.
However, soon someone is trying to kill her. She knows she
must find answers and tries to find her mother's family. By
investigating, Lila learns that her father had secrets and
those secrets have dire consequences attached to them.
The late sixties and early seventies were tumultuous times.
There were many anti-war demonstrations going on in cities
across the U.S. and throngs of people who wanted peace.
Libby Fischer Hellmann takes a moment from history
and pulls out a handful of young people who wanted to
change the world and thought they had all the answers. She
fleshes out the characters and throws them into the present
where wisdom that can only come from time shows them there
are consequences for every action. SET THE NIGHT ON FIRE is
both historical and contemporary. It shows the reader those
consequences and the power that love has on a person and
actions that culminate to a dramatic end.
Someone is trying to kill Lila Hilliard. During the
Christmas holidays she returns from running errands to find
her family home in flames, her father and brother trapped
inside. Later, she is attacked by a mysterious man on a
motorcycle. . . and the threats don’t end there.
As Lila desperately tries to piece together who is after her
and why, she uncovers information about her father’s past in
Chicago during the volatile days of the late 1960s . . .
information he never shared with her, but now threatens to
destroy her.
Part thriller, part historical novel, and part love story,
Set the Night on Fire paints an unforgettable portrait of
Chicago during a turbulent time: the riots at the Democratic
Convention . . . the struggle for power between the Black
Panthers and SDS . . . and a group of young idealists who
tried to change the world.