Bio
Jack Erickson writes in multiple genres: international thrillers, mysteries, true crime, short mysteries, and romantic suspense.He is currently writing a series of international thrillers based in Milan featuring the anti-terrorism police, DIGOS, at Milan's Questura (police headquarters). Book I in the series is "Thirteen Days in Milan." The sequel, "No One Sleeps," will be published in December 2016. Book III, "Cadorna Station," will be published in March 2017.
Erickson's models for his thrillers are based on three popular Italian mystery series: Donna Leon's Commissario Brunetti in Venice, Andrea Camilleri's Inspector Salvo Montalbano in Sicily, and Michael Dibdin's Aurelio Zen in Rome. All three have been produced as TV series at either BBC, PBS, RAI, or Deutsche Welle
Erickson travels throughout Italy for research and sampling Italian contemporary life and culture. In earlier careers, he was a U.S. Senate speechwriter, Washington-based editor, and RedBrick Press publisher. He wrote and published several books on emerging craft brewing industry including the award winning "Star Spangled Beer: A Guide to America's New Microbreweries and Brewpubs."
Before he began writing fiction, he was a wealth manager for a national brokerage in Silicon Valley.
Genres
Free Book Giveaways
Teammates
Short Story.
Former high school football teammates, Eddie Sauer and a bully nicknamed "Bluto," meet at a wedding ten years after Bluto's violent tackle on a football field crippled Eddie during practice.
Eddie is a bartender at the splashy wedding reception for Bluto and his young - and pregnant - bride. He learns from a wedding guest that Bluto divorced his former wife to marry his pregnant girlfriend and has been hired by the bride's father. The father is also paying Bluto's alimony and expensive child support so he can have a grandchild. Messy, messy, typical of Bluto.
Eddie hasn't forgotten the day Bluto's brutal tackle ruined his promising tennis career.
After heavy drinking and a bit of drug taking at the head table, revenge becomes a deadly wedding present.
Missing Persons
Short story.
A widowed college professor retires, moves to a California coastal town, and buys a home. Digging in his garden one morning, he uncovers old love letters buried in a metal container.
He reads the letters and becomes intrigued by what appeared to be a clandestine love affair between a married woman and a man she had known before she married.
He makes inquiries about the former residents of his home to learn who wrote the letters. His learns that a WW II war hero bought the house before the war, later married, and his wife moved in with him.
But the war hero's wife disappeared in a storm. Her body was never found. Was she one of the letter writers? Who was her lover?
The professor begins researchin
Mornings Without Zoe
Zoe abandons her husband during a romantic Valentine’s weekend in Monterey. She boards a bus late at night to southern California.
This is not the first time Zoe has run away from a husband - or lover. She has a compulsion that drives her to flee men who love her. When she arrives in a new city, she adopts a new identity.
Zoe starts a new life in Hollywood's fast lane with new lovers and a career in the movie industry. But a crisis shatters her; she's determined to resolve a childhood trauma. She flees again, trying to resolve her compulsion.
What makes Zoe run?
The Stalker
Short story.
A schoolboy is bullied by a classmate to follow a beautiful young woman when she gets off a bus after work. He follows her, and becomes intrigued by her private life.
Years later, he meets her in a professional setting and learns intimate details of her life.
His fantasies become an obsession, he begins stalking her, watching her with lovers, imaging what it would be like if he could become one. She invites him to her home for a business meeting not knowing how this feeds his fantasies.
One weekend when he knows she is away with a boyfriend, he crosses over the line . . .
Perfect Crime
A San Francisco wife plots to murder her philandering husband by being in two places at one time.
She commits the Perfect Crime -- and starts an exciting life with a sexy new boyfriend, living off her dead husband's generous life insurance policy.
Until her doorbell rings one night . . . .
A Streak Across the Sky
Dane and BJ witness a double meteor streak across the sky the night they begin a summer love affair at a beach resort.
Both are at crossroads in their lives. Long walks on the beach, swimming and sailing every day, intimate dinners on the deck at BJ's beach house brings them close. They agree to meet the next summer at BJ's beach house with one condition; no contact over the winter. One harbors a secret that could destroy the relationship.
They renew their affair the next summer and vow to meet the third summer and never part. But the condition remains; no contact over the winter. The third summer arrives . . . .
Weekend Guest
Short story.
Sheila and Ryan were lovers until she disappeared on day, leaving a cryptic note.
Months later, Sheila shows up at Ryan's apartment, dazzles him with grandiose tales of her new life.
But something isn't right, Sheila's stories change, she acts bizarrely, and gets suspicious phone calls.
After a tender night of passion, Sheila departs with no explanation.
The next morning, Ryan reads a front page story in the Sunday newspaper that reveals Sheila's secret.
