Eric Rickstad Books In Order

Publication Order of Canaan Crime Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Eric Rickstad is a bestselling American author that writes crime thrillers. Best known for ‘The Silent Girls’, Eric has been commended for producing stories that are literary even while slotting perfectly into the thriller genre.

+Biography

Eric Rickstad went hunting for deer one weekend. When he got back and was asked if he got anything, he told everyone he shot a skier. Eric was joking. His friends, who know him rather well, knew he was joking.

But the people at the table close by didn’t know Eric, so they promptly informed the police who looked into the matter and then encouraged Eric to avoid that sort of talk, if only for the sake of those people that did not know his particular sense of humor.

But that was always Eric Rickstad. He loves to tell stories. The habit struck him when he was still a child. Back then, he was obsessed with the likes of Roald Dahl and Stephen King.

He couldn’t believe that stories like ‘Nightshift’ could evoke so many emotions in him. And that pushed him to start dreaming about a future where he would also tell such stories and evoke emotions in as powerful a manner.

Interestingly enough, most reviewers agree that Eric Rickstad’s most powerful gift is his ability to generate sad and tragic emotions in his readers. He seems to have cracked the literary code of making people feel sorrowful and terrified all through the use of words. So clearly the author achieved his dream.

As an aspiring author, Eric was initially content to simply think and tell stories. It was in the cafeteria of his high school that the author began talking about shooting skiers during his deer hunting trip.

The story quickly took on a life of its own and it wasn’t long before Eric’s mom was answering questions from the police about his son’s unique brand of humor. Sufficing to say, the event gave Eric a new appreciation for the power of words.

The author never stopped telling stories. But from that point onward, he started writing them down rather than blurting them out to people. He never got into trouble after that, though his stories and poems often left his teacher bemused.

Eric Rickstad believes he was fortunate to be born in his time. There are stories Eric wrote as a child at school that would have seen him sent to a therapist in later years because of how demented they were.

Eric believes that having his mom called to his school to discuss his mental state, the result of a poem he wrote about family members that kill each other while on holiday would have stunted his imagination.

Eric is glad he was permitted to experiment with the darker aspects of his conscious. The author went on to attend the University of Vermont, Majoring in English. He also got a Masters from UVA.

As an adult and a professional, Eric Rickstad started out writing short stories and poems. Novels were hardly a thought in the author’s brain. But because he loved writing and he always found the time to write every single day, regardless of the schedule at hand, it became the norm for Eric to churn out short stories.

Eric’s entry into the publishing arena wasn’t intentional, at least not during those early stages. Eric set out to write a short story. He wrote 45 pages of it and then realized that he hadn’t even begun to scratch the surface of the plot or the characters.

He knew the story would have to run a little longer than he was used to. But it wasn’t until he delivered a few dozen additional pages that he realized he had the potential for a novel on his hands.

It was from that experience that ‘REAP’, Eric Rickstad’s first novel was born. With one novel done, Eric knew he would want to write another one pretty soon, so he started doing research, dipping his toes into new literary waters until he stumbled upon a couple of ideas he thought worth exploring.

Eric is driven to write by outrage. He sees political or social injustice and he feels compelled to tackle them in a story. Eric is especially enraged by stories of criminals that keep committing violent crimes like rape and assault against women because the justice system repeatedly sentences them to prison only to release them on technicalities.

Eric doesn’t believe his stories would be so moving and harrowing if they didn’t come from a place of anger and outrage at the political and social injustice he observes in the world.

‘The Silent Girls’, Eric’s most popular novel, is part of the Canaan crimes series, which is also the author’s most popular collection of books.

+Lie in Wait

The small town of Canaan, Vermont is besieged by a high-profile legal case that shakes its residents to the core, eliciting fear, prejudice and even violence.

Detective Sonja Test is called in to solve the case of a teenage girl whose babysitting duties ended in her brutal murder. The fact that the girl was babysitting for the lead attorney in the high-profile case sets off all the alarm bells for Sonja.

Sonja has two kids of her own, so the teenage girl’s death strikes a chord in her. In her determination to find the girl’s murderer, Sonja’s investigation brings many of Canaan’s dirty little secrets to the surface.

+The Silent Girls

Frank Rath was a decent detective. But he couldn’t afford to do the job anymore. So he turned in his badge and decided to pour all his energies into singlehandedly raising his daughter.

As a private investigator, Rath has seen a few disturbing things in his time. But he isn’t prepared for what assaults him when a beautiful teenage girl disappears from a car that the police find abandoned on the side of the road.

Rath’s rural community of Canaan is no longer safe. Young women are starting to disappear and it is up to Frank Rath to put the machinations of the perpetrator to a stop.

The Silent Girls tells the story of Frank Rath, a former police detective who turned in his badge when his sister was murdered. In ‘The Silent Girls’, Frank finds those old would ripping open as a special missing person’s case is brought to his attention.