Jack Erickson Books In Order

Publication Order of Milan DIGOS / Milan Thriller Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Jack Erickson is an author of mystery novels best known for books like The Stalker and short stories like Perfect Crime.

+Biography

Jack Erickson started reading at a very early age; though, it probably wasn’t until he was ten years old that Erickson really narrowed his interest down to mystery. This was around the time that the author read ‘Secret of the Old Clock’. That was his first Hardy Boys book, and it took quite some work for him to acquire it.

Erickson had to do all manner of small jobs, from mowing lawns to running errands before he was finally able to afford the book. For such a voracious reader, the novel was barely able to satiate Erickson’s desires.

Luckily for Erickson, he didn’t have to sink another few weeks of his life into doing odd jobs to buy another book in the mystery genre. His parents were already subscribed to a wide variety of magazines and newspapers, from ‘The Saturday Morning Post’ to ‘Argosy’, ‘Life’ and ‘Photoplay’ to mention but a few.

While Erickson endeavored to skim these resources, consuming every tidbit of curious information he could find, it was the short stories by the likes of Ernest Hemingway, Jon Steinbeck and Stanley Gardener that drew his attention.

Once he discovered the Andrew Carnegie Memorial Library not far from home, Jack Erickson’s life was all but complete, the burgeoning author using every free moment to devour the exciting contents of the library’s shelves.

It is probably because Jack Erickson loved reading so much that, unlike so many of his classmates, he actually liked going to school. Reading and writing came very easy to him. Erickson never took his liberal arts education for granted, using the opportunity to sample everything from history to science, literature, and languages.

For someone who tried his hand as so many varying topics and subjects, it came as no surprise when Erickson went on to pursue such varied careers, at one point working as a Russian specialist in the U.S Government.

Erickson has also worked as a publisher (with Red Brick Press), a speechwriter in the U.S Senate and a legal aid. The author spent some time in finances. It took Erickson a long time to make the decision to retire.

He decided to dedicate his time and efforts to writing, this along with traveling. The author primarily writes mysteries, though he has also produced romantic suspense. For Erickson, the attraction of the mystery genre isn’t the gore or the violence or even the elements of mystery but, rather, the effort injected into exploring the human psyche.

Erickson likes knowing how crimes are committed and why they were committed; he believes that most crime is a rational response to something else. It has always given him great pleasure to read authors that explore that aspect of human life.

One of Erickson’s earliest inspirations was the Travis Magee series; it was from those books that Erickson learned to deliver vivid descriptions.

+Perfect Crime

A wife commits the perfect crime. Her philandering husband has wronged her one too many times, so she kills him while being in two places at the same time. With her past behind her, the San Francisco Widow begins her exciting new life with a sexy new boyfriend, her murdered husband’s life insurance policy meeting her every need.

All seems well until her doorbell rings one night.

The biggest complaint you will hear about this book is the fact that it should have been longer. As far as short stories go, it could have benefited from a few more pages; though, that doesn’t mean it was terrible by any means.

In fact, most people agree that it is a pretty acceptable short story. The story is told from a first person perspective and Jack Erickson does a decent job of putting readers inside the mind of the murdering wife.

However, it is fairly obvious that you are dealing with a male author trying to tell his story from the view of a woman. The murderous wife’s personality didn’t quite ring true at times, not only in the way she acted but her dialogue.

Jack Erickson should be commended for the set up of the book, which is pretty decent. Readers are clearly made to understand the motive of the murderous wife’s actions. The perfect crime was a little clunky, though.

The climax didn’t quite pay off. Erickson still did a great job of packing a suspense thriller into so few pages, but he could have done so much more.

+ Thirteen Days in Milan

Sylvia de Matteo is taken hostage during a politically-motivated assassination at Milan’s train station. Not long after, the American Commerical Photographer’s fiancé and ten-year-old daughter depart the station on a Paris-bound train without her.

After blindfolding, beating and imprisoning her, the terrorists who seized Sylvia at gunpoint learn that her father is a wealthy banker, so they demand a ransom for her release.

This book spends a lot of time simply building the characters, and that is problematic because a lot of people tend to drop books that start so slowly. Luckily for Jack Erickson, he manages to kick things into gear just in time, delivering one of those novels that are really difficult to put down.

You just want to find out what happens next; the first novel in a series, Erickson was inspired to write this story while he was in Milan.

He was busy snapping pictures while his wife, luggage, and passport were on the train, all ready to go. Erickson wondered what would happen if the train sped away without him. From that premise, he developed this story.

Sylvia’s situation is frightening and you cannot help but empathize with her plight as she strikes a relationship with one of her captors in hopes of finding salvation at the end of it all.

The character undergoes a number of transformations, especially when she is confronted with the harsh truths of the world that her privilege and wealth always obscured from her view. The conclusion of the story is unpredictable and it rewards readers for their patient endurance, though some readers have been known to question the rationale of Sylvia’s actions and emotions near the end.