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," was published in 2016. Book 3, "Vesuvius Nights," was published in 2019.
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.

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 pries open the container, reads the letters and is emotionally moved. He 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 to learn who wrote he letters. His real estate agent tells him that a WW II war hero bought the house before the war, later married, and his young 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 researching -- a special talent of his -- and learns the startling truth.

But what should he do with the information, go public, or let it remain a secret that will never be told?