Chicago Detective Joe Erickson arrives at an apartment where a young woman, an up-and-coming model, has been found murdered. Discovered at the scene is a box of dead roses, along with a card reading “Sic semper scortilla,” Latin for “thus always to bitches.” A week later, another young woman, also a model, is found murdered in her apartment. A box of dead roses and an identical card are also found at this scene. Who killed these women? And what is the significance of the dead roses and the card? With no clues as to the identity of the perpetrator, Joe and his partner begin an investigation that leads them to disturbing revelations about what motivated the crimes and who was ultimately responsible for their deaths.
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Detective Joe Erickson is called to investigate a burned-out pickup truck containing the charred bodies of two individuals. The truck’s license plate helps identify the victims as a young man and his cousin, who were living in a house owned by the man’s father. But when a suspicious area in the backyard is excavated, and skeletal remains are found, the case grows increasingly complicated. Who would burn the two victims beyond recognition? And could the skeletal remains have anything to do with it?
Winner of a 2024 Literary Titan Gold Book Award
Winner of the 2025 International Impact Book Award for Crime Fiction
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Death hits close to home in One of Ours when Chicago detective Joe Erickson is called to the scene of a fatal shooting. The victim, a police captain Joe knows well, had been working on his own time to solve a cold case before he retired. Determining he was silenced for getting too close to the truth, Joe picks up the trail and finds it teeming with corruption, executions, and a conspiracy involving a powerful city official. Can Joe crack the cold case and solve the murder while avoiding the wrath of the conspirators?
Winner of a 2023 Literary Titan Silver Book Award
Finalist, 2024 Book Excellence Awards
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Chicago detective Joe Erickson returns to the force following medical leave, and right away, a high-profile murder falls in his lap. The body of a graduate student, the son of a prominent Jewish attorney, washes up on the shore of Lake Michigan with a swastika cut into his back. The hate-crime investigation leads Joe and his partner to suspect neo-Nazis, and as he digs deeper into the young man’s death, he uncovers a conspiracy that nearly gets him killed.
Winner of the May 2022 Literary Titan Gold Book Award
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In this prequel to Rose’s Thorn, Detective Joe Erickson discovers a clever and vile serial killer preying on women in Chicago. Only a few cat hairs provide clues to the perpetrator of six mutilation murders. Joe’s razor-sharp intuition and unorthodox methods ultimately lead him on a trail fraught with twists, turns, and close calls. But pushing himself day and night begins taking its toll, and his obsession with apprehending the killer will be his undoing.
Winner of the 2021 Royal Dragonfly Book Award for Mysteries.
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On medical leave from Chicago PD after developing acute stress disorder, Detective Joe Erickson has returned to his hometown in Iowa to settle his father’s estate. But when two teenage girls in neighboring towns get abducted, murdered, and found posed along a riverbank, he takes notice. And when his former lover and criminal profiler is brought in to consult, she talks him into joining the investigation. Known for employing unorthodox methods, Joe throws himself headlong into a case that will test his mental stamina. But when another girl is abducted, his razor-sharp intuition and keen investigative skills kick into high gear as he races against time to find her before she becomes the killer’s third victim.
Winner of a 2021 Independent Press Award for Distinguished Favorite Mystery.
Lynn-Steven Johanson 