An extortion letter arrives at Crystal Waters, one of Chicago's wealthiest gated communities. It makes no specific threats, gives no instructions, demands only that $50,000 be gotten ready---chump change for an enclave where the cheapest house is worth three million. It's easy to see it as harmless---a note from a nut. Then a mansion explodes. The homeowners panic, and want it hushed up. If word gets out that a bomber is targeting Crystal Waters, their multimillion-dollar homes will become worthless, a last catastrophe for people strung out from living the good life too well. They hire Dek Elstrom to investigate. Dek Elstrom used to soar high, too, when he lived with his multimillionaire wife at Crystal Waters, but that was before the dominos of his life tipped over and his ex-wife threw him out. Now reduced to living in a crumbling stone turret, bankrupt of everything but attitude, he's not even his own ideal choice for the job. He's too broke, however, to question the motives of a gift-horse client. He needs the money---and the chance to reconnect with his ex-wife. Another bomb goes off, and Dek realizes the culprit must be someone who is angry, needs money, and used to live at Crystal Waters. Then he realizes something else. He himself is the prime suspect. A sly and clever caper among the richest of the rich, A Safe Place for Dying is for fans of Carl Hiaasen and Robert Crais.

A Safe Place for Dying (Dek Elstrom Mysteries)

Literature & Fiction

Fredrickson, Jack

Contemporary

Minotaur Books

A Safe Place for Dying, the first in Jack Fredrickson’s highly acclaimed Dek Elstrom mystery series, was nominated for the Shamus Award for Best First Novel. Now, Chicago P.I. Dek Elstrom is back in an electrifying new mystery. A lawyer calls Dek with a fast, seven-hundred dollar proposition. A dead client named Dek to execute her will. No matter that Dek didn’t know the woman. No matter, too, that the woman’s estate was only worth a few hundred. Happens all the time, the lawyer said. To Dek Elstrom, broke and huddling in a cold stone turret in the middle of February, the sound of seven hundred falling down his chimney is louder than his voice of reason. He agrees, heads up to a hamlet ten miles north of nowhere. But instead of finding an easy-to-close estate, he finds blood and the markers of a shattered life. And something worse: links to the darkest part of his own past. He races to chase down leads to the killer, and his own ghost…before the dead woman is killed again.

Honestly Dearest, You're Dead

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Mystery

Minotaur

"Jack Fredrickson is one hell of a writer. This is a book that satisfies on every level."--William Kent Krueger
 Sweetie Fairbairn, the doyenne of Chicago society, is known for big-hearted philanthropy and magnificent soirees in her penthouse high atop one of the city's premier boutique hotels. Dek Elstrom is hired by a mysterious man in a long limousine to investigate the death of a clown. Was it suicide―or murder? What is the connection between the dead clown and Sweetie?

Hunting Sweetie Rose: A Mystery (Dek Elstrom Mysteries)

"Everything I want in a mystery." ―Nancy Pearl, National Public Radio on A Safe Place for Dying, A Pearl Pick 
"Jack Fredrickson is one hell of a writer. He has an ear for dead-on dialogue, and an unerring eye for compelling pace. In Dek Elstrom, he's created an investigator with a seductive one-two punch―a delectably smart mouth and a delightfully nimble brain. Believe me, no matter how hard your heart, there's going to be a soft spot in it for Hunting Sweetie Rose. This is a book that satisfies on every level from an author you can trust to deliver." ―William Kent Krueger 
Dek Elstrom is back. Bad things are surfacing in Rivertown, in a huge hole in a block of bungalows; in the river, where the dam trapped what should never have been in the water. And from the past, where secrets long buried have risen again, to kill. Then comes a phone call from a dead man, and the sudden disappearance of almost everyone Dek ever held close. A trail leads north, to the end of Michigan, past the chop of the angry waters beyond, to an ice swept island most everyone wants to forget. But there are no answers there, just more questions, and another dead man pointing straight back to Rivertown, to the hole, and the dam, and secrets that want to keep killing in The Dead Caller from Chicago.

The Dead Caller from Chicago: A Mystery (Dek Elstrom Mysteries)

Mystery paperback by Jack Fredrickson.

Hunting Sweetie Rose

Worldwide Library Worldwide Mystery

Mystery paperback by Jack fredrickson.

Honestly Dear, You're Dead

Kill Her Twice (A Dek Elstrom Mystery, 8)

Review\nThe writing here is splendid, echoing genre veteran Loren D. Estleman, and Dek Elstrom is the kind of guy we genuinely like spending time with ― Booklist on Hidden Graves\nA satisfyingly hard-boiled crime novel ― Publishers Weekly on Hidden Graves\nA sleek Windy City noir with a distinctly retro feel ― Kirkus Reviews\nFans of hard-boiled detective fiction will find a lot to like ― Publishers Weekly on The Confessors' Club\nHard-boiled fans will want to see a lot more of Elstrom, a throwback to the likes of Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe ― Publishers Weekly\nWell-crafted... sure to garner new fans for this delightfully eccentric detective series ― Publishers Weekly on Tagged for Murder\nThe criminals are clever and the detective even more clever, making Fredrickson's sixth case one of his best ― Kirkus Reviews on Hidden Graves\nChicago PI Dek Elstrom is called into action when a man acquitted of his wife's murder asks Dek to investigate the strange circumstances around her death.\nA shocking chain of events occur after midnight one night on a quiet suburban street in West Chicago. The first neighbor hears a woman scream. The second sees the lights in the Tripps' house being switched on, one by one, room after room. The third receives a call from a voice he doesn't recognize, screaming at him to come over right away. But to where?\nWhen the police arrive on the street, Sara Tripp is discovered brutally murdered. Her husband, Martin Tripp, is put on trial for her murder and acquitted. Martin is convinced Sara was scared of something before she died, and he wants private investigator Dek Elstrom to find out what it was. As Dek investigates, he makes a series of disturbing discoveries. Can he get to the truth of what really happened that terrifying night?\nFrom the Back Cover\nJACK FREDRICKSON 
KILL HER TWICE\nA shocking chain of events occurs late one night on a quiet suburban street far west of Chicago. A neighbor hears a woman scream. A second sees the lights in Sara Jansen's house being switched on, room after room. And a third receives a call from a voice he doesn't recognize, yelling at him to come right over. But where?\nWhen the police arrive, they discover Sara Jansen brutally murdered. Her partner, Martin Tripp, confesses to the killing but is acquitted in a bizarre courtroom twist. Now Martin wants private investigator Dek Elstrom to find out whether Sara was afraid of something - or someone - before her death. Dek investigates and makes disturbing discoveries. Can he get to the truth of what really happened that terrifying night?

Genre Fiction

Severn House

An intriguing new mystery featuring Chicago private investigator Dek ElstromMen are dying in Chicago. Not ordinary men, but rich men, powerful men, men who control the city. They are being murdered, quietly, skilfully. Dek Elstrom’s ex-father-in-law, a major player in everything Chicago, is likely to be one of them. Amanda, Dek’s ex-wife, wants him to investigate.Dek doesn’t want this case – but Amanda persists, and Dek finally agrees, because that’s what he always does with Amanda. He learns quickly that Amanda’s father is lying. The man knows plenty and is talking about none of it.Is he about to become a victim? Or is he a killer?

Confessors' Club, The (A Dek Elstrom PI mystery, 5)

United States

The new mayor of a small town in Illinois unearths a series of devastating secrets when he re-opens a 30-year-old murder investigation 17-year-old Betty Jo Dean was abducted and murdered thirty years ago. It took two days to find her body. She was found, fully dressed apart from her slacks, beneath a gnarled, stunted tree, shot in the back of the head. No one was ever charged with her murder. Now, following an appeal from one of his constituents, Mayor Mac Bassett has called for the case to be re-opened. But when the body is exhumed, it is revealed that the skull, found loose in the coffin, does not belong to Betty Jo. If Mac could discover why Betty Jo’s head was taken, he would be one step closer to finding out who killed her. But no one in the small town of Grand Point is talking. Sheriffs, doctors, medical examiners: everyone seems to be warning Mac off. And then people start dying …

Silence the Dead

An intriguing new mystery featuring Chicago private investigator Dek Elstrom Men are dying in Chicago. Not ordinary men, but rich men, powerful men, men who control the city. They are being murdered, quietly, skilfully. Dek Elstrom’s ex-father-in-law, a major player in everything Chicago, is likely to be one of them. Amanda, Dek’s ex-wife, wants him to investigate. Dek doesn’t want this case – but Amanda persists, and Dek finally agrees, because that’s what he always does with Amanda. He learns quickly that Amanda’s father is lying. The man knows plenty and is talking about none of it. Is he about to become a victim? Or is he a killer?

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Fredrickson, Jack. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Fredrickson, Jack

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Fredrickson, Jack. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

A Safe Place for Dying (Dek Elstrom Mysteries)

Honestly Dearest, You're Dead

Hunting Sweetie Rose: A Mystery (Dek Elstrom Mysteries)

The Dead Caller from Chicago: A Mystery (Dek Elstrom Mysteries)

Hunting Sweetie Rose

Honestly Dear, You're Dead

Kill Her Twice (A Dek Elstrom Mystery, 8)

Confessors' Club, The (A Dek Elstrom PI mystery, 5)

Silence the Dead

Confessors' Club, The (A Dek Elstrom PI mystery, 5)