Thirteen Days in Milan

Milan Thriller Series #1

by Jack Erickson

Sylvia de Matteo, an American single mother, is taken hostage by terrorists during a political assassination at Stazione Centrale, Milan’s train station. She is seized at gunpoint and thrown into the back of a van. Moments later, a Paris-bound train with Sylvia's fiancé and ten-year old daughter aboard departs Centrale without Sylvia.

The terrorists drive Sylvia to a warehouse where she is imprisoned in a cell. When the terrorists discover Sylvia's father is a wealthy Wall Street investment banker, they demand a ransom for her safe release.

Milan's anti-terrorism police, DIGOS, aggressively pursue the terrorists and eventually close in on them. But the terrorist leader knows it will only be hours before they are captured. He blindfolds Sylvia and drives her at night to a remote village in the Italian Alps where he thinks they will be safe.

DIGOS receives a photo of the terrorist and Sylvia in the alps and close in.

Genres: Mystery, Thriller

364 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 1, 2013

About the author

My interest in fiction, especially mysteries, started when I was about ten years old and read my first Hardy Boys books, "Secret of the Old Clock," I think the title was. I saved up from mowing lawns and running errands to buy every title I could. They were only $1.00 each, but when you're only making 25 cents an hour, it takes time to save those nickels and dimes.

And then I discovered shelves of exciting books at my hometown Andrew Carnegie Memorial library just two blocks away from our middle class home in the Midwest. By that time I was reading "The Saturday Evening Post," "Collier's," "Life," "Look," "Time," "Argosy," "True," "Photoplay," that my parents subscribed to and others I can't remember. Needless to say, I skimmed through them all, and devoured short stories by John O'Hara, John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway, Herman Wouk, and Earl Stanley Gardner.

I believe my early interest in reading was a major factor in liking school. Writing term papers was no big deal, and we all know how important that is at university. I enjoyed the many choices available with a liberal arts education and sampled liberally from science, history, languages, art history, literature, and political science.

Those wide ranging interests are probably a factor in the careers I chose, including Russian specialist in U.S. government, legislative aide and speechwriter in U.S. Senate, free-lance writer, former publisher (Red Brick Press) and author of several craft brewing books in the early days of the industry. My most recent career was in financial services from which I recently retired to travel and write.

I've been writing fiction, mostly mysteries and romantic suspense, and have several projects that will be published in the next few months.

I'm always fascinated how people become readers and writers. I'd love to hear your stories how writing chose you.

Reviews

[Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A police procedural set in Milan, Italy.

After the economic crisis, a former assistant professor forms a terrorist cell, hoping to revive the glory days of the old Red Brigade. They plan a campaign of terror, with two bombings and an assassination of a politician.

Concurrently, we get the story of an Italian American family on vacation. Right before their train leaves, the wife just has to take pictures. She accidentally takes pictures of the terrorists, who take her hostage.

From there, it's a long haul, as the terrorists try to collect a ransom and the police try to find them.

It's not bad. It has a vibe of the 1970's police movies, of the sort starring Maurezio Merli, only without the violence quotient.

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this book free through Goodreads First Reads.

The first few chapters of this book just built the characters, and as I was reading them, I thought that I wasn't going to be able to really get into this book, but then wow, the book really gets going! It then becomes one of those books, that you stay up far later than you should so you can see what is going to happen next. Another thing about this book that was really good is that the ending is not at all predictable, as you read it you wonder how on earth it is going to end. You will have to read the book for yourself to see what I mean!

[Joanne Sitarz · Rating 4 out of 5]

My husband recommended this book to me as he knows my love for all things Italian. I thoroughly enjoyed the author’s telling of the story. His descriptions of the geographical settings, the food, wine, clothing were nothing short of spectacular. I felt like I was somewhere that I truly wanted to be. As the story unfolded into its terror, it captured my interest well. And then it took a very weird turn. The female character does something so bizarre that it kept me from giving it a fifth star. But it’s still an excellent read.

[Cecile Sune · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sylvia de Matteo is on vacation in Italy with her daughter and fiance when she is kidnapped by left-wing terrorists at Stazione Centrale, Milan’s train station. Inspired by the Red Brigade (Brigate Rosse) of the 1970s, Fabio Cecconi, the leader of the group, hopes to start a revolution to protest against political corruption and the financial crisis in Italy. Antonella Amoruso and Giorgio Lucchini are in charge of the investigation for Milan’s law enforcement agency DIGOS, and they are determined to find Sylvia.

Thirteen Days in Milan is the first book in a series featuring Giorgio Lucchini and Antonella Amoruso from Milan’s Questura. Jack Erickson got the idea for the novel while snapping pictures at Stazione Centrale in Milan. His wife, along with his luggage and passport, were already on the train. He thought: what if something happened to me? This is the basis for Thirteen Days in Milan, a fast-paced and suspenseful story. The author’s love of Italy is evident in his descriptions of the country, its food and its inhabitants. In addition, the fact that it is told from different points of view (the victim, her family, the police and the terrorist) makes the novel more gripping and original. However, the prologue of the book where the author explains the events of real-life Prime Minister Aldo Moro’s kidnapping and assassination is a bit dry but once we are introduced to the de Matteo family, the story gets more interesting. At times, the dialogues felt a bit stilted though. In addition, Sylvia seemed more afraid of spiders than her captors, and I thought that her relationship with Fabio appeared very improbable. While I am well aware of the Stockholm Syndrome where a victim feels empathy or sympathy for the kidnapper, Sylvia’s relationship with Fabio was well beyond that. In spite of this, Thirteen days in Milan is a promising start for the series.

Thirteen Days in Milan was sent to me for free in exchange for an honest review.

To read the full review, please go to my blog (Cecile Sune - Book Obsessed).

[Douglas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Italian Introspective

The background of this book is Italy's history of domestic terrorism. In the 70s and 80s the country was beset by attacks launched by the Red Brigades. In their most infamous incident, in 1978, Red Brigade terrorists kidnapped a former Italian prime minister, Aldo Moro. After being held captive for 54 days Moro was killed.

Sylvia de Matteo, self-absorbed daughter of an investment banker, is taken hostage in a terrorist attack in Milan's central train station. Thrown into a van, beaten and then imprisoned in a filthy construction shed, she comes face to face with a harsh reality that will change her life forever.

Sylvia is desperate to be released and surprisingly is given hope by a budding relationship with one of her captors. She experiences the desperation of the terrorists and the political corruption and economic stagnation of Italy that gives rise to their act of terrorism. It is a world alien to her’s of privilege and wealth. The results of her epiphany play out in a surprising and compelling conclusion that leaves us with an appealing and sympathetic character very different from the indulgently immature character that opens the book.

Other powerful characters include Vera Pulvirenti, a former fashion model, whose career was destroyed in a motorcycle accident and who has descended into bitterness at her plight. Antonella Amoruso is a talented and determined DIGOS investigator who pursues the terrorists relentlessly.

This book will prove a rich reward for the thoughtful reader who is a student of history and the human condition

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book can easily be a movie. I don't mean that as a compliment. It feels like the story is just an amalgamation of stereotypes and forced scenes to fill a quota of "people like this kind of stuff". Unbelievable at best, and the part where the investigating officer actually was in the other room from the kidnapped woman was definitely laughable to me. Just like a movie... kind of stupid in my opinion. I am writing this review a bit over a week after finishing it, so, after recalling what I read, I'm dropping the rating down a star. It would be an alright movie worth a few scenes of tension, sex, and action. That's about it.

[Marcia Ditter · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book starts out by the telling of the kidnapping and murder of Aldo Moro. The story then starts. A young, educated man is very upset about the situation in Italy, especially the unemployment and the collapse of economies in 2008. He forms a small group that will make radical changes, shootings and kidnapping. A young woman, her daughter and fiancé are at the train station in Milan. The fiancé and daughter board the train while the young woman goes to take some pictures.
This is a great read and I highly recommend it.

[Deborah Dumm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good book I would recommend it to everybody. I won this book on goodreads.

[RonMele · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just finished “Thirteen Days in Milan” and really enjoyed it. At first, the Kindle version I got from Bookbub had a LOT of technical, spelling, punctuation and formatting errors. It was distracting enough that I emailed the author, Jake Erickson, about it. He replied very quickly and explained that while the book had been professionally written, edited, proofread, etc., the errors developed after the book was sent to Bookbub. He then re-read the book and cleaned up all the errors. He provided me with a clean electronic copy of the book which was a pleasure to read. The story is easy to follow with enough suspense to keep you interested. As an Italian American and having visited many of the sites in the book, coupled with his use of the Italian language, I enjoyed the setting. I highly recommend this book and have a lot of respect for the author responding to me the way he did. Great read..classy author!

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a interesting review. While the book was pretty good, I had a big problem with the down load and in almost every other paragraph there would be at the end sentence that ended up half way in the next paragraph. It made it very hard for me to finish the book! I'm not sure if it's the kindle or the publisher.

Another thing I had an issue with was the run on story line in each paragraph. You would have a conversation going on and it was all running in one paragraph with no brakes. It made it hard to follow who was talking at times. I may not be the brightest bulb in the box, but when you have a complex story(Italian and English) going on you do want to try and make it so you can decipher who is talking and when!

[Sep · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sylvia de Mateo was taking a few last pictures of Milan's Central Railway Station when she is kidnapped. Meanwhile her fiance and daughter are hurtling out of Milan on a Paris-bound train. With well-researched detail, Mr. Erickson describes the police's desperate hunt for the missing woman and her abductors. Sylvia tells herself, if she can stay alive, she will be rescued. In the midst of this maelstrom, the mastermind of her abduction wonders how his pure goal to help the poor in Italy got so tarnished with violence.

Warning: Don't start this book after dinner if you need to get up early the next day.

[thomas roberson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review of : Thirteen Days in Milan (Milan Thriller Series Book 1)

Great book, some of the Italian I understood growing up in Canton, Ohio . thanks to my neighbor where I picked up phases and curse words when the Old Man helped me work on my bike. Then there were parts where I wished a translation was available. I guess my only criticism is there were quite a few sentences that didn't make sense! A edit job needs to be done again. Then the book will be great.

[Paul Lariviere · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nicely written

I enjoyed the book. It was a change of pace for me, and I liked the characters. My only negative his a comment to whoever did the editing or proof reading. There were many sections that were moved around, misplacing ends of sentences and finding the dangling pieces somewhere else down the page. A little more care goes a long way. Otherwise, a flavor of Italy people don't know about. Small town life is great.

[Felicity · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn't read this book. The writing style is very descriptive and factual with no emotion whatsoever, and reads more like a non-fiction history book, but that's not the thing that stopped me reading it - the major problem is that every page or so the last couple of words of a paragraph are missing and reappear stuck randomly in the text a few lines later on. No idea if that's a download issue specific to me but it made it completely unreadable and I had to give up 2 chapters in.

[Carol Hatch · Rating 1 out of 5]

Seriously needs editing

I liked the premise of Thirteen Days in Milan, but gave up reading it at a mere 10% due to the tremendous number of serious editing problems. There were many incomplete sentences that ended without punctuation only to continue in the middle of the following paragraph. Every single page needed editing and this distracted from the reading experience. This book was simply not ready for release.

[Susan Gebren]

Needs Editing

Once the story line evolved, I became more interested in the book. The author has had good descriptions of Milan and the Bergamo area. Good character development of the main characters. But, the book needs better formatting. Frequently the narrative was like a sloppy job of "city and paste".Split sentences,dropped phrases. Not very professional. That's why I gave it 3 stars.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Complimentary copy of this book was received through Voracious Readers Only

Thirteen days in Milan

Gritty, suspenseful crime story. Lots of background details on all the characters with everyone's perspective included in the storyline. A tad too much detail in some areas for my liking.

Overall an interesting read with a juicy twist or two.

[Di Bryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting story and a good build up to the kidnapping. However, I disliked Sylvia and wasn’t invested in her problems. She came across as arrogant and self centred and any concern for others seemed to be an afterthought. Also the review copy had chunks of the story missing as lots of sentences just ended in the middle.

[Kathleen Turner · Rating 2 out of 5]

Don't bother reading this!

It's a simple story told over far too many pages. To make matters worse, its very sloppily prepared. Almost every page as at least one error, the most common being incomplete sentences where the missing text appears paragraphs later. A long, frustrating read that I struggled to continue simply because I always finish what I start

[Dalene W. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this story

I loved this story and the characters. It was a wonderful snapshot of Italy and it’s customs and people. My only complaint is that this book is in sad need of proofreading. It is sad that such a good story is so badly edited. I would definitely read more from this author.

[Suanne]

Lots of formatting problems with ends of sentences or paragraphs appearing one or more paragraphs later, interrupting the flow of both. Found it frustrating to have to search well into the next page for the completion of the sentence. Slow to start and the action is frequently bogged down by too much polite conversation between characters.

[Mary Kay · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh dear! As others had noted, there was absolutely no editing or quality control. Throughout the book, nearly every page had a dropped word or phrase and you would have to hunt for it in the following pages, occurring mid-sentence. Only kept reading because the story was somewhat compelling. Why would Amazon publish this???

[Louise Reynolds · Rating 1 out of 5]

Received a complimentary copy through voracious readers only. Unfortunately the book reads like a non fiction piece with too much information and not enough flow. The editing is poor, with additional letters put into sentences for no reason and half finished sentences.

[GW · Rating 2 out of 5]

13 Days in Milan

Terrible editing. Unfinished sentences that just stop them you'll find the ending in the middle of another sentence a few pages later. It is also a very slow moving book.

[ken kudek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decent plot and characters.

Please do proofreading and editing.

Multiple irksome occurrences of a sentence just stops without conclusion. Several pages later, the sentence conclusion shows up - embedded in another sentence!

[Wesley C. Drake · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just ok

While there was a twist in the story, it didn’t grab me at any point. It moved long at a pedantic pace. I considered abandoning the book on several occasions. I wouldn’t call it a thriller.

[Michael Moody · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book! Highly recommend!

[Susan Zambonin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I kept trying to figure out what was going to happen, and was never able to get ahead of the story. I can’t wait to read the second instalment of the trilogy.

[Ron Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book

[ron javner · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible editing job

Hopefully it was just the Kindle version, but there were so many errors in punctuation and format that I could not get past Chapter One.