It's a slightly different conversation this time around! Although my trade-in-stock is character-driven mysteries, a few years back I was inspired to see what I create if I dusted a little magic across a traditional police procedural. It took far longer than I expected to complete the tale that become my novel Reflection in the Shadows, but I like how it turned out – so much so that I’ve already got a sequel planned.

My friend joins me to talk about the story and the new characters introduced with it - Katherine Oliver and Tenoch Vasquez – and what it took to craft an incredibly unique blending of mythic fantasy and urban reality. As always, we’ll try to avoid overt spoilers, but we do assume you’ve already read the novel.

Since his introduction in the novel Ditched as Vasily’s love interest, Alejandro Ortega-Cortez has blossomed into a full-fledged main character who shares a lot of screen time with my detective. He’s a fun character to write, and has a far more complicated backstory than I’ve been able to reveal in the main Korsokovach series, so it felt fitting to craft a Christmas tale around this compelling Olympic diver-turned-career coach to help tease out some of those key details. My friend joins me for another brilliant discussion.

It’s been a bit rough for Sean Colbeth over the past couple of books; between being fired from his job as police chief and finding himself in uncharted waters with his girlfriend, he decides a few weeks dog sitting for a friend on picturesque Carpenter’s Island it just the sort of downtime he needs. Unfortunately for him, murder never takes a vacation. Chris is joined once again by his best friend to talk about Solitude, the latest release in the Sean Colbeth Investigates series.