Novel Conversations with Chris Jansmann

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.

Chris Jansmann, author of the Vasily Korsokovach Investigates mystery series, is joined once more by his best friend to discuss his latest novel, Mirage, and its deep dive into Vasily’s former life when murder strikes just a bit too close to home for the elite of Orange County.

The conversation continues!  Chris and his friend tackle the turbulent events in his latest novel, Vengeance  – and talk through some of the ways in which they will affect Sean in the future.

In the third episode of the podcast, Chris is joined once more by his best friend to discuss Bewitched, the fifth novel in the Sean Colbeth Investigates series.  This time out, our intrepid detective is forced to deal with childhood events he'd rather forget when a cold case from his high school years complicates life in the small village of Windeport, Maine.

In the second episode of the podcast, Chris chats with his friend about his romantic holiday-themed short story, Snow Drifts, and how it expands the background of one of the secondary characters in the Sean Colbeth Investigates series.  It's the first time Chris has stepped outside of his normal mystery genre, so there is plenty to discuss!

In the inaugural episode of the podcast, Chris chats with his friend about Requiem, the sixth book in the Vasily Korsokovach Investigates mystery series.  Find out where Vasily's motivations come from, why the title is significant in three different ways and what (might) be in store for the detective in the future.