Lost

About Chris Jordan

Chris Jordan is a pen name of Rodman Philbrick. He grew up on the New England coast, where he worked as a longshoreman and boat builder. For many years he wrote mysteries and detective novels. The Private Eye Writers of America nominated two of his T.D.Stash series as best detective novel and then selected his Brothers & Sinners  as Best Novel in 1993. His recent novels include Dark Matter, Coffins, and Taken. He and his wife divide their time between Maine and the Florida Keys. Below is a Q & A with this author.

How would you describe your latest novel ‘Lost’?

I think of it as a page-turning thriller about a single, working mother who risks everything she has, everything she is, to find and rescue her wild teenage daughter.

What gave you the inspiration for the story?

A canoe exploration in the Everglades, and an old family story about a teenage girl who vanishes mysteriously.

Who do you base your characters on?

My characters are almost always composites of real people. Physically Randall Shane bears a strong resemblance to my cousin Jim, who is the real deal, an FBI Special Agent, size large. But the way Shane thinks about the world is closer to my own thought process, just because I spend so much time in his head. Jane Garner, the woman he agrees to help, grew up in the same part of Long Island as my wife Lynn. Like Lynn she’s brave about the important things, but there the resemblance ends, because if it didn’t I’d be writing to you from the doghouse. So the characters spring from reality and then take a life of their own.

Where do you get your ideas from?

Most of my ideas seem to derive from personal observation and experience. From asking questions and then finding an answer that’s interesting.  I’ll be walking through a mall and think, what if that young mom has a dark secret? What if her beautiful daughter is about to run off with a dangerous man? Where would they go? What would they do? How would the mother react? That’s how stories come to life.

What are you writing next?

Working on ‘Torn’ the third thriller featuring former FBI Special Agent Randall Shane.