Turning the Mic on the Detective: An Author's Conversation with his Wife

What happens when the person who knows you best sits down to cross-examine your writing? The truth bleeds right onto the page.

For twenty-five years, Chris Lengquist has been telling gritty, observant stories from his days in the investigative trenches. But with his debut novella, Notice of Assignment, launching this October, he’s stepping into the world of fiction. To break down how it all came together, Chris hands the microphone to his wife and real-life compass, Marie.

In this intimate, behind-the-scenes conversation, Marie asks the tough questions: Why write a book now? How much of the emotional toll from the old days made it into the chapters? And what is it like seeing a fictionalized version of yourself—and your marriage—on the page? From the origin of the name 'Cal Brink' to a deep dive into the multi-layered complexities of human behavior, this episode is a raw look at where truth meets the thriller.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• The Behind-the-Scenes Shift: Why decades of true-ish street stories finally evolved into a fast-paced, hard-boiled mystery.
• The Emotional Toll: Marie’s perspective on the early days of surveillance and how those heavy, unspoken emotions found a home in the manuscript.
• A Noir Ending and a Christian Reckoning: How faith, behavioral tells, and the stark realities of the real estate industry blend together without being wrapped up in a neat Hollywood bow.
• Built for the Short Haul: Why Chris prefers writing sharp, succinct novellas and micro-fiction over massive, padded textbooks.

Key Quote: “Cal Brink lives at the intersection of where truth meets fiction... the truth bleeds into it. And by truth, I mean the emotion, the toll, and the considerations.”

Join the Discussion: How do your own life experiences bleed into the work you do? Leave a comment and join the late-night debrief at CalBrinkFiles.com.

Read the First Four Chapters Free: Beat the October rush. Head over to CalBrink.com right now to download the earliest chapters of Notice of Assignment and see the street science in action for yourself.

New episodes of the Behavioral Detective Podcast release every Wednesday and Sunday.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:18

I've been telling stories for over 25 years. Truish ones, hard-boiled ones from the trenches, and the kind where I always change the names to protect the guilty. But putting a fictional one on paper, that's a whole different kind of vulnerable. So, to step into the engine room of my upcoming novella, Notice of Assignment, I decided to hand the microphone over to the one person who knows me better than anyone else. My wife, Marie. Today, she's sitting across from me, pulling back the curtain on why I finally wrote this book, the emotional toll of the old days that bled onto the page, and then the thin line where truth meets fiction. You're listening to the Behavioral Detective. And please note, Marie and I were sitting on a park bench in the Grand Canyon using handheld bikes. So forgive the less than stellar audio. My name is Chris Linquist, and today we're going to do something a little bit fun. We're going to, my wife is going to be on here. Say hi, Marie.

SPEAKER_00 1:30

Hello.

SPEAKER_02 1:31

And she's going to ask me some questions about this novella, Notice of Assignment, coming in October. And I'm going to answer as truthfully as I can. And by the way, you're going to get to see a little bit more of her here because, well, she's my better half. She's my real life compass. And in Notice of Assignment, you'll meet Shauna, who is Cal Brink's compass. Or you can meet both of them in the short stories that you can find at calbrinkfiles.com. It's up to you.

SPEAKER_01 2:00

So you're clearly having fun. But why did you write a book and why now?

SPEAKER_02 2:05

Well, um, I wrote this book because I started with the Process Server Chronicles back in January, somewhere in late January. I had this idea that I've been telling these stories for years and years and years, these trueish stories. I mean, I've been known to embellish a little bit and I've been known to hide the names. I've said the names out loud to you, I've said the names out loud to some close friends. But on the Process Server Chronicles, I'm not gonna say those names. Like, I mean, it's it's these are household names of people that we've investigated. Now, that said, I wanted to put the stories on in the paper, maybe as a memoir, maybe as uh entertainment, maybe as all sorts of things. But these are fun stories, and people have said for years, write them down. So I wrote them down. Um I love I love I love telling the stories. I love having the memories of of the funer the funner stories. Boy, Mrs. Sanders, my eighth grade teacher, just like lost her mind. But that's the um that that that's the fun of it. I just like writing the stories.

SPEAKER_01 3:06

So you're talking about the life you lived, creating fictional experiences to tell a story that you imagined could have been. Why did you decide to write it so personally?

SPEAKER_02 3:16

I think there are there are stories in every person. I mean, how long have we known each other?

SPEAKER_01 3:21

42 years.

SPEAKER_02 3:22

42 years, something like that. I like stories. I like I like telling stories, I like um imagining things that could be or alternative versions. And so um I just Cal Brink, you know as well as I do, our first son. I was thinking about naming him Calvin, you know, and you and you came in with some ideas, and we ended up with a different name for for our son, which is great. But I thought, well, now I can use the word, I could use Cal as which, you know, because I wanted to do that. I would also just simply say that um I think people are more complex than we make them out to be. We say this guy is this or this woman is that. But the truth is is we all are multiple multi-layered and we all we all have stories that that we tell out loud, we all have versions of ourselves that we show to others, but we all have deep dark places, we all have we have we also have places where we want to go, who we want to be. And I think when I look at people, I look at them and I say, okay, what are their stories? What are the complexities of this person? Because those complexities are what make people people, and what makes people people, essentially, well, that that's a story. And in this case, it's a novella.

SPEAKER_01 4:35

Where do people go to find the book?

SPEAKER_02 4:37

Well, I haven't decided yet. I do know this. If you go to calbrink.com, if you go to calbrink.com, right now you can get the first four chapters. Uh, you can download them, and it doesn't cost you anything. In fact, if you download them and read it and you love it or hate it or have some ideas about it, send me some comments. Send me, you know, leave a comment, send me an email, whatever it takes. Because here's the truth. I wrote the novella, it's 32 chapters, and those 32 chapters are sitting with an editor that I'm kind of surprised that she took me on. Uh, she works with some people that sell some books. And so I'm real nervous about what she's gonna say, but but she's going to change things. She's going to say, Hey, you need to think about this, you need to think about that. You know, you didn't do a very good job here. Do that. So get the first version of the well, get the third version already of the first four chapters, and then we'll see what where they go after the editor's done with I remember those days.

SPEAKER_01 5:33

You told me very little about your work, that I could see the emotional toll that it was taking on you. You didn't start telling these stories till much later. Do these emotions bleed into the page?

SPEAKER_02 5:46

Yes. Absolutely, yes. Choosing what to write and what not to write, what is well, first of all, it's a it's a work of fiction, so it's all it's all fiction. I mean, really. But the fiction is an amalgamation of all of my experiences, all the things that I saw, all the things that I did, all the things that I witnessed, testified to. Cal Brink lives at the intersection of where truth meets fiction. And I just think that that's the best way to put it. I'm not gonna tell any true stories in the fiction work I do, but just the way I live and the way I think and the way I write, the truth bleeds into fiction. And by truth, I mean the emotion, I mean the toll, I mean the considerations, everything. You've read the whole thing, okay? How would you describe it?

SPEAKER_01 6:32

It was a really entertaining read. I liked that I was able to read it on a short road trip. And even knowing some of the characters and some of the story, I thought you did an amazing job of describing without over-describing. You know, you are a man of few words, and that's how you write, and that was that you were very succinct, and I like that. There were some twists and turns that were very interesting, and um you nailed my character pretty good. It was awesome. And I just it was an enjoyable read. The the ending wasn't all tied up neatly in a bow like you know, Hollywood likes to do, and um like a lot of the books I like to read. But it w it was fun because there was always the what next?

SPEAKER_02 7:14

What do you mean, short road trip? We drove from Kansas City to the Grand Canyon.

SPEAKER_01 7:18

Well, I finished it quickly. I think it was what, Dodge City to um Dodge City to Albuquerque, I think. No, Dodge City to Santa Fe. Yeah. How would you describe notice of assignment?

SPEAKER_02 7:31

One person who's read it has described it as a hard-boiled novel with a noir ending and a Christian reckoning. Now, that that's a mouthful. But my faith bleeds into this. Now we've known each other a long, long time. I believe in living the way you believe, I believe in um doing the right thing. Matthew 7, 12 bleeds into every moment of my life. I fail at it often, but but it but it it's what I try to do. And I, you know, I don't this is not a Christian novel. There's pla there's places in here that that some of my more conservative church-going friends will go, what are you you know? But but the point is, is that my faith bleeds into who I am, and in this book, my faith, these are questions that I've asked. It's not a big deal, and it's not a um it's really only one chapter. But it but Cal Brink is is standing on a precipice and he's trying to decide who he wants to be.

SPEAKER_00 8:30

This has been a lot of work. Will you write more?

SPEAKER_02 8:32

Yes, absolutely. I've got I've got the next novella and the next already written in my head. Like I already know exactly where they're gonna go. But I think that brings up a good point. I'm writing novellas, I'm writing short fiction. I've even been writing micro fiction. Calbrink Files is where you read the micro fiction. You read the behind the scenes of writing. That's a fun series I'm doing right now. Calbrink Files is where I'm writing the behind the scenes of how I wrote what I wrote. It's also where I'm writing the micro fiction. Little short stories of uh where I can go anywhere. So to answer your question about the novella. Yes, I'm gonna write more. I already have several of them already figured out in my head as to where they're going to go. But I'm but I don't see myself ever writing a 350-page thriller that that Hollywood picks up. What I'm writing are short stories that you can read on an airplane, or you can read on a Saturday afternoon, or you can read a little bit Saturday night and a little bit Sunday night and be done with it. You know, it's it's my personality bleeding through. I'm not I'm not a long-term guy, I'm a short-term guy. So, in short, what I'm saying is that Cal Brink is fictional me. Cal Brink has the different experiences where he's a real estate agent now, but he was an investigator in the past. And to be a really good real estate agent, to some degree, you have to be a good investigator. And I think that real estate agents can learn a lot about how they do their jobs by reading this book. I know that sounds crazy, but you'll learn the behaviors, you'll learn the tells, you'll learn, you'll learn how to investigate and how to think. It's gonna be fun. A hard-boiled novel with a noir ending and a Christian reckoning. That's how one earlier reader described it, and honestly, I'll take it. Cal Brink isn't just a character, he's an amalgamation of decades of street science, real estate tells, and the quiet complexities we all carry. If you want to see how the behavior and tradecraft piece together, head over to calbrinkfiles.com and let Marie and me know your thoughts in the comments. And remember, you don't have to wait until October. Go to calbrink.com right now to grab the third edited version of this first four chapters completely free. Read it on a short trip, see if I got the details right, tell me what you think. Until Sunday, pay attention to the complexities and the people around you and stay sharp. You've been listening to the Behavioral Detective.