Recently, my Substack acquaintance, Jason Garman, invited me to read an ARC of his debut speculative noir horror novel. Reflections in the Dark publishes on April 21, 2026. I eagerly accepted and discovered an exceptional, intelligent, and surreal page-turner. If you’ve read my Where Mirrors Shatter: Reflections in the Dark Review, you’ll know I have several lingering questions. Naturally, I asked Jason if he’d be open to an interview for My Bodacious Blog. While I’m not sure how much he’ll reveal—especially if a sequel is already forming—I’m happy to share this conversation with him. Welcome to my Jason Garman interview: Reflections in the Dark.

A Story Where Reality Begins to Fracture

Please give readers a synopsis of your book.

Reflections in the Dark follows Dr. Reed Ashland, a former professor whose encounters with something he can’t fully explain begin to fracture his sense of reality. At the same time, Detective Maria Voss is investigating a series of strange, unsettling murders—cases that don’t quite fit within the boundaries of the world she knows.

As their paths begin to overlap, Reed’s experiences, once dismissed as delusion, start to take on a more disturbing possibility. Together, they’re pulled into a search for answers that leads beyond conventional understanding, where the line between perception and reality begins to break down, and the truth behind the killings may not belong to this world at all.

The Creative Influences Behind the Darkness

Jason, what were your top three influences for writing Reflections in the Dark?

David Lynch is probably the biggest influence on everything I do creatively, and Twin Peaks in particular was a major touchstone for this book. That idea of blending the familiar with something deeply unsettling, where reality feels just slightly off, was something I wanted to capture.

A more unusual influence actually came from the old Unsolved Mysteries series with Robert Stack, which I was obsessed with as a kid. There was one case involving two women murdered in the same way, around the same time, with identical names. It was never solved, but investigators believed the cases were connected. That always stuck with me, and it became the initial spark for the story. The kind of mystery that feels like it’s pointing to something just beyond our understanding.

And finally, The X-Files was a huge influence. I’ve gone back to that show again and again over the years. There’s definitely a trace of that dynamic in Reed and Maria—the tension between belief and skepticism, but they’re very much their own people. Even Captain Bryans takes on a bit of that “Walter Skinner” role, acting as a grounded presence between two very different perspectives.

I’d also throw House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski in there as a quieter influence, just in how it plays with perception and the idea that something impossible can exist just beneath the surface of reality.

Philosophy, Perception, and the Nature of Reality

Your decision to make your main character, Reed Ashland, a professor of epistemology and phenomenology, fascinated me. I had to look up what those terms meant. So, here are the AI crib notes. “Epistemology is the branch of philosophy focused on the nature, origin, scope, and limits of human knowledge. Phenomenology is the philosophical study of structures of consciousness and subjective experience from a first-person viewpoint, aiming to describe phenomena as they appear, free from preconceived assumptions.”

Where did your interest in philosophy, phenomenology and epistemology come from?

I actually minored in psychology in college, and while I was there, I started taking philosophy courses out of pure curiosity. Once I started going down that path, I couldn’t really stop. There are so many fascinating ideas and theories in philosophy, especially around how we think, how we experience the world, and how we form beliefs.

That’s always been something I’ve been drawn to in general. I’ve spent a lot of time exploring psychology, sociology, religion, and different belief systems. I’m really interested in how different people can experience the same situation in completely different ways. You can have two people walk away from the same conversation and come back with entirely different interpretations of what happened, and that’s always fascinated me.

That curiosity naturally led me toward ideas around knowledge and perception. Questions like how we know what we know, whether we can truly trust our own understanding, and how much of reality is shaped by our individual perspective. The deeper you go into that, the more it can start to blur the line between what’s real and what we think is real, and for me, that’s where things get really interesting.

Is True Knowledge Ever Within Reach?

Do you believe we can attain true knowledge, or do we remain confined to mere belief?

Simply put, I’d say no. I don’t think true knowledge is fully possible for us, and we’re probably confined to belief more than we’d like to admit. The nature of existence itself, and the fact that anything exists at all, feels so vast and beyond our comprehension that there are limits to what the human mind can truly understand.

That said, I think there’s something meaningful in the attempt. If anything, being confined to belief makes the pursuit of knowledge even more important, whether that’s in trying to reach something closer to truth or simply testing and refining what we think we know. The pursuit itself is what drives curiosity, creativity, and discovery.

In a lot of ways, I’ve always felt like life is more about the journey than the destination, and that applies here too. The act of searching for understanding might actually be the point.

Investigating Reed Ashland’s Back Story

Will you reflect more on Reed Ashland’s interests and how you believe they contributed to his supernatural journey?

That’s something that really ties into the larger arc of the series, so I don’t want to go too deep into it just yet. As more books come out, there will be more answers, or at least as close to answers as I like to get.

What I will say is that Reed is not experiencing these things by accident. His life has shaped him in very specific ways. His academic background, his struggles with alcoholism, his marriage, the loss of his daughter, and even events that haven’t been fully explored yet have all contributed to where he is now.

It’s really the culmination of a lifetime of very specific events that have made him who he is, and in turn, have made him more susceptible to encountering and engaging with things that most people either wouldn’t notice or wouldn’t be able to process in the same way.

What We Know So Far About Maria Voss

Having Detective Maria Voss be sympathetic to Reed’s situation was an integral part of the plot. Can you tell us something about her that we may not realize, which helped her relate to him?

A lot of that comes from her backstory, which we only see glimpses of in this book but will be explored more in future installments. Earlier in her life, Maria was actually much more like Reed. She studied philosophy herself and had a more open, almost idealistic way of looking at the world. Reed even jokes about her having a bit of a “hippie” phase.

I think part of what allows her to relate to him is that she recognizes a version of her younger self in him, before life shaped her into who she is now. Over time, experiences like loss, raising two kids on her own, and building a career as a detective in a city like Chicago have made her more grounded, more serious, and more guarded.

That connection to who she used to be is what allows her to stay open to Reed in a way that others might not. She understands how someone can see the world differently, even if she no longer lives in that mindset herself.

Symbols, Signs, and the Unseen Patterns

What is the significance of the angel number 333 as it relates to your story?

That’s actually a bit of misdirection on my part. Reed is trying to interpret meaning from his experiences, but he’s not necessarily getting it “right” in any objective sense.

He associates 3:33 and 4:44 with specific meanings because of what he experiences at those times. The Fold at 3:33, and his encounter with Mr. Morrow at 4:44. From there, he starts assigning significance to those numbers, trying to make sense of what’s happening to him.

In reality, those meanings don’t strictly align with how those numbers are typically interpreted in numerology or religious contexts, but that’s kind of the point. Reed is building meaning from experience rather than from established knowledge.

It ties back to the larger theme of the book, which is that our understanding of reality is often shaped more by what we go through than by anything objectively defined. He’s trying to impose structure on something that may not have one.

Mystery Without Answers: Embracing the Unknown

Who is the mysterious Mr. Morrow, the Man in the Charcoal Suit?

I’m going to channel David Lynch and not give a direct answer to that one.

Mr. Morrow is meant to exist in that space where interpretation matters. Different readers might see him in different ways depending on how they experience the story.

That’s something I really love about storytelling in general. If you put ten people in a room and have them read the same book, I think it’s amazing if you get ten different interpretations of what something means or represents. To me, that’s where the story really comes alive, when readers are able to fill in the blanks with their own imagination.

So I’ll answer your question with a question. What do you think Mr. Morrow is?

The Elsewhere Fold

What is the significance of a shimmering triangle? And an old library in which the books won’t let you touch them?

I’ll be a little coy on this one as well. A lot of strange things happen within the Elsewhere Fold, and many of the places, entities, and experiences have layers to them that I’m not always going to fully explain.

Behind the scenes, I actually keep what I call a “Fold Bible,” which is a running document where I track all of those elements. Every room, every entity, every strange detail has some level of meaning or intention behind it, even if I never fully spell it out on the page. Part of the fun for me is leaving space for readers to interpret those things in their own way.

I will say that the old library is something I refer to as “the vellum.” What it represents ties into something I think all people are searching for, but can never fully reach, no matter how close they think they are.

The shimmering triangle is a little more straightforward. That’s a UFO, or a UAP, depending on which term you prefer.

Beyond the Mirror: Expanding the Universe

What truth waits on the other side of the mirror? Will we find out in your next book?

That’s not something readers are going to get a clear answer to in the next book, and definitely not right now.

What I will say is that the reality we experience, what we think of as our world, is only a very small part of something much larger. There’s a vast unknown beyond it, and the deeper you go, the less stable and understandable things become.

In that sense, mirrors aren’t just reflections. They’re entry points, a way of crossing into something beyond what we’re able to see and comprehend in our everyday lives.

Will your next book reveal aliens? And have you written it yet?

I’m currently outlining the next book. I have a pretty clear sense of where the series is going, with ideas mapped out for at least the next few installments. Right now, I’m balancing that with the launch of Reflections in the Dark and finishing a couple of novellas that should be out later this year, but I’ll be diving fully into writing the next book very soon.

As for aliens, yes, they are very much a part of this universe. That element will definitely be explored further moving forward. The shimmering triangle is just a glimpse of something much bigger, and that side of the story will continue to expand as the series goes on.

The Space Between Worlds

What do you think lies between the where and the elsewhere?

Love this question!

That’s probably something that’s ultimately unknowable.

But if I had to describe it, I’d say it’s the dream you can feel but can’t quite remember. The thought that sits on the tip of your tongue but never fully forms. And that sudden, unexplainable shiver that runs down your spine for no reason at all.

A Story That Lingers Beyond the Page

There’s a rare kind of story that doesn’t simply unfold. It lingers, curls into your thoughts, and quietly reshapes the way you see the world. My conversation with Jason Garman revealed that Reflections in the Dark is exactly that kind of story.

What begins as a speculative mystery soon divulges something far more intricate. It’s a meditation on perception. Insight into belief and the fragile boundary between what we understand and what may forever remain just out of reach. Jason’s influences—from surreal storytelling to unsolved real-world mysteries—thread through his work in subtle, unsettling ways. He created a narrative that feels both grounded and otherworldly.

The characters draw shape as much from their inner worlds as from the forces surrounding them. Reed Ashland’s philosophical lens and Maria Voss’s lived experience form a compelling tension between belief and skepticism. This tension mirrors the very questions the novel dares to ask.

What struck me most was Jason’s willingness to leave space. Space for ambiguity, for interpretation, for the reader to step in and wrestle with meaning. Not everything invites an answer, nor should it be answered. And perhaps that’s where the real magic lies. Furthermore, for what my two cents are worth, I think Mr. Morrow is an alien.

Reflections in the Dark teaches us that reality is not as fixed as we’d like to believe. Sometimes, the most compelling truths are the ones we can never fully grasp. I cannot wait to read the next book in this series!