Retired Imperial general Kaspar von Velten is sent to Kislev as ambassador to the court of Tsarina Katarin. Intrigue and danger await…

Writer’s Commentary

Originally, this was a story I’d intended to be the first of a series that would build into a novel that revolved around a retired Empire general who had been put out to pasture in Kislev, but who quickly became embroiled in the murky world of politics and the hunt for a deadly serial killer. As far as pacing goes, it’s a pretty measured story, but that was deliberate as I had already planned on what was going to happen in the next one. I liked the character of Kaspar von Velten, as he was a good, honest character, but one who wasn’t perfect. He wasn’t a pure hero; he had flaws and foibles just like the rest of us. As it turned out, The Ambassador never ended up as a series, but rather was turned into a pair of novels…so it’s not all bad, eh? By this time, I’d already written the follow up story, ‘A Frosty Reception’, but it was never published. But it wasn’t wasted effort because I was able to use a lot of the text I’d written in Ursun’s Teeth.