Bookwild - Blood Rubies by Mailan Doquang: International Jewel Heists and a Lovable Anti-Hero

Episode Date: May 7, 2024

This week, I talk with Mailan Doquang about her action packed jewel heist thriller Blood Rubies.  She shares how her work as an architectural historian influenced the way she approached writing fiction, and we discuss our mutual love for anti-heroes.Follow Mailan on InstagramCheck out Blood RubiesBlood Rubies SynopsisSeven days are all it takes for Rune Sarasin’s life to completely derail. It starts with a routine heist: lifting a pouch of rubies from the Bangkok hotel room of wealthy smuggler Charles Lemaire. Rune nearly gets caught when Lemaire’s goons give chase, but she manages to escape with her boyfriend Kit. Then Kit delivers some terrifying news: his teenage sister Madee has gone missing. They track her cell phone to the dangerous Khlong Toei slum, but the trail ends there. The night gets even worse when Rune realizes she lost the pouch of gems somewhere in the slum while searching for Madee.Charles Lemaire is the wrong man to mess with. He is a perfectionist when it comes to both his attire and his crimes, and he isn’t afraid to kill to get what he wants. When he catches up to Rune and Kit, he gives Rune an ultimatum: return his rubies or she will never see her boyfriend again. Now Rune must race against time to either recover the lost gems or find something even more valuable with which to ransom Kit back from Lemaire. But she also still needs to find out what happened to Madee. As Rune investigates deeper into the shadows of the Khlong Toei slum, she uncovers a web of crime with consequences far more insidious than just one missing girl and a handful of stolen rubies.  Get Bookwild MerchCheck Out My Stories Are My Religion SubstackCheck Out Author Social Media PackagesCheck out the Bookwild Community on PatreonCheck out the Imposter Hour Podcast with Liz and GregFollow @imbookwild on InstagramOther Co-hosts On Instagram:Gare Billings @gareindeedreadsSteph Lauer @books.in.badgerlandHalley Sutton @halleysutton25Brian Watson @readingwithbrian 

This week I'm talking jewel heists with Mylan Doquang from her debut thriller Blood Ruby's that I just had so much fun reading. It is an action-packed jewel heist thriller that spans multiple countries and I just couldn't put it out. It was amazing. But it is about Rune Saracen, who is about to learn just how quickly the life of a jewel thief can spiral out of control. Seven days are all it takes for Rune Sarastin's life to completely derail. It starts with a typical lifting a pouch of rubies from the Bangkok hotel room of wealthy smuggler Charles Lamar. Rune nearly gets caught and Lamar's goons give chase, but they are no match for the clever motorbike maneuvers of Rune and her boyfriend Kit. As the high of the chase wears off, Kit delivers some terrifying news that his teenage sister Maddie has gone missing.

They track her cell phone to the dangerous Klong Tuai. Sorry if I'm mispronouncing that, slum. But the trail ends there. The night gets even worse when Rune realizes she lost the pouch of Jim somewhere in the slum while searching for Maddie. Charles Mammar is the wrong man to mess with. He is a perfectionist when it comes to both his attire and his crimes, and he isn't even afraid to kill to get what he wants.

When he catches up to Rune and Kit, he gives Rune he gives Rune an option return his rubies or she will never see her boyfriend again now Rune must race against time to either recover the lost gyms or find something even more valuable

with which to ransom kit back from Lamar but she also still needs to find out what happened to Maddie as Rune investigates deeper into the shadows of the Klong toy slum she uncovers a web of crimes with consequences far more insidious than just one

missing girl and a handful of stolen rubies. I said it in my review and you'll hear me talk about it in an interview too. This book has such a strong sense of place. It really feels like you're reading a spy thriller. So it's a jewel heist, but I think fans of like action and spy thrillers in that sense would really enjoy it as well. And it made so much sense to me after I read it that I found when I found out that Mylan is a architectural historian. And I was like, oh, this makes everything makes sense about how like strongly I like felt like I was exactly where these characters were. She dives into that a little bit more on this episode. So let's get into it. Before we totally dive into the book, I did want to get to know a little bit about you. So when did you know that

you wanted to be an author or when were you like, I have a story I need to write? So I started writing fiction. It's fairly recently like five years ago, but I've always written. I was, you know, an English major in college. So I did a lot of reading and writing about literature. And writing has been central to my work as an art and architectural historian. As a graduate student, you know, had to produce a dissertation, which is essentially a book. I never published that book, that dissertation, but I published a book on a different topic in 2018 with Oxford. And I realized after I published that book that what I loved most about academia wasn't the research or the teaching, though I enjoy both those things. But it was really the writing, like the process of creating a narrative and putting it down on the page.

And I also realized that I didn't want to write, I didn't want to produce any more academic work. As an academic, my work was really, it's been really narrow. Like we get very specialized. And I had this sense that I was always addressing the same sort of narrow group of people, like in my writing and at conferences. And so I was sort of at a, you know, at an impasse because on the one hand, I wanted to keep writing. On the other hand, I didn't want to write academic stuff anymore. So I don't want to say that fiction was a whim, but it was definitely not the most thought-out decision that I've made.

I'd never taken a creative writing course. I had no idea. I think I didn't know anything about commercial publishing. And in some ways, that was good, because I didn't know what I didn't know. And so I sort of left in. And, you know, I don't know that I would have left in quite so. willingly if I'd been more aware of the obstacles that, you know, that you face as an author, right?

It's not just the writing, but like everything that comes after you've produced the book, like from querying and trying to find the right agent to the thing with the right editor. So, yeah, so I, you know, I left in and wrote my first book, which will never see the light of day. It was, you know, it was a thriller and it had every mistake that one day. can make writing a novel I made with that first effort. Practicing. Yes. That's a generous way of saying it.

It was crazy. It had like 12 point of view characters or something insane like that. Yeah, no, it was completely bananas. But I fell in love with writing fiction. It was like the most rewarding type of writing that I've ever done. And yeah. And so I decided to try again.

and that's the product is blood rubies that is so cool um so you you've kind of written for a long time but more academic and um i mean i just think it's cool getting to a point where you're like well now why not take a stab at fiction like switch it up a little bit um so you mentioned you had like this first book you wrote um with all your characters and And now you've written blood. Excuse me. Now you've written blood rubies. What does your fiction writing process look like now?

And was it influenced by any of your academic writing? Yeah. In kind of general ways, academia helped me. And sort of specifically, my field of study helped me a lot, just architecture and urbanism. So, you know, writing is writing. Like, it doesn't matter if I'm writing an academic book or article or a novel, they both require, you know, a huge amount of work and rigor and commitment.

So, and, you know, it's a commitment that you have to make kind of, for me, it's like, it's not just one day like, oh, I'm going to write, you know, I'm going to write a book. It's a commitment that I have to make over and over. Every time I carve out time to write, I have to kind of recommit to writing because it's hard, right? it's it's a lot of work. So in terms of discipline, my academic background was a huge help. And then and then my field of study is architecture and urbanism. So, you know, I put space in place at the center of my writing in terms of, you know, in my academic writing. And so that's also my point of departure for fiction. Like with blood movies, I started with setting. I really wanted to write

story that was set in New York and Bangkok. New York has been my home for the bulk of my adult life. Bangkok is where it's like one of my favorite cities. It's where my husband did his research. And so I like barnacled myself to him on his research. So I really love the city. And yeah, and that's where I started. I just wanted to write these two places. And everything else came, came after that. Character's plot, everything. Yeah, which I think is probably a way. weird way of writing, but most people have an idea about plot first, but yeah, I started with place. That's cool, because that was going to be one of my follow-up questions. I read your dear reader letter where you mentioned that you were an architectural historian, so I was going to

ask, like, how that affected the book, because from my perspective, it was, I mean, before I'd read your dear reader letter, in my review, I talked about, like, it has such a strong sense of place. And so then for me, it kind of made it feel even more. It's not a spy thriller because it is like jewel heist thriller, but the like really strongly rooted locations and like they feel very real and the way they're like navigating the cities when they're like trying to get away from people. I didn't know that I was going to be clearing my throat this whole time. it felt very real and I feel like it made it more kind of like cinematic is typically the word I use in this case or like it felt like in spy shows where you're like you get the little typed screen that's like Bangkok

like when you when you're switching locations basically so it really that really came through for me so that that's I think it's kind of cool and unique that that's already where you knew that it was was just like how you were going to start was setting since that's kind of already where you're coming from. I'm so glad to hear you say that too because the setting is so important. I worked so hard to try to drop readers into these places. I mean, it helps that helps that I've been to both places and that I know them pretty well. You know, they both had kind of a huge impact on my life. But yeah, I think that the way that I write about architecture as an academic isn't just, you know, I don't just look at the way the buildings look, you know, it's not just form, it's not just design, or even meaning.

But what I do is I like to think about how people would have navigated these spaces, you know, and the impact of architecture and urbanism on how you move, how you feel. Your environment always pushes back on you, right? Like, there are ways that it impacts you. And that's definitely something that I do in my work as an architecture historian and something that I definitely carried over in fiction. Yeah. So once you kind of had your settings, I'm sure it did help that you had lived in both locations,

once you kind of knew the setting feel, how did you get to know your characters? Or like, how did you kind of develop them? Right. So I would say that I needed a protagonist who made sense in both places. And I didn't set out to write a mixed race character, which sounds so strange because I'm mixed race and I kind of really leaned into it once I came to that decision. But it really wasn't the intention at the outset. It was really, you know, setting. And then I needed someone who, you know, who really made sense in Bangkok and New York. And in retrospect, you know, it could have gone in a different way. Like I could have made her, there's so many backpackers, right? Like people from America and Europe who go to Southeast Asia. backpack so she could have been that but um but i you know i made her a mixed race and and then really leaned

into that um drawing on you know my experiences is growing up mixed race and and my siblings and other people i know um but ultimately like i wanted you know i like anti heroes so i i knew from the outset that i wanted to write a story that was about a thief i love heist i always have um When I was, when I was young, my mom used to check out Maurice Leblanc's Arsene-Lupin books. And so, like, this idea of the gentleman thief has been with me for a really long time. And I just love me. Yeah, I just think that anti-heroes are fascinating for readers and for writers, right? Like, as readers, like, they're, you know, they challenge us to face truths about who we are as humans, right?

like entirely good, not entirely bad, like that line is very blurred. And as a writer, they, like, they built suspense into the story because we never know, like, what the anti-hero is going to do, right? Because a hero, like a traditional hero will behave in a predictably heroic way, right? Like, Jack Reacher is going to do the right thing. He's going to go after the bad guy. And the villain is going to do the same thing, right? The villain behaves in a predictably villainous way.

But the anti-hero is like, you never really know. And I wanted to kind of tap into that with Roon. I wanted a thief. I wanted someone who often does the wrong thing. So that it's like for one thing, it makes them more human to me. It makes a character more human. But also it builds suspense into a story in a way that you have to achieve in different ways when you're dealing with a like a conventional hero.

So yeah. So there is a, I guess, to to run. write a mixed race character on the one hand and then write an anti-hero. So all these things kind of coalesced. And yeah, and then I, you know, I don't outline. So the, the characters sort of become more, more complete in my mind and in my writing as I do the work of writing. Yeah. That's cool. I talk about anti-heroes a lot because, well, I think they're kind of prevalent in thrillers too. So that's probably some of where that comes from. But I've always found them so intriguing because I also feel like we kind of live vicariously through them in some cases.

So it's like there to be an anti-hero and not a not completely a villain, it's something where you're like you understand their motivations and like you know why they're doing what they're doing. And in most cases there's some loosely defined greater good, even if it's a little bit it like gray. And so I think it's fun because we kind of get to like imagine like what if I had something that like I maybe needed to do some shady stuff to achieve. So like you kind of like live through the idea of like getting to act that out without like actually doing it in your real life. So I think I think they're always fun for that reason. Like you get to like all of us kind of want to do something like crazy or maybe a little bit risky.

stuff for all kinds of reasons. And with anti-heroes, we kind of get to, like, do that journey from our couch safely. Totally agree. Totally agree. I mean, there's so much about thrillers and thrillers that feature anti-heroes that I love. And that's one, what all the things you said, absolutely. And then like the vicarious travel for me is another big thing. Like you mentioned spy thrillers and so many of them are set in these kind of, you know, far-flung locations, some of the really glamorous and, you know, I love traveling. I don't get to do it as much as I can't, as much as I'd like. And so, yeah, doing it like vicariously, like what you're saying with the anti-hero, we kind of live out our darker, our darker, then, yeah, so much of that is,

is the thrill of the thriller, right? But, um, so you knew you kind of wanted an anti-hero. Is that what led you to her being a jewel thief? Or where did you decide the kind of like jewel heist perspective? So that also is something that came as I wrote. So initially I wanted to. I'm just like, it's so funny because I wish I'm a painter. I wish I were a plotter because, you know, it seems like it would be so comforting to have an outline at the outset,

but so many things came as I did the work of writing. So initially, I wanted to write a book that dealt with, you know, because I'm coming from an art background, like I'm really interested in like the illegal trade in cultural property, like antiquities, trafficking, that kind of thing, right? But then because I've chosen Bangkok as sort of the central location of the book, it made sense to go with jewels and gemstones. Because Bangkok is a huge center for the gemstone trade. Like, it's recognized. It's a global center for, you know, processing gemstones and the buying and selling of gemstones.

So it just, it just made sense to go in that direction. Yeah. No, that totally makes sense. And then it kind of, the subplot, I'm trying to remember if that's in the synopsis or not. I don't want to spoil it. But kind of one of the subplots gets into like the other crime that is like other crimes that are prevalent there as well. So did you have to do any research for any of that stuff? Or was it just kind of like from living there, you kind of knew what could be happening there? So, you know, there, I think in any big city, there are, you know, there's organized crime and different types of crime, different types of trafficking, you know, from like gun trafficking to drugs to human trafficking.

And so, yeah, I had to, you know, you want to ground the work. work in, you want to ground the book in reality. And so I did do research for, for the book. Most of it was, you know, just reading articles about the types of crimes that happen in Bangkok, the types of crime that are, you know, that it's known for and some that it's not that well known for. Like I think, you know, people think Bangkok and they think human trafficking, they think sex and the sex trade. And that, you know, that's something that, you know, it's only one aspect of the type of, of that occurs in most major cities, right? Yeah.

So yeah, most of it was I was able to do from sort of reading, reading newspaper articles and sort of Yeah. And that kind of thing. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I was mentioning earlier how it felt really cinematic in a lot of the different scenes when they're like rushing through the streets or like trying to hide in different places. Do you, are you like, do you watch like action movies?

Were you like acting it out in your head? Like how are you writing like the more intense action scenes? 100%. I am a huge fan of thrillers and heist in particular and I will devour them in all their forms. Like true crime, you know, novels, television series, movies. It doesn't matter if there were a high play, I would go. I just love them. And so, yeah, and I think, you know, when I write, I do visualize the scenes and I try to

walk people through them, you know, walk readers through them the way that the characters are experiencing them. Yeah, and that includes, you know, being attentive to details about the setting, whether it's the, you know, the sights or the sounds or the smells or whatever. I try to be really attentive to that to, yeah, to immerse readers in the place and try to, you know, get them to come along on this journey that the characters are on. Yeah. Yeah, totally. I felt that for sure. You have, so there's, we're not like totally in the perspective of the bad guy, but we have some chapters with him. He is like dark and terrible and kind of terrifying. Was it like, I know, I know like plenty of people write like really scary characters like that, but was there like anything difficult about like just like writing some of the horrific stuff that he did? I mean, I think that it's so funny. I was just at the Edgars and got a chance to talk to a lot of other authors who, you know, find create ways of describing, you know, people's deaths and murders.

And it's really because one person was telling me that, you know, thriller writers and mystery writers are kind of the nicest people because we get our questions out in our writing, like this kind of darkness with our, you know, with our villains. Like we, you know, we tap into whether it's, you know, dark thoughts that we have or things that we see sort of in the world, like in the news or in our environments. Like I think that we tap into those things. and put them on the age. So that's what I did.

You know, like we all have kind of dark, dark aspects of her personalities. And like, you know, there are so many dark things going on in the world. So it's, for me, it's not hard to imagine a really, really kind of dangerous, violent person is not. It's not that far as stretched to imagine, right? But weirdly, it doesn't, like, they don't stay with me. Though the bad, there's and the dark, those don't, like, I don't, like, I don't carry those. Yeah. Yeah, they are, and it is like really short chapters that you're ever like

navigating his world with him basically. So that would totally make sense too. So do you have any ideas for for a next book? Are you working on anything else? So I recently submitted the second, I guess, part of Blood Ruby's to my editors. Okay. That's what I thought. I saw. Yeah. So that's that's in you know out of my hands now, which is really nice. Yeah. And then I am, I've been working on a standalone for a while that's pretty different. Yeah, it's a lot quieter. It's not as kind of action forward as what Ruby's and Ruby's too, which does not have a title yet. And so yeah, it's more of a psychological thriller and it's yeah. And it's it does what I sort of had set out to do, you know, with Blood Ruby's, topping into sort of my area of expertise. And so it's

about a Vietnamese museum curator whose life unravels after she becomes the victim of a violent crime. So it's New York based. Yeah. So, but it's in early stages. So kind of still at the, a really exciting time because it's so open-ended right now. Yeah. That is so cool. I thought I saw something about Blood Ruby's too, but like as I was about to ask the question, my brain was like, wait, am I mixing my memory? So I'm not, I'm not crazy. I thought I saw something about a sequel. And I call it super fun. Yeah, I call it blood. Yeah, I call it Blum to ruin too. There we go. I love that. Well, I've been asking people at the end, if they have read anything recently that they loved or watched, like, just anything. I know some people don't read while they're

writing. So if you also haven't, that's okay, too. I am an avid reader and I read really broadly. So I love like everything like memoirs to, you know, true crime and heist. I kind of read really broadly. Yeah. There are like two books that stand out staying with the kind of heist theme. I read David Gordon's David Gordon, yeah, the pigeon, which is a girl. It's about a guy who steals a pigeon, a million dollar pigeon, which is,

just like the greatest premise for a heist. It is. It's a racing pigeon that he steals from an Upper West Side apartment. And it is, it's actually like not at all the kind of thing I normally read because I like to usually travel. Like I like, you know, this is a New York Facebook. It's like grittier than what I, you know, and it's got like a lot of humor. It's fabulous. It's great. And then, and that's like a recent, I think that came out just last year. And then I've been reading, this is a little older, but it's a true crime book about this American, young American guy who is studying, I think he's studying music in London, and he stole like 300 bird, like bird specimens from a natural history museum outside London. It's about the feather heist or the feather

thief or something like that. Kirk Johnson. And it is fabulous, highly recognize. I think, all the weird things to steal. Yeah, he would sell the feathers online to, like, fly fishermen or like, so they could make their lures. Okay. So, you know, I read to weird heist. So this one was, like, the most unique. Yeah. So it's a really unique, I think it won awards.

It's like, it's a fabulous read. And it's a true story, which is even more kind of, like, yeah, it's definitely a must read. That is so cool. So the pigeon and the feather house. I think it's either the feather heist or the feather thief. It's just great. Which also now I'm realizing on your Instagram, you have lots of photos of birds. You're also a bird washer. Is that what I, am I putting all these pieces together right now? Yeah. So I'm a COVID birder. So there's nothing to do in 2020 in New York except go to

go to a look at birds. So yes. So I think that has inflected how I read and the types of things. I read for sure. That's awesome. I have my moments when I get fixated on something and it shows up everywhere. So I love that. So where should people follow you to keep up with everything that you've got in the works? The best way to follow me is Instagram. That's the one that I'm sort of most active on and that's at Author Mylon. Yes. Yes. That's good. I will link that in the show notes too for everyone so you guys can all go follow her there as well and hopefully they'll be on maybe next year or whenever talking about the second addition to blood rubies that would be fabulous awesome well thank you for coming on thanks for having me it's good talking to you