This blog has been full recently of discussing “Beyond Dark” and the upcoming launch of “Belladonna” (it’s coming, I promise! I want to release the best damn quality book I can!). This week, I want to turn attention to something I haven’t discussed much here: The spinoff series.
I started “Beyond Cover” back in May upon being laid off work. I had the extra time to experiment with some writing. Exploring certain characters and their stories had been on my mind for some months prior. I did not expect it to be as successful as it has, or for my Booksie readers to love the characters like they do.
“Beyond Cover” is in the same fictional world as “Beyond Dark” but it delves deeper into the criminal underworld with the stories of Agents Dwayne MacMorris and Emily Abbett, both undercover agents in the Russian mafia. Dwayne is a grouchy, angry veteran agent who lost his wife and kids tragically six years ago. As a rookie, Emily is trying to prove herself to the International Crime Bureau that she can also be a prolific woman in the agency. She’s a little lost and not sure which direction her life might take once her undercover mission is done, but the mission itself leads her down an expected path. While Dwayne throws his weight around with tough mobsters, Emily slowly infiltrates an international jewel thief group – the Ruby Spiders.
My research on jewel thieves has been fascinating. It took some time to find, but the documentary “Smash and Grab: The Story of the Pink Panthers” was incredibly insightful. The Pink Panthers are an organization of about 200-220 people who perform jewel heists around the world. The 2007 heist in the Wafi shopping mall in Dubai is famously credited to the Pink Panthers. They stole over $4 million worth of jewelry. It was in 2007 that Interpol began seeing links between heists and realizing that they all were likely connected to the same thieves.
This wasn’t even their largest job, by far. Through 371 jobs in 35 countries, they have taken in heists worth a total of $500 million. In London, England, 2003, they robbed a high-end jewelry store and took off with over $40 million worth of diamonds. This was the largest jewel heist in British history. Then in Copenhagen, Denmark, 2007, a million dollars in jewels were stolen from a jewelry store in a hotel lobby in front of guests.
My research focus is typically on serial killers. That’s my point of fascination, but the Pink Panthers story has stolen my intrigue. Wrapped up in mystery, shrouded in stories of quick, efficient smash and grabs in high end jewelry stores around the world, the level of organization could put a typical mafia to shame. They’re guys who can crack a safe in under two minutes. Bypass any alarm system, or simply break them. And they are non-violent. There has only been one serious injury in the years the organization has been active. They scout out the locations for months beforehand. A man who was a former Pink Panther, interviewed in the “Smash and Grab” documentary said it takes about four months to plan the whole thing. The women of the Pink Panthers go into the locations, memorize the layout, when staff come and go, and every detail possible, before going back to a sketch artist to have it all drawn out. Dressed in expensive designer clothes, requesting a ring resizing or something, it seems innocent enough for her to go in. The woman interviewed, also a former Pink Panther, told her personal story of how she came to enter and leave the organization and how she scouted out locations before the heists took place.
Jewel thieves are mesmerizing, whether they are speeding through the doors of a mall, smashing glass cases in real life or slipping into museums or cracking safes as time ticks down across movie screens. They capture imaginations because they are simply so elusive. And yet, as mentioned in the documentary, one heist can provide a nice life for about ten years.
Image by Briam Cute on Pixabay
What else fascinated me was the thieves' attitude towards diamonds. They are merely valuable things they are taking from the rich to enrich themselves. The thief interviewed in the documentary said he doesn't know why people spend money on diamonds, and it does make one wonder. The only real reason diamonds or jewels have any value at all is because human beings gave them that monetary value. We saw shiny things and decided they were worth something, and now they are things rich people willingly drop millions of dollars on. Hell, in 2015, the "Blue Moon" diamond sold for an astonishing $48.5 million dollars. $48.5 million. Someone had this money hanging around they dropped every last fucking cent on a rock. Wrap your head around that! The second-most expensive diamond in the world is currently set on the crown of the Queen of England. The "Cullinan" Diamond is worth up to $2 billion. At the top of the most expensive diamonds in the world, according to Google, is the "Koh-I-Noor" Diamond, though the value is listed online as "unknown" - but to be worth more than $2 billion?? Madness. Complete God damn madness. Anyone else want to cringe with me at the amount of money some people have and will willingly drop on diamonds? Sickening, really. No wonder the Pink Panthers live nicely for a decade after a heist. As the woman interviewed said, it was a life of luxury. (I consulted this list of diamonds for these numbers.)
Anyway! I was a bit unsure of where Emily’s story was heading, but this gave me some ideas for her. Not much else is known on the Pink Panthers, so I will be using creativity for the fictional jewel thief group I created. Emily encounters the Ruby Spiders near the end of “Beyond Cover 1: Diamond Gamble” after she and Dwayne lose track of some agency diamonds. Whoops! Upon that encounter, one of the Ruby Spiders leaders asks Emily if she’d like to join them. If Emily does this, she’d be the first undercover agent to infiltrate the group. It would be an amazing move for her career, but going deep undercover is no light business.
A typical undercover job means one is home at night. It’s short term. Deep undercover is the Donnie Brasco of undercover work. You move out of your home, change your entire identity and you become that identity full time, no stop. This means Emily would be sacrificing her entire personal life, contact with her family and everything for this job. It’s not an easy choice. Does she do it? We’ll have to find out.
One of my favourite parts of writing is where research can take me, and what it can bring to my writing. Sometimes real life is indeed stranger than fiction. Reading about these heists makes one marvel at how alike to action movies they are. It’s exciting to be able to weave it into my own books. This experimental spinoff is becoming its own story, and I am looking forward to writing more on it. I wasn’t initially sure whether I was going to self-publish this series or not, but I think I will. I read an article recently on how publishing a series is one of the more profitable ways to make a living on books, and how writing within that same fictional universe can be profitable since readers are already accustomed to that world and some of the characters.
In the meantime, I am posting the first drafts of “Beyond Cover” on Booksie, alongside “Beyond Dark”. Feel free to check it out and let me know what you think! I also have some articles about the Pink Panthers to share:
The Guardian in the UK featured the filmmaker behind the "Smash and Grab" documentary, Havana Marking. This is a great article as a preview of the documentary. While I had a hard time finding anywhere to stream (especially in Canada) I did find the DVD on Amazon.
This 2014 CBS article also gives great insight into the Pink Panthers and some of their heists.
And for that article of publishing a series, for my fellow authors.
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