A new mystery novel by a local Black author hit the shelves earlier this month.
Michael Dabney, an Indy-based author and journalist who writes under the pen name MB Dabney, celebrated the release of “Pursuit of the Jade Empress” on May 5. The third book in Dabney’s 1980s mystery series follows private detective David Blaise as he gets roped into investigating a convoluted case of a missing piece of jewelry.
Dabney sat down with the Recorder to discuss his writing process, developing characters and what he loves about “Pursuit of the Jade Empress.”
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Responses have been edited for brevity and clarity.
Tell me a little bit about your newest book, “Pursuit of the Jade Empress.” Where does this sit chronologically in the series?
Michael Dabney: This is the third one. They are currently happening in chronological order, and this one takes place in May 1986. David Blaise is a young detective; he’s in his early 30s. He’s a Black detective in Philadelphia in the mid-1980s, and he’s a Navy veteran. He’s drawn into a search for this necklace — it belonged to a famous actor in the 1930s, and the actor died about two years before this takes place — it was a famous piece of jewelry because of the actor he was going to give it to. … Someone is coming after David Blaise because he bought an antique necklace from a jewelry store, not knowing it was a stolen piece of Hollywood memorabilia, and it was connected to a murder.
At the same time, what’s going on in Philadelphia right before the book is actually set, a young woman was stabbed and killed outside a Wawa, and the alleged killer was a formerly convicted drug user who was a Black male. By the time the police found him, he had overdosed. When they come to David Blaise and say, ‘This doesn’t seem right. Why don’t you look into this?,’ he is reluctantly brought into that as well.
He has other work going on, but these two cases at the same time, and he’s working through them. There’s a dangerous person back there, lurking, who will do anything, including go through David Blaise, to obtain the Jade Empress.
What was the inspiration behind this specific case/mystery? Did you witness anything like this when you were a reporter in Philadelphia in the ‘80s, or is this more fantastical?
Dabney: I don’t remember what the specific inspiration was, but the two things I like about it, and what I think about, are that there was a famous actor named William Powell, and he did “The Thin Man” movies back in the ‘30s and in the ‘40s. He dated some of the famous blonde bombshells of the 1930s, and one of them was Jean Harlow. He was in love with Jean Harlow, and they were going to get married. He [Powell] died in 1984 at the age of 91-92 or something like that, but Jean Harlow died in 1937.
This is fantastical, but I know in this story he had this necklace made for Jean Harlow, and after Jean Harlow died, he kept it. He never did anything with it, even though he married someone else in the early ‘40s and remained married to that wife until his death. But that was part of the impetus, because I liked ‘The Thin Man’ movies. I like William Powell… I just made up everything else.
Now that you’re three books into this series, you’ve got a pretty solid footing in this world. Is there anything new you’re beginning to learn or explore with your characters and their motivations or the world they live in?
Dabney: Well, that is a truly good question, and the answer is yes. There are several things that I learned about him, and about him in particular, that just truly surprised me — that I didn’t know when I made him up. In the first book published, he [Blaise] had two brothers and a sister, all of them younger. I had written about both his sister and one of his brothers in previous books, but in this one, I explore his youngest brother.
The surprising thing, both for me as a writer and a person, it helps when you discover things about characters and their background, and you can use them. It helps explain who this character is in the present day, in his present day, and that’s one of my favorite things about this book.
David Blaise as a character, is a person, both personally and professionally, who pursues justice. That’s one of those motivating characteristics. And in this book, you get to see through his youngest brother, partly how that came about, that aspect of his personality.
What might surprise readers about this book?
Dabney: The thing about writing mysteries is that it’s like being a magician. You want characters to be focused on what’s over here to the right, when what’s really important is going on to the left, but you have to give them the opportunity throughout the book to figure it out, so that when the truth is revealed at the end or near the very, very end, they will be surprised but satisfied because you didn’t just pull a rabbit out of the hat. I like that about this book, and about the others as well.
Has your writing process changed at all since the first two books in the series? You’ve been writing David Blaise since 2021. How do you stay motivated?
Dabney: Partly because when I start writing it, I just try to keep my mind open without getting too far into the weeds in terms of how one writes. I don’t like plot, and I don’t like writing out a plot, but I do usually write the first draft in a very, very short matter of weeks. Then I usually write out some of it in longhand and let that be my guide — but without being specific, because I like being surprised. I like it when something comes along, and it surprises me as a writer, and that’s part of the motivation.
In the fourth book of the series, which I’m just finishing up, there are several things in the last two months about David Blaise’s past that I did not know, and I just find that kind of fun and exciting, and that’s something that can keep you motivated — at least it keeps me motivated.
“Pursuit of the Jade Empress” is available to purchase on Amazon. Paperbacks are $17, and the ebook or Kindle edition is $2.99. The official book launch party is scheduled for June 7 at MacArthur Books, 2169 Glebe St., #100a, Carmel. For more information, visit mbdabney.com.
Contact Arts & Culture Reporter Chloe McGowan at 317-762-7848. Follow her on X @chloe_mcgowanxx.
Chloe McGowan is the Arts & Culture Reporter for the Indianapolis Recorder Newspaper. Originally from Columbus, OH, Chloe has a bachelor's in journalism from The Ohio State University. She is a former IndyStar Pulliam Fellow, and has previously worked for Indy Maven, The Lantern, and CityScene Media Group. In her free time, Chloe enjoys live theatre, reading, baking and keeping her plants alive.
