Crime does pay

THOUGH he is known for writing good historical fiction novels, Julian Lees has always wanted to write crime.
Lees, who has been living in Kuala Lumpur since 2007 with his wife and three children, was an investment banker in Hong Kong (where he grew up), before moving to Malaysia.
During an interview with theSun, Lees said that he started writing his first novel in 2002.
"When you start writing, you have to have confidence to find your own voice," said Lees. "For a while, you don't know where you are really going."
His first book, The Winter Beauty, published by Random House Germany, didn't take off in the way he expected. His writing style then was described as "flowery", which was something the German market liked.
"When I look back and read what I wrote, it seems like a different person wrote that book."
The Winter Beauty was based on his mother's family. His maternal great-grandfather was Eurasian, while his maternal great-grandmother was Russian. Lees said his maternal great-grandmother's family fled Russia during the Bolshevik Revolution (1917) and fled to Harbin and then moved to Shanghai. The story was essentially a romance amidst politics, family disapproval, and war.
Lees' mother and grandparents were forced to leave China after the Cultural Revolution, packing their valuables and moving to then-British colony Hong Kong. Lees' father (who passed away two years ago) fell in love with Lees' mother during an assignment in Hong Kong, married her, and never left.
Lees' other books are the historical novels The House of Trembling Leaves, set in old Malaya, and The Fan Tan Players, set in old Macao. "I always wanted to write crime," said Lees, but was told by his agent that it was a hard genre to get into, and that competition was great. So he was encouraged to write what he knew.
"Writing historical fiction is something I can do but it is very, very time consuming because of all the research.
"Also your style of writing is very different; it is more descriptive." Lees described himself as having a writing style more suited to crime novels.
Eventually, he was ready for his first crime novel, and the result was The Bone Ritual, published in 2016.
His agent took the book to publishing company Constable, and it made him a good offer.
"Sometimes, you know you have a story to tell, and with The Bone Ritual, I had a story to tell," Lees explained.
The Bone Ritual introduced us to Inspector Ruud Pujasumatra, a police officer in Jakarta investigating the murder of a middle-aged woman in the slums who is found tied to her bed, with her left hand amputated and a mahjong tile in her throat.
Ruud's personal life is a mess after his wife left him for another man.
One tiny ray of hope comes in the form of old friend Imke Sneijder from Amsterdam whom he hasn't seen in 15 years. Oddly enough, the case he is investigating is linked to the reason why Imke originally left Indonesia.
The follow-up to The Bone Ritual is The Burnings, where Ruud investigates the death of an Australian woman named Jill Parker, whose scorched remains were discovered in her car. What seems to be a routine homicide turns into something else, as more evidence and bodies show up pointing to the fact that the killer is targeting Christians. Ruud also has to endure political cover-ups in his quest to find the truth.
Asked why he chose Jakarta for his books, Lees said: "I find Jakarta an intriguing city partly because it is so large and so sprawling.
"I have been there so many times and I feel there is an underbelly that is not dark or evil. I find there is a vibe there that is conducive to [telling] a story. I feel that there are secrets within secrets."
Like Lees himself, protagonist Ruud is Eurasian. "I question myself and other authors who write about someone who may not come from the same ethnic background as them. If I made Ruud Indonesian through and through, people would say he does not know because he is not Indonesian. I wanted to give him some authenticity."
Ruud also faces a common problem experienced by policemen all over the world – political interference in high-profile cases.
Lees said that he knows many former policemen in Indonesia who helped provide him insights into what their world is like.
In fact, one of his characters in the books is based on a real person who is a fan of the hit TV series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
"In The Bone Ritual, Ruud comes across as a very nice man who is in a very tough job. Unfortunately, you see [that] in The Burnings, he is slowly turning darker," said Lees, who said Ruud's saga will be a trilogy.
Lees added that with every book he writes, he strives to do better than the last.
"The only thing I can tell potential writers is, don't be scared. Just get it on paper, write the first draft as quickly as you can, and then go back and jazz it up if you have to. "
Lees is currently recharging his batteries, and will write a follow-up to The Burnings when he is ready.