The Bendigo author has released his third murder-mystery book - titled Deep Down - which sees his main protagonist Detective Sergeant Rory James investigate bones uncovered in a gemstone fossicking site in the Grampians.

King, who grew up in Horsham and moved to Bendigo as an adult, took up fiction writing after a career writing about government projects.

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"I had a job in government looking after major capital works projects," he said. "There's quite a lot of writing requirements in that for pretty dry business cases, treasury submissions, cabinet papers and that sort of thing.

"So when I retired, I was able to sort of continue the writing for pleasure - for good rather than evil, as I like to say.

"I was writing for Bendigo Magazine for about 10 years and then it sort of moved into novels. It's a different discipline when you start writing, dialogue and stuff."

In his 10 years as a novelist, King has also written Wetland and A Vintage Death - both set in regional Victoria and both following Detective Sergeant Rory James.

"They're all murder mysteries with the same protagonist - Rory James," he said. "Rory James has the characteristics of a few people. I've had to sort of seek coppers out for the technical things in the books."

For Deep Down, King created a strong female protagonist after being inspired during NAIDOC Week.

"Tahlia Lock is an Indigenous, female, archaeologist," he said. "That came from watching The Drum on ABC during NAIDOC week and seeing these young, success females.

"They were all so impressive that there was no way I couldn't not create a (similar character). It was an inspirational moment for sure."

Deep Down was written over the last two years.

King said it grew from his own historical research of a parish in the Grampians.

"I actually wrote a local history of the area where it's set out over in the Grampians," he said. "That was just for me and it sort of reinforced for this.

"So then it was probably a year writing the novel, which grew out of that (history piece) identifying gemstone sites, Aboriginal history, a lot of geography and stuff."

King said he likes to solve the mystery as he writes.

"I like to have the murder there as unsolved as possible," he said. "I like to create that as well as solve it as I go - writing to solve the problem.

"Then as we go solving through the book, I have to come back to the earlier chapters and plant the clues.

"It's not set out on a whiteboard or anything, which makes it interesting for me to be a problem solving thing."

Deep Down by Colin King is available in book stores now and can be bought online as a book or e-book.

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