WITH the release of Colin King’s novel ‘Deep Down’, the third in a series following the unsettled career of Detective Sergeant Rory James, the author has made good on his intention to write a Grampians-based murder mystery.

Launched in Cavendish last month, Mr King’s own bushland “writer’s retreat” property at Mooralla, roughly 20 kilometres to the north-west, forms the inspiration for the opening of the book, with a smoky-quartz crystal fossicking site nearby.