The book, due out in April from Five Star/Gale/Cenage, also draws on many other experiences from Aalborg's life. He has trained gundogs and spent nearly 20 years in Tasmania. And his work as a journalist, "so long ago that it was still a respectable profession," he says, helped him become a better writer.

But his fiction writing career didn't start with hard-edged ripped-from-the-headlines plots. It had a softer side. A more feminine side, even.

His first novel was a romance title published under the pseudonym Victoria Gordon, who went on to write another twenty. "Thriller writing is much, much more difficult," he said. "I got into thrillers after I married mystery (and romance) author Denise Dietz, and became involved in what euphemistically might be  called 'domestics' about which genre is harder to work in. "Before we got together we actually wrote a romantic suspense (FINDING BESS) together, via e-mail, with me in Tassie and her in Colorado. What a hoot--she kept wanting to kill people off and I kept wanting to get them into bed together."

Turning to thrillers helped in "maintaining some semblance of domestic harmony and my proper role in the household firmament," he added.

DINING WITH DEVILS is his second novel starring Sgt. Banes. And although he says he feels drawn back to that character, he most enjoyed writing Viv, a geriatric Tasmanian rascal, or "rum'n" in Australian parlance, and the old man's recalcitrant Jack Russell terrier Bluey, who also features in both books and a third in progress.

"I have known and liked many such characters both in the Canadian bush and in Tassie, and they are genuine characters--engaging, infuriating, unique each in his/her own way, and fascinating."

Bouncing among cultures, from Australia to Tasmania to Canada to the United States, has exposed him to a huge range of such people, he says. And the linguistic differences are equally rich.

"I have been known to say that I can read, write and edit in several languages--Canadian English, British English, Australian and/or Kiwi English and what passes for English with your mob," he said.

For more on Aalborg and DINING WITH DEVILS, visit his Web site, www.gordonaalborg.com.

Contributing editor Gerry Doyle is the author of numerous short stories published in the United States, abroad and on the Internet. His first novel, From the Depths, was released in November 2007 by McBooks Press. He has worked as an editor and a reporter for the Chicago Tribune since 2001. He's also OK at ping-pong and has had cocktails on three continents. He doesn't put much stock in astrology but just in case: He's a Leo.