The Aussie-born Scotsman, who lives in Edinburgh, is set to release Paying For It in the UK in June and it's already drawing a lot of attention.

The Edinburgh Evening News is hailing Black as the man to watch in crime fiction in 2008 and the author's own hero - Irish novelist Ken Bruen - has called Paying For It "one adrenalin-pumped novel... (that) blasts off the page like a triple malt".

"For me, praise doesn't go any higher than Ken's," Black said.

"Everyone who has read the book has been blown away, which is unbelievable, but very nice."

Paying For It follows the adventures of washed-up investigator Gus Dury, who finds himself up to his neck in murder, people smuggling and dodgy politicians.

Random House has already picked up Black's second Dury novel called Gutted.

Black said he began writing Paying For It while working at The Standard from 2002 to 2004.

"I didn't get more than about half a dozen chapters in before life intervened and I had to put it down," he said.

"It was back in Scotland about a year later when I picked it up again.

"This is actually fifth-time lucky for me. I wrote two novels before I came to Warrnambool which, although they were taken on by an agent, didn't sell. I wrote another two in Warrnambool, both set in Australia, and they were also both taken on by agents in the UK and the USA but . . . they never got a bite."