Photo credit: Christina Körte

As you toil away writing in the back room of your two-up two-down spare a thought for poor old Colin Cotterill, who pens his crime novels in a small fishing village in southeast Asia. Colin’s the author of the Dr. Siri mystery books – he won the CWA’s prestigious Dagger In The Library Award in 2009 – and the third in his trilogy of Jimm Juree novels, The Axe Factor, comes out in paperback on Thursday.

Born in London, Colin has travelled the globe since 1975. He’s put all his experiences of the region – including working in child protection in Laos and Thailand – into his novels. In this fascinating intel interview Colin tells us about Jimm Juree, scribbling his first book on the back of bus tickets — and his life writing and illustrating in the shade of papaya trees.

Tell us about The Axe Factor…

The Axe Factor is the…