Bob Brissenden was a poet, English academic and the author of two political thrillers, Poor Boy and Wild Cat. The journey to Yugoslavia and Italy was research for a third book about Albanian drug runners.

"He died not long after," Brissenden said. "I always sort of thought in a way I should go back and finish that book he didn't finish but I could not really bring myself to do it."

A quarter of a century later the Four Corners reporter is now a first-time novelist with The List, a political thriller plucked from the news headlines, turning on the tensions between the threat of homegrown terrorism and a besieged Muslim community.

Separately and unbeknown to Brissenden, colleague and Q&A host Tony Jones was also drafting his own fiction manuscript. Jones' The Twentieth Man re-imagines a relatively forgotten terrorism attack on Yugoslavian travel agencies in Sydney in late 1972, six years before the Hilton Bombing. Both debuts were released last week.

There has leen a strong tradition of journalists turning to books after their reporting career has finished. Think Michael Robotham and Michael Connelly.

But as Sydney bookseller Jon Page notes, Brissenden and Jones are part of a growing number of working journalists venturing into fiction.

Journalists Chris Uhlmann and Steve Lewis co-wrote the satirical Canberra-conspiracy thrillers, The Marmalade Files and The Mandarin Code.

Channel Nine's Hugh Riminton has a memoir out in October based on his 40 years on the frontline of television journalism.

Publishers and readers tended to embrace journalists more easily than other authors because of their proven writing prowess, Page said.

"From a publisher's perspective the journalist already has a profile in the community and good media contacts for promotion and from a reader's perspective there is already a level of trust that has been built up.

"This has only been heightened in the social media age as readers feel even more connected to some journalists as they can follow them on social media."

Readers, too, felt a more authentic viewpoint may lie within the story, Page said. "Plus fiction might also give the author a chance to drop in stories they might not otherwise be able to reveal!"

In The Twentieth Man,an ambitious ABC radio journalist gets in way-over-her-head trouble while investigating the attack, leading to the uncovering of a vast conspiracy featuring real characters Lionel Murphy and Gough Whitlam.

Jones admits a debt of thanks to members of the intelligence community, police and political figures, their positions as media gatekeepers giving him knowledge of the inner workings of the political scene.

The List's plot and characters were informed by a long time spent reporting on defence and national security matters but Brissenden said there were no state secrets buried in the text.

"I've always wanted to write fiction," he said. "I dabbled in it in the past. I did actually write a novel about 15 yeas ago which didn't go anywhere. This time it worked.

"I just enjoy the freedom it gives you really, it's quite a liberating experience. You can take the story wherever you want it to go. This genre of fiction has to be believable but it is fiction."