Barry Evetts spent just over three years in Panama working for shipping company affiliated with the now defunct Flota Mercante Grancolombiana Group. Much of that time was on projects as diverse as helping develop the ferry service which ran for a year or so between Cristobal and Cartagena under the banner of Crucero Express, and on the ordering of custom built containerships from a yard in Korea. In his spare moments he busied himself drafting The Panama Affair.

 Evetts admits to drawing heavily on his Panama sojourn and to his reading and listening to stories about the country and its politics for background material. Before arriving on these shores he had also spent some sixteen years in Hong Kong and has drawn on his time there too, as well as exploiting his long career in broking, ship management and operations, and dabbling in ship owning – an experience which almost left him bankrupt, as it does for one of the novel’s antagonists, Mohan Krishnaswami.

 Currently working as a marine loss adjuster in Caracas, Venezuela, Evetts also admits that writing the 145,000 word novel was enjoyable, but was at times frustrating proof that writing is mostly rewriting. “It took me five years. I wasn’t going to wait several more years going through hoops with agents and publishers as a first time author. I’d had a professional critique done before my last major rewrite and late last year I submitted the manuscript to an online publisher, although I did go through their more up market imprint Writer’s Showcase, which meant passing an editorial review.”

The finished product is in conventional form. “It’s not an e-book,” Evetts is quick to add, “although you can browse through it on the publisher’s website if you wish to before you buy it.”

Are there plans for any more? “I’m outlining the plot for a sequel,” Evetts tells us, “and I certainly hope it will be in print within two years or so this time round.”