Lindsay Tanner, once one of the most powerful politicians in the land, has just finished writing his first novel: a crime thriller called Comfort Zone about a clash of cultures in inner-city Melbourne.

He admits the two professions share some similarities. "A political career is not a bad training ground for writing fiction," he quips.

Tanner was federal finance minister in Kevin Rudd's first government. He was also a member of Rudd's powerful so-called kitchen cabinet, along with Julia Gillard and Wayne Swan, which made many of the key decisions of Labor's first few years in power.

He announced his retirement from politics in June 2010, the day Gillard took the leadership, and quickly turned his hand to writing non-fiction. Sideshow was a devastating critique of modern poll-driven politics and the 24/7 media cycle, while Politics With Purpose was an edited collection of his many articles, essays and speeches.

But even as he was working on those books he was starting to experiment with fiction.

After almost four "gruelling" years of writing, the book – about a bitter and racist, old Melbourne cabbie who finds himself falling in love with a Somali refugee as he gets mixed up in the criminal underworld – is now with his editor and due for release in February.

While it draws on his extensive knowledge of inner-city Melbourne and explores themes like race and multiculturalism – there are no politicians in sight.

Asked if he considered writing something in the vein of House of Cards, Tanner gives the firm impression he's over the formal process of politics.

"I would bore myself to death," he says. "It's risky too. Even without thinking, you would end up inserting characters that are based on real people."

While American and British politicians have a long history of writing fiction – from Newt Gingrich to Jimmy Carter, from Jeffrey Archer to Winston Churchill – Tanner is joining a very small club in Australia.

Kevin Rudd famously co-wrote the children's book Jasper and Abby and the Great Australia Day Kerfuffle.

Former Tasmanian Labor senator Terry Aulich wrote a fictionalised account of the Franklin River dispute and current Queensland backbencher Graham Perrett has two fiction books to his name and a third on the way.

Perrett points out that many political memoirs are pretty fanciful.

"One might argue they contain more fiction than my works," he says. "At least I can guarantee mine have some truth."

Perrett's books gained some notoriety because they contained explicit sex scenes. Tanner's not following his example.

"Mine's got no sex in it. I'm not that courageous," he says.

Tanner doesn't rule out writing more fiction, but having just been named Essendon's new club chairman, he has no immediate plans for a follow-up.