NUMBER one best-selling author of Write About Me Melissa Pouliot has pieced together another detective novel, inspired by a true missing person tragedy.

You’ll Never Find Me continues to centre on Pouliot’s main character, detective Rhiannon McVee, whose friends and cases make up a thriller plot as she explores both the detective work and the emotional strain endured by people whose loved ones are missing.

Pouliot explores the fate of those left behind well, which could be due to her lived experience of the disappearance of her first cousin, Ursula Dianne Barwick, in 1987, a case detectives are still investigating.

You’ll Never Find Me follows McVee from country to city as this gritty detective follows the leads of a handful of missing people. It makes for an interesting read as the book darts from one character to the next and reveals piece by piece McVee’s detective work. All the while McVee is managing a long-distance relationship with cowboy Mac, a welcome balance to the sadness of the novel’s main theme.

Having not read the previous novels it did not take me long to get hooked and realise You’ll Never Find Me is just as good as a stand-alone book. The characters are everyday, relatable people. Among them is Sarah-Jayne Heart, who goes for an afternoon walk in Bourke and never returns, and a Sydney teenager who gets mixed up in the wrong crowd and sees too much.

In Pouliot’s own words, her writing is “a desire to help the broader community understand what it’s like when someone you love goes missing”. One thing that stays with you after reading this book is that families of missing persons rarely get closure. There will always be a gap that a missing loved one once filled.

It’s book launch time! I can’t describe the feeling when I pulled up in my driveway and a truck was parked at my garage unloading boxes of my fourth crime fiction novel – You’ll Never Find Me .

You’ll Never Find Me  is the next instalment of the Detective Rhiannon McVee crime mystery series . It picks up from the previous book,  When You Find Me , where young policewoman Rhiannon McVee left the bright lights of Kings Cross to be closer to the cowboy of her dreams, Mac, and the vast outback that is her home.

While she searches desperately for all those who are lost, her missing persons’ cases keep drawing her back to the city streets. This creates complications for her relationship with Mac but she remains determined to never give up hope, particularly on her long term missing cases.

At the heart of all my books is a desire to help the broader community understand what it’s like when someone you love goes missing. I’m contributing something really important to the families and friends of the missing, highlighting an issue which affects a large number of people in our community.

That’s because my books are inspired by my real life experience, the 29 year old mystery surrounding the disappearance of my first cousin Ursula Barwick.

In Australia, an average of 100 people a day, or one person every 15 minutes, are reported missing. Thank fully many of these people are found, but around 1600 people are classified as long-term missing.

Rhiannon is a character that sprung from my debut bestseller Write About Me. The novel that first details the story of Ursula, published in 2013.

Rhiannon is a character I have developed through all of the books that have followed, and through her experiences and those of the people she’s looking for, I’m able to convey the issues and feelings that surround missing people. Fictionalising a real life experience the way I have, gives me some distance and allows me to explore the experiences of others.

My previous books Write About Me , Find Me and When You Find Me have reached international bestseller status and most importantly, have resulted in a new and ongoing investigation into Ursula’s disappearance.

There is such a contrasting range of emotions when someone goes missing and one person’s disappearance affects so many. Statistics say that for every missing person, 12 others are affected, but in many situations including mine, it’s much higher than that.Ursula’s family, extended family and school friends all carry a piece of unresolved guilt and loss about her disappearance. I am one of those. I could’ve, would’ve & should’ve  done so much more for Ursula all those years ago.

But rather than get dragged down by guilt, I am channelling my energy into a reinvigorated search for answers. Through my books I am giving a voice to Ursula, and to all of those who are missing.

• You’ll Never Find Me is out now and available to purchase  HERE .