EDWINA HALL, The Weekly Times
October 21, 2016
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.

• Review published online at The Weekly Times HERE

Every now and then a writer comes along whose words raise the hair on the back of your neck, not because they’re scary but because the words so perfectly describe the scene, you’re inescapably right in there seeing what the characters are seeing and feeling exactly what they’re feeling.

So it is with Melissa Pouliot’s FOUND. Right from the first words of dialogue, I was hooked and curious to find out just who Annabelle Brown was and what possessed her to leave home. Then when I met Christine, the very trendy, upmarket jeweller who is catapulted back into their shared street life by the brief glimpse of a man on a train, FOUND became irresistible. Despite promising myself I’d stop reading at the end of every next chapter, I read the whole book in one sitting.

Melissa Pouliot has personal experience of the heartbreak and despair that accompanies the disappearance of a loved one so she gets the emotions and the interactions that underpin that particular scenario.

Her real talent lies in her capacity to translate that experience into the lives of the characters who populate Annabelle’s life; her mother Lee who continues to survive her very ordinary life in suspended animation while still waiting to hear news of Annabelle thirty long years after her disappearance; her friend Sara who determinedly negotiates her own life believing Annabelle is alive despite the news of any discovered bone steadily chipping away at her defences; her street pal Christine who’d met Annabelle in the darkest alleys of Kings Cross and lost her in a drugged induced haze out in the Blue Mountains. And then there’s Christine’s drug dealing boyfriend Ant…

Stricken by guilt after Annabelle disappears, Christine turns her life around so dramatically, no-one in it could possible imagine her past, least of all her screen-writer partner Danny. But both their lives unravel when Christine glimpses Ant on the train and her past rushes in to consume them.

Moving purposefully through the excellent narrative, Louise Whadary is a determined young detective on a mission to find out what really happened to Annabelle Brown.

FOUND is un-put-downable and absolutely the most compelling book I read in 2017.

Annabelle Brayley, author of Bush Doctors & Vietnam Nurses

‘Have just finished your second book, onto the third! What an author you are! Keep up the great work, I’m looking forward to your next book! Eight hours later: Whoa, When You Find Me, absolutely enthralling!’ – Debbie Goulding

‘I purchased your first book, second and several weeks ago have finished reading your third. All three a fantastic read and once you start very hard to put down. Would love to one day catch up one day for a Montague Coffee when dropping into Narooma. We are very lucky to have you in our part of the world!!’ – Gabriele Eichler

‘I’m up in Darwin for a conference and I brought your 2nd novel FIND ME with me to read… Except that I finished it before I even got off the flight!! I couldn’t put it down! I love Rhiannon… Even had to hide the tears on the plane in some bits. I loved it, soooo good. Can’t wait to read the next one now (except I left it at home!)’ – Natalie Godward

‘Melissa, I hope book number 4 is coming along well…… I was finally able to finish When You Find Me last night and can’t wait to find out what happens next!!!!! There are times where I feel so frustrated with the unanswered questions, but then realise, I guess this is what the family & friends of missing persons are constantly feeling!!!’ – Leanne Evans

‘As a new resident of Australia, I decided to read this book to learn more about the culture from a modern perspective. (I was getting a bit tired of dated historical fiction books.) The author absolutely delivered through vernacular, descriptions of characters in various regions and especially the vivid descriptions of life in Sydney, specifically Kings Cross in the 80s. Write About Me is fiction, however it is based on actual events. The book revolves around a troubled teenager from Queensland who runs away from home. It is at once fast-paced and compelling, but heart-wrenching and ultimately tragic. There is inspiration and hope in this story too. It is impossible not to admire this family for believing, hoping and loving someone for such a very long time after she disappeared. The author also includes information about the actual case that has come to light since she wrote this book and talks about the amazing things that friends and family have done to continue the search with new tools and communication channels. I was a bit surprised that I could give a book on the subject of a missing teenager a 4-star review, but I couldn’t put it down. I loved the writing style — short sentences, quickly making the point, but with plenty of details to create an atmosphere of the place and time. The short chapters and change of perspectives between different characters gave depth to the story. Just when I wondered about an action (or non-action) from a character, the following chapters would fill in the blanks. The author handles a difficult topic expertly. The characters are memorable–flawed, real, unpolished. Australia in the 80s is a fascinating setting in itself. Recommended!’ – Stephanie Ward