Rhiannon’s Last Look, getting closer!

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I don’t have much more to tell you regarding the progress of Rhiannon’s Last Look but it will be ready on 2 November as promised! You can pre-order the Kindle version now, and I am hoping the print pre-orders will be available in the next couple of weeks.

This is Book 5 in the Rhiannon Series is described as ‘a real page turner up until the last page’.

‘It is great, really loved it.’

‘I can’t wait to get it off a shelf somewhere and say, I know this author!’

How many times a day does the thought ‘if only’ run through our minds?

When Detective Rhiannon McVee’s young prodigy Constable Zoe Chesney disappears in the remote Australian outback, she is faced with the biggest ‘if only’ of her career.

If only she could untangle the web of murder, lies and deceit her missing people have weaved before it’s too late.

If only. If only.

How an author and 2 knights make a SafeKnight

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From the archives

I wrote this blog in 2014, soon after I met retired UK Detective Inspector Chris Gould, who was instrumental in helping me put together fresh evidence for my cousin Ursula Barwick’s case and take it to NSW Police, resulting in new Kings Cross detectives being assigned, helping us solve the 30 year mystery of Ursula’s disappearance. Chris also endorsed my debut crime fiction bestseller Write About Me, describing it as ‘enthralling, emotionally and psychologically accurate’ (read full review below).

My reasons for digging this story out of the archives is having listened to two podcast series. I highly recommend them and have included links for you to download!

Posted on January 31, 2014 

Recently I met two knights. Their names are Chris Gould and Chris Hawthorn.

Knight 1 is Chris Gould, chairman and founder of Child-Safe International. Knight 2 is Chris Hawthorn, who founded The SafeKnight Foundation and poured his life savings into developing the SafeKnight mobile phone app. This free app is BBC Click’s Best App of 2012 and was a top five finalist in a World Youth & Student Travel Conference competition in Sydney last September.

I have decided to refer to them as Knight 1 and 2 instead of Chris 1 and 2 because what they are doing all over the world for young people can truly be likened to ‘knights in shining armour’.

Knight 1 Chris Gould contacted me  after reading ‘Write About Me’, my debut crime fiction bestseller about a missing Australian teenager called Annabelle Brown which is inspired by my cousin Ursula Barwick, missing for more than 26 years.

I have met Knight 1 in person and Knight 2 Chris Hawthorn via the virtual world.

It is an honour and a privilege to be collaborating with them  to help prevent young people from going missing and to find missing people via this amazing technology.

Write About Me Review

By Chris Gould

As an ex-professional who has worked on numerous cases of missing people, I found the story enthralling, emotionally and psychologically accurate with a wide range of implicit messages and support for those families and friends who have ever found themselves in such an awful position.

Advances in the development of social media; support in Australia with the introduction of the AFP National Missing Persons Co-ordination Centre, Crimestoppers, Missing Persons Advocacy Network (MPAN), Australian Missing Persons Register and other such organisations, campaigns and technology – there is today, much more help available than in the 1980s.

Child-Safe International and the SafeKnight Foundation are now collaborating with author Melissa Pouliot to endorse her book ‘Write About Me’ and to promote a new FREE mobile download safety app called SafeKnight. A tool not available for those like Ursula Barwick (a case on which “Write About Me’ is based, in the 1980s).

‘Write About Me‘ is an excellent read and I would like to personally give it my endorsement and support. Once started, I couldn’t put the book down. A tribute to the author.

Starting 2023 on the theme of ‘new’

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Happy New Year to you all, and welcome to my new MP Book News subscribers. I notice some from the UK, the US, Canada, New Zealand and Australia and it’s such a big deal for me to have so many people from around the world in my book circle. Thankyou!

I saw in the New Year in the Australian outback and I managed a pretty impressive sunset star for the last day of 2022. If you are a Yellowstone fan you might notice that sun stars are a prominent feature and I think my photo definitely gives Yellowstone a run for their money!
It means so much to us to be here after a forced four-month hiatus from being able to run our fence contracting business. We haven’t been able to get here until now because it has been under flood water all that time, including our living quarters. A lot of areas in NSW flooded during 2022 and there was extensive media coverage when towns were inundated. But one story that didn’t make the news was the one about the rural families who were isolated for months and months, desperately trying to save their livestock while flooded inland river systems converged and spread water onto paddocks where they’d never been flooded before. There were many rural businesses like ours whose equipment was inaccessible, and for all those months we had to sit on our hands and wait it out. It was tough.
It is the longest running flood in many people’s memories and the damage, destruction and heartache it created is beyond compare. The farmers who we rely on for the food we eat are saying they would prefer a drought to a flood. They were isolated for a start, with the only access to their properties by boat or helicopter. The number of sheep, cattle and wildlife that perished will break your heart because the water spread over such a large area and there was nowhere for them to go. Hundreds of thousands of hectares of crops* were unable to be harvested because they were under water and it will take a long time for the agricultural industry to rebuild.

But the resilience of the people who live out here is like nothing you’ve ever seen, and they are moving forward day by day and leaving it all behind. We are too. I think this is a fantastic approach for the New Year and my theme for 2023 is NEW.

New year.
New beginnings.
New starts.
New ideas.
New opportunities.
New books!

Speaking of new books, this segues into what I’m planning for today.

I’ll start by asking, what’s the weather like where you are? As you would expect in the Australian outback in summer, it is HOT. Today the forecast temperature is 42 degrees Celsius and so this afternoon my plan is to sit under my air-conditioner and keep working on my new outback crime novel! My main character’s name is Bunny Brown-Leather and I’d love to know if that resonates with you at all? Naming characters is the hardest thing to do so I’m using names from my subscriber list as inspiration. Once I have a name the character starts to come to life. Bunny is a city girl, super smart, conservative upbringing and with a dream to be a reporter. She has landed her first job in Bourke which is a wild west town, and a far cry from the suburban, leafy city streets she grew up in. Bourke isn’t quite the romantic outback town with cowboys wandering the streets that she envisaged. She’s pretty sassy though, and is determined to get the latest scoop. There’s plenty of mystery and intrigue planned and a twist you won’t see coming.I’d love to get some feedback on her name though, all ideas welcome!

More free books

Amazon Kindle is offering the next two books in my Rhiannon Series for free this month. If you are still book binging for the holidays, now is a great time to download them so when you reach the cliffhanger of each one (sorry, not sorry) you can keep going!

Go to my Amazon page to keep an eye on when which book is free. When they’re not free I have them priced as low as Amazon will let me, less than a cup of takeaway coffee, so they are more accessible to more people.

If you are reading my books and love them, I would love if you could share a review. This helps my books get noticed in the biggest bookstore in the world, plus gives me a huge confidence boost and inspiration to keep writing. Have a great day wherever you are!

Melissa x

*I don’t know the exact numbers for crop losses or stock or wildlife losses of the NSW Floods, so the hectares of crop losses is an estimate only

Find Me book boxes shipped around the world

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BOOK BOXES MADE WITH LOVE

This Find Me by Melissa Pouliot-inspired book box created by 4 Blue Stones is destined for a picturesque, small ocean town named Eden on the Sapphire Coast NSW where cruise ships from around the world stop.
They can browse the Eden Tourist Information Centre which is a brand new purpose built welcoming facility to the region. This means these book boxes will be shipped around the world – literally!
Sapphire Coast Buslines also takes visitors all around this beautiful part of the world where natural beauty and locally produced food, arts and experiences are a real highlight.
Visitors to the Sapphire Coast NSW are always looking for things to take back onto the ship with them to remind them of where they’ve been, and this box is filled with treasures that are all created locally on the Sapphire Coast, including my crime novels which are set in the Australian outback.
There have been many orders of these book boxes including from one of my loyal readers in the UK (thankyou Ian!).
If you are interested in a Melissa Pouliot book box containing one of my crime novels including Find Me, contact Wendy at 4 Blue Stones.

The cowboy stories on screen that inspire me

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I’ve spent the past few weeks immersed in Yellowstone in anticipation of the Season 5 launch, which is probably time I should have spent writing my next crime fiction novel, so you can blame Rip!
I love a good Western and escape from reality, as much as I love a good crime movie or series. Some of my favourite cowboy movies are:
  • Billy the Kid inspired – Young Guns 1 & 2, Old Henry
  • Clint Eastwood – The Mule, Unforgiven
  • Sweet Country, The Proposition, 3:10 to Yuma, True Grit
  • The Homesman
  • Open Range
  • Tombstone (Val Kilmer is brilliant as Doc Holliday)
  • I also love No Country for Old Men even though it terrifies me from the moment it starts!
This is only a very small sample, I’d better get my day started and spend more of my time writing about Rhiannon McVee and her cowboy Mac and less of my time watching westerns!
*Image of RIP sourced on Google after a search for Yellowstone RIP images

Book Boxes made with love

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Every year for as long as I can remember my husband’s parents put together a Christmas hamper for us filled with treasures they’ve collected during the year. Each item in these hampers has been thoughtfully added, and it’s always so much fun looking through because many of these items reflect the trips they’ve taken and the places they’ve visited which they want to share with us.

You can imagine my delight when a business that’s started near where I live on the coast approached me to add my crime novels into their hampers. 4 Blue Stones started as food welcome packs for motels to include in their accommodation packages, and has evolved into pamper hampers, wedding hampers, Valentine’s hampers and now book boxes!

Wendy is the owner behind 4 Blue Stones and she spends a lot of time sourcing local products and thinking how they best go together – she’s paired my books with wine, chocolate, biscuits, hand cream, candles, tea – the options are endless!

I just love how she’s styled Write About Me, my debut bestseller inspired by the cold case mystery of my cousin Ursula who went missing when we were teenagers. What Wendy didn’t realise when she styled it with the gorgeous yellow flower biscuit is that yellow was Ursula’s favourite colour. Synchronicity!

What would you love to receive a book box with one of your favourite books? If you have any suggestions and ideas I’ll pass them on to Wendy!

Search for Sky coming soon

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Missing people, the stark landscape of the Australian outback and the police system in the mid 90s combine for Melissa Pouliot’s next page-turning crime novel, Search for Sky. The fourth instalment in the Rhiannon Series picks up the story of detective Rhiannon McVee who has made a name for herself with her new approach to investigating missing persons cases. Her approach is simple – find them – but it’s not how the culture of the police system works. When someone starts leaving clues in the remote outback, leading Rhiannon closer and closer to a suspected serial killer, will the next body she discovers be the people she is searching for, or someone else?

Search for Sky is my much awaited sixth book after I took a break from writing when Kings Cross Detectives found my cousin Ursula in 2017 after a 30 year search.

Prior to that I released a book a year in an effort to keep public scrutiny on the disappearance of Ursula in 1987 when we were teenagers.

I’m thrilled to back into my fiction writing after taking a break. It has been a fairly intense few years for everyone that I know. For me, discovering what happened to Ursula and going through the coronial process, bushfires, COVID and moving house created the (im)perfect storm. Every time I tried to pick up this book which I started in 2017, the words wouldn’t come. It’s an age-old excuse for writers, but life definitely got in the way!

What is it about?

Hope can come from the most surprising of places.

In Australia Ayala Philips is still missing.
So is Keely Johnson.
So are thousands of others.
Their cases are getting colder and Rhiannon McVee’s hopes of solving them are fading.

When someone starts leaving clues in the remote Australian outback, leading Rhiannon closer and closer to a suspected serial killer, will the next body she discovers be Ayala, Keely or someone else?

Crime fiction inspired by real life, written by the cousin of one of Australia’s most compelling and heartbreaking missing persons cases.