The Australian Federal Police National Missing Persons Coordination Centre has endorsed the third fiction novel by bestselling Australian author Melissa Pouliot for its role in raising awareness for the missing.

Melissa, who spent time in the Wimmera working as a journalist, released her third crime fiction novel When You Find Me on Friday night (July 24) in Tathra. Melissa, the first cousin of one of Australia's long-term missing people Ursula Barwick, is the only Australian author writing about her personal experience through fiction.

She celebrated her new book's release with a launch at the HoWeRoll Café with around 50 people from Bega, Eden, Pambula Beach, Merimbula and Tathra.

AFP National Missing Persons Coordination Centre team leader Rebecca Kotz was special guest speaker at the event. Melissa, left, is pictured with Rebecca.

"Our role with the AFP is to support families of missing people, and we met Melissa a couple of years ago when she released her first fiction novel which is inspired by the disappearance of Ursula. We're very happy to support Melissa in her endeavours. We've endorsed her first book, her second book and are very happy to endorse her third."

Rebecca said the loss of a missing loved one wass an ambiguous loss where you couldn't go through the gamut of emotions you would go through when someone died.

"These sort of books, particularly Melissa's three books, are the best form of getting in touch with people who are suffering this ambiguous loss. I'm a trained counsellor and the best form of counselling for families of missing persons is via other families in a like situation."

Melissa's novels are part of her quest to highlight the long-term effects on families and friends when someone goes missing. Her debut novel Write About Me, is an international bestseller. Last year she released the second novel in the series, FIND ME, which closely follows the life of young policewoman Rhiannon McVee. Rhiannon starts her career in the late 1980s in outback Queensland before moving to Kings Cross in Sydney.

When You Find Me picks up Rhiannon McVee's story where FIND ME left off, and moves into a new decade, the 90s. Melissa said she had readers from around the world waiting patiently, and impatiently, to see what happened next. The pressure was already on to finish book four.

"Although the book was only released on Friday, I had people contacting me on Saturday morning who had sat up all night to finish it to tell me to hurry up and finish the next one," she said.

"I love how my books have developed into a series. When I start writing I try and stick to a plan but it never seems to quite work out that way. As many writers of fiction would say, the characters take control of their own story and it makes it really exciting not only for my readers but for me as well."

She said the four simple words when you find me raised a myriad of complexities for families of missing people.

"There are families like mine, who have no answers about what's happened to our loved one. And there are families who do find their missing loved one, under devastating circumstances. For all of us it is different. But for all of us, it is the same. We will never stop missing them."

Melissa said her fiction writing followed the path of her real life, as she continued her search for answers about what happened to Ursula when she boarded a train for nowhere in spring, 1987. Kings Cross Detectives reopened Ursula's case last year as a result of new information which came to light after Melissa published Write About Me.

"The title of this book reflects my thoughts as the Detectives look into Ursula's disappearance more closely. When you find me, what will you say? If Ursula walked in the door tomorrow, what would I say? Or perhaps it will be, when you find me, I will be dead. It is a lot more difficult for me to process this scenario."

• This Saturday, August 1, Melissa will host a Picnic for Missing for Ursula in Kings Cross before joining the AFP for the launch of National Missing Persons Week on August 2. Ursula's case is the focus case for NSW as part of National Missing Persons Week which has the theme "Follow Your Instincts'. For more information visit www.missingpersons.gov.au

• In Australia, an average 100 people a day, or one person every 15 minutes, are reported missing. This is around 35,000 people a year of which 17,500 are aged under 18. Although many of these are found, there remain around 2000 long-term missing people.