Reese Witherspoon wanted a skilful woman at the heart of her debut novel

Reese told BBC News: "Growing up, I always saw James Bond movies, my dad was obsessed with them, but I was like, why are (the girls) all in bikinis, and I don't understand what that's got to do with solving the crime.

"If I was going to do a thriller, I wanted the woman to be at the centre of it. I wanted her to have a unique skillset everybody in the world wanted, but she didn't even realise it, and that she doesn't have to shoot guns or punch bad guys. She's actually just very smart and very intuitive and an incredible surgeon."

Witherspoon explained that her parents' jobs - her father was a medical doctor and her mother was a nurse - was a source of inspiration for the characters in Gone Before Goodbye.

The Legally Blonde star recalled: "I grew up in a medical military family and I grew up on a military base, so I was surrounded by other mums and dads who were medical military people.

"There was this sense of service, and that what they were doing was an important service to humanity, but also to their country."

Reese is pushing for more strong female leads in Hollywood and is determined to use her successful Hello Sunshine company to fill "the gap".

The Oscar-winning star explained: "I always see the gap, I see the white space.

"I started Hello Sunshine in 2011 because I just wasn't seeing complex storytelling for women in the movie space.

"So, in a way, I was just taking the relationships I've had from 30 years of being an actor and just helping shine a light on women who were ready for those opportunities."

Reese - who has followed the likes of Keanu Reeves and Millie Bobby Brown by penning a novel - admits that moving into the literary world has underlined to her how creativity never stops.

She said: "I'm just really enjoying this moment. This is a big new frontier for me. And it just made me feel like, gosh, creativity doesn't stop at any one age. It just goes on and on."