United Kingdom, Oct. 13 -- Reese Witherspoon's new novel is a "love letter" to her parents because it was inspired by their careers as army medics.

The Hollywood actress has branched out into writing by penning a new thriller called Gone Before Goodbye with author Harlan Coben which follows an army surgeon who "falls into ...a crazy world of private wealth and private surgery".

Speaking during her Shine Away summit in Los Angeles on Saturday alongside Coben, she explained: "I always think about Jason Bourne or James Bond, and the girls in those books or those movies are always using their sexuality to get ahead.

"And I thought, what if we could do a book in a thriller world where this woman, it's not about her sexuality or being hot, i...