Growing up, Reese Witherspoon's dad was a huge James Bond fan - which meant she also watched a lot of 007 films.
But she questioned why the girls all wore bikinis, with the young Reese asking herself what their revealing attire had to do with solving a crime.
The Oscar-winning actress - and now novelist - says that's why she wanted her new thriller to centre on a woman who has a unique skill, rather than being about her sex appeal.
Witherspoon, 49, is best known for roles in Legally Blonde and The Morning Show, but has now written her first adult fiction book.
Gone Before Goodbye, co-written with bestselling author Harlan Coben, tells the story of a talented surgeon called Maggie, who is trapped in a deadly conspiracy.
Speaking exclusively to BBC News, she admits that part of her was worrying, Oh God, why did I do this? - but says she also felt excited to see her idea come to life.
Witherspoon, who already runs an influential book club that’s picked out hits like Where the Crawdads Sing, adds that she mainly cares about how other writers will receive it. I have so much reverence for authors, she says.
In the book, Maggie has lost her medical licence after a series of tragedies, but is thrown a lifeline by a former colleague.
The theme of career setbacks is familiar to Witherspoon, who starred in a string of poorly received films in the years after her Oscar win and her 2008 divorce from Ryan Phillippe, with whom she shares two children.
Witherspoon reflects on the need for strong female leads in Hollywood, attributing her motivation for creating her own production company, Hello Sunshine, to the lack of complex storytelling for women.
Gone Before Goodbye is set to be published on October 23 in the UK, and Witherspoon expresses her excitement for this new creative venture.
