The mysterious disappearance and presumed murder of anti-development campaigner Juanita Nielsen 40 years ago inspired Warrawong author Yarr Stoddart's latest novel, Menace.

Nielsen, the publisher of NOW, an alternative newspaper in Kings Cross, disappeared on July 4, 1975, and it is generally believed that she was kidnapped and murdered because of her anti-development and anti-corruption stances.

A coronial inquest determined that Nielsen had been murdered, and although the case has never been officially solved, it is widely believed that she was killed by agents of developers.

The circumstances of her disappearance were fictionalised in the films Heatwave and The Killing of Angel Street.

Stoddart said the Nielsen case came to her attention when she was studying FBI behavioural profiling and started seeing all the cases that were unsolved.

"One day when I was thinking of a plot for my novel the background to her [Nielsen] disappearance intrigued me ... it got me thinking about her being a newshound and publisher who got caught up in something, and the plot came together," she said.

In Menace, an impromptu turn into an alley causes dramatic changes in Kylie Malone's security. Inadvertently witnessing the strangulation of a local prostitute, she is catapulted into the world of personal security, provided by powerful billionaire Sol Kingsley.

The billionaire is not about to let the only link to his missing daughter, Virginia, get murdered by the same goon.

'I'm interested in the distinct behaviours of being a victim of crime," Stoddart said.

Published by Tate Publishing and Enterprises, Menace is now available through bookstores nationwide, from the publisher at tatepublishing.com/bookstore, barnesandnoble.com or amazon.com.