Rae Cairns
Rae Cairns writes crime with heart: thrillers featuring everyday people facing extraordinary circumstances.
Her bestselling debut novel, The Good Mother, was shortlisted for the Australian Crime Writers’ Association’s Ned Kelly Awards and long listed for the Davitt Awards, and draws on her background as a youth worker in Northern Ireland during the final years of ‘The Troubles’.
Rae’s second novel, Dying to Know, is a standalone Sydney based thriller and was sparked by a candid conversation with a former outlaw motorcycle gang member. Her third thriller novel, Flight Risk, will be released March 2027. Inspired by events at a local high school, it explores online radicalisation, toxic masculinity and coercive control, woven through the universal fears of parenting a teenager.
Rae has also managed a crisis refuge for street children, worked for the Sydney Olympics and holds a degree in Performing Arts. When she’s not playing with the lives of her imaginary characters she loves to hike, explore Australia in a light aircraft, ride pillion on a motorbike and sing.
She lives in Sydney with her pilot husband, two children, and dog Cookie, who keeps watch from the office window while Rae writes.
PRAISE FOR RAE CAIRNS
‘This book is a genuine page turner. The pace builds & builds – it kept me guessing all the way. Geneva Leighton is a brilliant protagonist – tough & resourceful, yet vulnerable & caring.’ - Chris Hammer
‘Rae Cairns shows us what ordinary people can do in extraordinary situations. Dying to Know is a thrilling and wild ride with love at its core.’ - Hayley Scrivenor
‘Smart and suspenseful, Dying to Know is another high-stake original thriller from Cairns that does not ease up until the last page. I dare anyone to read it slowly.’ - Sara Bailey
‘Intriguing, heart-wrenching and compelling. Cairns draws you in and holds you until the final gasping twist.’
- Sulari Gentill
‘Wow, what a ride! Dying to Know has all the ingredients of the perfect thriller: a brilliant start, lots of twists and turns, and characters you really care about. I couldn’t put it down.’ - Sara Foster