Rae Cairns is a former youth worker who has turned to a life of crime…writing. She is fascinated with how ordinary people manage when faced with extraordinary circumstances so she writes crime with heart; thriller and suspense novels that explore the lengths everyday characters will go to when all they love is put at risk. 

Her debut novel, The Good Mother, draws on her background as a youth worker mentoring disadvantaged youth, many of them children of the paramilitaries, in Northern Ireland during the final years of the Troubles.

Rae has also co-managed a crisis refuge for street children, worked as Program Director for the Sydney Olympic Youth Camp, holds a degree in Performing Arts and has done stints as an actor, dancer and singer in her travels around the globe.

When she’s not playing around with the lives of her imaginary characters she loves to read, hike, travel, go to the beach, sing, and laugh with family. You will never find her ironing (not enough patience) or gardening (the plants are very happy about this). Rae lives in Sydney, Australia with her pilot husband, two children and her dog, Alfie, who snores at her feet when she writes.