ABOUT RAE
OFFICIAL BIO
Rae Cairns writes crime with heart: thrillers featuring everyday people facing extraordinary circumstances.
Drawing on her background as a youth worker in Northern Ireland during ‘The Troubles’, Rae’s bestselling debut novel The Good Mother was shortlisted for the Australian Crime Writers’ Association’s Ned Kelly Awards and longlisted for the Sisters in Crime Davitt Awards.
Dying to Know, Rae’s second novel, is a Sydney based cold case thriller which was sparked by a candid conversation with an outlaw motorcycle gang member.
Her third novel, Flight Risk, hits shelves in February 2027 (Allen & Unwin) and is a chase thriller about a mother’s race to save the son she’s no longer sure she knows. It was inspired by a phone call Rae never received but couldn’t stop thinking about - one from a principal to the parent’s of local teenage boys who had been caught participating in a degrading group chat on school grounds.
Rae has also managed a crisis refuge for street children, worked for the Sydney Olympics and holds a degree in acting. She loves to hike, explore Australia in a light aircraft, ride pillion on a motorbike and sing.
She lives in Sydney, Australia with her pilot husband, two children, and dog, Cookie, who keeps watch from Rae’s desk as she writes.
MORE ABOUT RAE
Storytelling has always been a huge part of my life, from my very first acting job in a shampoo commercial at eighteen months old through to writing my third novel, and while I came to writing later in life, each career I’ve had has focused on trying to work out why people do what they do and what makes them tick.
I sang and danced my way through my teenage years, including a stint at the NSW Conservatorium of Music and a year performing in North America and Europe. Following that I threw myself into a Degree in Performing Arts, but after graduating, I realised the entertainment industry wasn’t for me.
Instead, I applied for a position with Australian Volunteers Abroad and was sent to Belfast to mentor disadvantaged youth, many of them children of the paramilitaries like the IRA and UVF. This was during the final years of Northern Ireland’s ‘Troubles’. The people I met and the events I witnessed as an outsider in a country at war with itself stayed with me long after I returned to Australia, and ultimately inspired my first novel, The Good Mother.
After returning from NI, I co-managed a refuge for street children in Sydney’s inner city. A challenging, rewarding and ultimately life-changing experience that I can’t wait to explore in another novel.
After a few years in the refuge, I was invited to work as a Program Director for the Sydney Olympic Youth Camp. I was responsible for organising three weeks of activities for 400 children, each an Olympic team member, from all over the world. It was so different from anything I’d ever done but I loved every minute!
It was only after my children entered their teens that I finally found the time and head space to write, and I found that my varied vocations and experiences were amazing fodder for my fiction writing.
I’ve had to overcome some challenges as all artists do, such as initially struggling to find a traditional publisher for my debut novel. My path to publishing was twisty but it taught me so much. Being diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis threw another spanner in the works - I’m no longer able to handwrite my novels - but as with many challenges, it’s pushed me to dig deep and find new ways of doing things.
I’m a member of a fabulous writing group called the Inkwell (affectionately known as the Inkies), Sisters in Crime, Writing NSW, the Romance Writers of Australia, the Australian Society for Authors and am an Associated Author for the Global Girls Online Book Club.
When I’m not playing around with the lives of my imaginary characters I love to hike, explore Australia in a light aircraft, ride pillion on a motorbike and sing. I live in Sydney with my pilot husband, two adult children, and Cookie, my dog, who keeps watch from the office window while I write.
