Following a convent education that included writing plays, Sarah Rayne explored various professions before inevitably returning to her passion for writing. Her novels, first published in 1982, draw inspiration from her deep interests in theater, history, music, and old houses, particularly their atmospheres and histories. She often weaves in elements of ghosts and ghost stories, combined with the vibrant spirit of good conversation reminiscent of her 1960s upbringing. Rayne's unique voice emerges from this rich tapestry of influences, creating compelling narratives rooted in the past and the unseen.
Researcher Phineas Fox has agreed to help track down his neighbour's cousin, who has disappeared without trace, leaving a single clue to her whereabouts: an obscure 1940s portrait of an alleged murderess. What exactly happened back in 1941 - and what is the connection with Arabella's disappearance?
Antiques dealer Nell West is valuing the contents of her late husband Brad's childhood home, Stilter House. Set on the remote Derbyshire Peaks, there was once a much older property there, in which the notorious Isobel Acton committed a vicious crime.
Another day, another grand scheme! The thieving Fitzglen family are back in this second instalment of the spellbinding Theatre of Thieves gothic mystery series set in Victorian England. London, 1908. The Fitzglens, one of London's leading theatre families and part-time thieves, are plotting their next scheme when they receive terrible news about Great Uncle Montague. He's been killed in a tragic accident at his Notting Hill home. Montague will be much missed, not just for his talent in art forgery, but his death provides an unlooked-for opportunity: the chance to search for his infamous iron box. No one knows what it contains - if, that is, it even exists - but Jack Fitzglen is certain it has to be something highly valuable . . . or extremely dangerous. Why else would the grand master of storytelling have refused to even drop a hint? Jack is amazed when he finds the box - and even more amazed by its contents. An unknown play by one of Ireland's leading playwrights, entitled The Murderer inside the Mirror. Jack reads the first few pages, and is struck by a nameless feeling of dread. But even he has no idea what kind of dangerous adventure the manuscript will take him on - one which will tangle him in revenge, madness . . . and murder. This unsettling gothic historical mystery, following Chalice of Darkness, will appeal to fans of Daphne du Maurier, Laura Purcell, Rebecca James, Sarah Waters and Stuart Turton.
Music researcher Phineas Fox is asked to verify the contents of an old scrapbook, rescued from the site of the historic Chopin Library in Warsaw. He discovers an intriguing link to an infamous piece of music that legend says was only performed at a traitor's execution - and was last played in 1944, on the night the Chopin Library was destroyed ...
Jack Fitzglens plans to seek out the infamous Talisman Chalice, steal it and create a dazzling piece of theater around it, but he uncovers something far darker. Scandal, secrets, and danger lurk in every shady corner. As past and present collide, can Jack find the Chalice, the truth and return to his theater of thieves unscathed?
Music researcher Phineas Fox has been enjoying gathering background material for a biography of Franz Liszt. But matters take a decidedly unexpected turn when his investigations lead to Linklighters, a new restaurant built on the site of a Victorian music hall, and unearth evidence of a possible murder involving a performer known as Scaramel.
Calvary Gaol, standing bleak and forbidding on the Cumbrian hillside, exerts a curious hold over Georgina Gray. For her family's history is closely bound up in its dark and terrible past. It's there that her great-grandfather worked as a prison doctor in the 1930s; where his involvement in a bizarre experiment would change the course of his life forever. TV presenter Chad Ingram is fascinated by Calvary too. For he plans to conduct a new experiment in the now-disused gaol - an experiment that will take place in the brooding desolation of the old execution chamber. Chad's experiment and Georgina's curiosity will have horrifying consequences. For someone has their own reasons for suppressing the shocking truth about Calvary. Someone who will go to any lengths to ensure the past remains buried...
Having unexpectedly inherited an Elizabethan manor house, the new owner Quentin Rivers has asked Phineas Fox to investigate the house's history. As Phin delves into The Tabor's dark and mysterious past, the terrible secrets of the house and the Rivers family ancestors begin to reveal themselves, secrets stretching back more than six hundred years.
Having undertaken an assignment at Cresacre Abbey School, researcher Phineas Fox discovers that curious legends about the school's past still linger, including the fate of a group of nuns who disappeared 200 years before. What happened to them? And who is the mysterious Ginevra, the shadowy figure whose true identity has never been known?
Old crimes cause new murder in Sarah Rayne's mesmerising psychological thriller