Sarah Rayne

Why does it always seem to be that the authors and their books that I consider to be my favorite, are always the ones that are more difficult to find? It seems to me that the most commonly found authors are the ones who baffle me the most as to how they ever achieved publication (dare I mention V.C. Andrews here? Let the mobs form and the hunt begin). I will be honest. These days, I find it increasingly difficult to get sucked into a book, and absorb myself in a story that I am truly excited about. You know the feeling I mean…when you find yourself in the middle of some mundane task, daydreaming about getting back to your current favorite character and discovering just how the author is going to bring them through that pickle? Or if the author will let them live? Sarah Rayne’s books have hit that spot, scratched that long-awaited itch for me. The Michael Flint/Nell West Series is a highly under appreciated one, written by an even more underrated author.

I discovered Sarah Rayne completely by accident. Like the average bookworm, I normally like to start out by reading a series at the beginning. Not the middle…okay, way, way in the middle…but when I first picked up Deadlight Hall (Michael Flint/Nell West #5), I wasn’t even sure if it was going to be a series that was going to appeal to me. I can’t stand fluff, and I was fully prepared to settle myself in for what I thought would be a lukewarm tea and cozy mystery experience. Instead, I found myself held captive by a bring-out-the-whiskey, and oh-good-lord-leave-the-nightlight-burning sort of deliciously traumatizing  haunting experience. I don’t say that lightly. If I wasn’t an aspiring horror writer myself, I would question this woman’s sanity. By the time I read the last word on the page, I was in love, and the only thing I can find to say against Sarah Rayne is that tapping out one book a year is not nearly enough.

Michael Flint/Nell West (Haunted House Mysteries)

  1. Property of a Lady
  2. The Sin Eater
  3. The Silence
  4. The Whispering
  5. Deadlight Hall
  6. The Bell Tower

Other Works

  • Tower of Silence
  • A Dark Dividing
  • Roots of Evil 
  • Gost Song
  • Spider Light
  • The Death Chamber
  • house of the Lost
  • What Lies Beneath
  • The Forgotten Manuscript and the Unknown Crime: Two Short Stories
  • Thorn: An Immortal Tale
  • Wildwood: An Immortal Tale
  • Changeling: An Immortal Tale
  • Blood Ritual
  • Devil’s Piper
  • Burning Altar
  • Death Notes
  • Wolfking (Wolfking #1)
  • The Lost Prince (Wolfing #2)
  • Rebel Angel (Wolfking #3)