Penelope Haines
I became a writer when I realized I could gaze out of the window with a glass of wine in my hands and claim to be working! My previous occupations of
My training as a nurse taught me not to kill patients; my training as a flying instructor taught me to be patient as students attempted to kill me. My current status as ‘alive’ is a testament to the speed of my reactions.
Writing mystery novels allows me to explore new and creative ways of murdering those who have offended me. So
I live in Otaki, New Zealand.
I hope you will enjoy my novels.
Genre:
- Adult Fiction
- Crime
- E-Book
- Fiction
- History
Skills:
- Novelist
Branch:
Wellington
Location:
Otaki
Publications:
The Lost One
Spanning three generations, The Lost One begins during the Russian Revolution, as Kyril Komarov flees Moscow - entrusted with keeping two of the imperial family's priceless Fabergé Easter eggs from being lost forever.
Balanced between the past and the present, The Lost One is a romantic family saga focusing on the lives of Kyril's three female descendants; Marguerite, a refugee, Tamara, a young woman with a terrible secret, and Purdie, an orphan seeking answers about her unknown heritage.
History, intrigue and priceless hidden treasure - an internationally set story unfolding one family's legacy and one woman's discovery of her identity.
Available on Amazon.com and from quality bookstores
Helen Had A Sister
Helen of Troy's story is well known. Hers was the "face that launched a thousand ships", started a ten-year war and brought about Troy's destruction. But Helen had a sister.
In a world where women were submissive, she ruled.In a world where women were loyal, she was unfaithful.In a world where honour and blood feuds abound, she exacted the ultimate revenge.
Born into the Royal House of Sparta, her courageous spirit, passionate love and lust for life make her a unique heroine. Her character and her choices have fascinated people for centuries. Her story is one of betrayal, murder, adultery and revenge, set in ancient Greece at the time of the Trojan war.
She is Clytemnestra, High Queen of Mycenae.
Available on Amazon.com and from quality bookstores
Death on D'Urville - A Claire Hardcastle Mystery (Book One)
Meet commercial pilot Claire Hardcastle – fiery, clever, daring and trying to prove herself in a man’s world.
When Claire’s routine flight to pick up regular passenger, Jorge, from a remote island turns into a homicide investigation, she is excited to discover she may hold a clue to the crime!
A growing attraction to investigator Detective Sergeant Jack Body, and a desire to help solve the murder, leads Claire into a world of disputed Maori history, artefact smuggling and child abuse.
Death on D’Urville is the first novel in the Claire Hardcastle Mystery series set in New Zealand, following Claire’s adventures as a commercial pilot, flying instructor and accidental detective.
Available on Amazon.com and from quality bookstores
Straight and Level - A Claire Hardcastle Mystery (Book Two)
Hot on the heels of her first adventure, Death on D’Urville, commercial pilot Claire Hardcastle is back, and flying New Zealand skies has never been so exciting!
All Claire wanted was to get through Dry July, await the return of her boyfriend, Detective Sergeant Jack Body, from his overseas trip and revert to her usually quiet life. If only it were that simple!
A chance meeting, a dead body and a request from the local police is only the beginning. A botched raid results in Claire being kidnapped and forced into a violent situation of drugs and eco-terrorism that will take all her skills as a pilot to survive.
Straight and Level is the second novel in the Claire Hardcastle Mystery series set in New Zealand, following Claire’s adventures as a commercial pilot, flying instructor and accidental detective.
Available on Amazon.com and from quality bookstores
Stall Turns - A Claire Hardcastle Mystery (Book Three)
Commercial pilot Claire Hardcastle returns.
Having survived her second adventure in Straight and Level, she and boyfriend Detective Sergeant Jack Body are off on a well-deserved holiday in the back country of New Zealand. What could possibly go wrong?
Getting lost on the way to their destination seems a minor inconvenience until Claire unwittingly stumbles across human remains in a swamp. Before she knows it, Claire is caught up in a mystery she just can’t leave alone. Over several action-packed days, Claire needs to survive not only a natural disaster, but an increasingly dangerous series of events, while trying to uncover the mystery of just who was hidden in the swamp.
Will curiosity get the better of her this time? Stall Turns is the third novel in the Claire Hardcastle Mystery series set in New Zealand, following Claire’s adventures as a commercial pilot, flying instructor and accidental detective.
Available on Amazon.com and from quality bookstores
Blood Never Lies: Forged by History, Bound by Time.
All families have stories. All families have history reaching back across time to the ones who came before.
In the ninth century, an Irish healer rescues a Viking warrior from the sea. Can the story of Ciarnat and Thorkell reach through time and affect a sceptical 21st-century woman?
A thousand years have passed since Vikings raided the coastal villages of Ireland. The names and stories of those who suffered then has been lost, falling gently into oblivion, wiped from the written record.
But there’s another invisible repository of history. Tied to every strand of DNA, borne in our blood and stamped into every cell of our bodies, is a living memory of our ancestors.
When Erin discovers she is pregnant, she’s thrilled but troubled by terrible nightmares. Each night she returns to the same fiery scene of a woman forced to bear witness to an unspeakable atrocity. Soon she is physically reliving experiences from centuries earlier.
As past and present become inextricably entwined, a tale of violence a thousand years old threatens to repeat itself.