Kirsten McKenzie

ALLi Author Member

Location: Australia & New Zealand

Genres: Horror, Historical Fiction

Skills: Performance/Spoken Word, Press/Media Interview, Reading/Literary Event, Self-publishing Workshop/Training, Speaking Engagement/Lecture

Kirsten McKenzie fought international crime for fourteen years as a Customs Officer in both England and New Zealand, before leaving to work in the family antique store. Now a full time author, she lives in New Zealand with her family and alternates between writing time travel trilogies and polishing her next thriller. Her spare time is spent organising author events and appearing on literary panels at various festivals around the world.

You can sign up for her sporadic newsletter at: https://www.kirstenmckenzie.com/newsletter/

You can also find her on Facebook, Threads, Instagram, Pinterest and TikTok.

Kirsten McKenzie's books

Painted

If art can capture a soul, what happens when one of those souls escapes?

People have been going missing from the home of reclusive artist Leo Kubin for decades, but no one told art appraiser Anita Cassatt, or her team.

When they start cataloguing Kubin's extensive collection of portraits and antiques, after his death, they don't expect to find an unfinished portrait on an easel with the paint still wet. An unfinished portrait which looks eerily familiar.

Kubin’s lawyer didn’t share the detailed instructions regarding the handling of the portraits, and Anita and her team start work in ignorance of the very instructions designed to keep them safe... safe from the art.

Doctor Perry

Elijah Cone’s doctor said he could help him. The doctor lied.


Hiding from a horrific past, Elijah Cone is waiting out his remaining days in the Rose Haven Retirement Home, avoiding contact with the other rest home residents, desperate for death to relieve him of his all-consuming guilt.

The rest home’s charismatic doctor has his own secrets. Doctor Perry prefers his elderly patients to be isolated, abandoned even, because nobody asks any questions when the lonely disappear.

Elijah and the other retirees will soon learn that under Doctor Perry's care, death is the easy option…

Do you trust your doctor?

Fifteen Postcards

History shapes those who travel through it

Following the unexplained disappearance of her parents, and in a last ditch attempt to save the antique store she has inherited from financial ruin, Sarah Lester takes on a deceased estate. Amongst the estate is a collection of vintage postcards which lead Sarah on a journey through time.

Sarah is unprepared for what these postcards hint at about their reclusive former owner, and soon they complicate her life in unimaginable ways, transporting her to Victorian London, colonial New Zealand and to the British Raj in India. Sarah has to fight her twenty-first century instincts, and a century of emancipation, to survive.

Traversing three continents and two centuries, where tiger hunts and ruby necklaces are irrevocably entwined with murders and mysteries, auction houses and antiquities, Sarah is drawn into the enigma that could solve her parents' disappearance, and the question of should she stay or should she go, gets harder and harder to answer, the deeper she delves into the past.

Perfect for fans of the Outlander series and lovers of The Time Travelers Wife.

The Last Letter

The Last Letter - the thrilling sequel to Fifteen Postcards

Time changes everything, even history...
Disappearing from her shop amid a spray of bullets, antiques dealer Sarah Lester leaves no body, only questions.

Sarah's friends are left to deal with the aftermath of her disappearance, including questions about the dubious provenance of her antiques which threaten to crush the business she's brought back from the brink of failure.

Sarah struggles to reunite with her father while continuing the search for her mother, unaware that England's violent colonial past has followed her to the present, putting herself and those she loves in danger. From the remote shores of New Zealand, through India's hill-country stations and onto the streets of Victorian London, Sarah must determine whether family bonds are strong enough to stretch across time.

The Last Letter plunges you deep into a world full of dashing Spitfire pilots, colonial settlers, fanatical collectors and commission-hungry auctioneers, taking you on a another thrilling historical time slip adventure, paved with nuggets of gold and artefacts from the past.

Telegram Home

History will change
Sarah Lester's mother is missing and the Indian uprising holds her father captive. The police want to question her, and even the church is demanding its pound of flesh. Her return to The Old Curiosity Shop raises more questions than answers.

Waiting in the shadows is a vengeful Richard Grey. After discovering Sarah’s ability to travel through time, nothing will stop him from restoring his name to its former glory. Not even time.

Can Sarah reunite her scattered family before Grey closes the doorway to the past?

Telegram Home is the last book The Old Curiosity Shop trilogy.

The Forger and the Thief

FIVE STRANGERS IN FLORENCE, EACH WITH A DANGEROUS SECRET. AND AN APOCALYPTIC FLOOD THREATENING TO REVEAL EVERYTHING.
A wife on the run, a student searching for stolen art, a cleaner who has lined more than his pockets, a policeman whose career is almost over, and a guest who should never have received a wedding invite. Five strangers, entangled in the forger’s wicked web.

In a race against time, and desperate to save themselves and all they hold dear, will their secrets prove more treacherous than the ominous floodwaters swallowing the historic city?

Dive into a world of lies and deceit, where nothing is as it seems on the surface…

★★★★★

Ithaca Bound

Roman ruins. A reluctant time traveler. And an army under threat.
Step back in time to Roman Britain and experience the thrill of adventure in Ithaca Bound. When Lillian Arlosh discovers ancient ruins on her Northumberland farm, she is thrown into a dangerous game of treasure hunting and government conspiracies. But that's not all that's buried beneath the soil of Ithaca Farm. Lurking in the shadows of time is a deadly secret that puts her loved ones in peril.

To save them, Lillian must journey back in time and face the ruthless power of ancient Rome. But the clock is ticking, and with power-hungry politicians and Roman armies on her tail, every second counts. Will she be able to save the ones she loves and rewrite the course of history?

A gripping tale of love, friendship, and the corrupting influence of power, Ithaca Bound is the thrilling spinoff of the Old Curiosity Shop time travel trilogy.

Discover the power of time travel and journey to a world of wonder from the comfort of your own couch.

Ithaca Bound was a finalist in the 2023 Sir Julius Vogel Awards.

Ithaca Lost

Can one woman stop the power of Rome breaking through the thin veneer of time?

With treasure hunters and archaeologists rushing to claim the ancient secrets buried beneath her land, Lillian's plans for Ithaca Farm have been thwarted at every turn.

Looming in the background is Hexham's mayor. Driven by a thirst for power, her actions not only threaten Lillian's plans to rewild Ithaca Farm, but they risk reshaping the timeline of Roman Britain.

With her life in limbo, and the Roman festival of Saturnalia approaching, Lillian once again travels back in time to warn Julius of the mayor's plans, and to prevent any further alterations to history. But time has a funny way of dealing with incursions, and Lillian is about to uncover the true cost of corruption and the enduring power of love and friendship...

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