Annie Haynes

Annie Haynes (September 1864 – 30 March 1929) was a British mystery writer.

Early life Haynes was born in Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire, in September 1864. The exact date of her birth is unknown, she was christened on 7 October 1864. She was the eldest child of ironmonger, Edwin Haynes, and his wife, Jane. Her parents separated when she was young and she grew up living with her mother, brother, and grandparents on the Coleorton Hall estate where her grandfather, Montgomery Henderson, worked as a gardener.

Career After her mother's death in 1905,

Haynes’s mystery A Pawn of Chance was serialised in the London Daily News in October and November 1909. According to the newspaper, by this time she was also the author of The Manor Tragedy, Fontenoy’s Wife, Under False Colours, A Secret of the Cliffs and Pamela's Cousins. In 1912, Lady Carew’s Secret was serialised in a number of UK regional newspapers. The story would later be republished as Haynes’s second novel, The Abbey Court Murder. Between 1913 and 1919 a number of Haynes’s mysteries were serialised in the regional press, these included Footprints of Fate, Cicely Vibart's Love, Charmian's Lovers and The Governess at the Priory (which later became the novel The Master of the Priory).

In 1914, at the age of 50, Haynes began suffering from rheumatoid arthritis which Heather-Bigg described as leaving Haynes ‘in constant pain’. She said that eventually, ‘It was impossible for her to go out into the world for fresh material for her books, her only journeys being from her bedroom to her study.’ Her novel Who Killed Charmian Karslake? was published later the same year. Haynes died leaving The Crystal Beads Murder unfinished, it was completed by an anonymous writer and published in 1930.

In 2015, Haynes's novels were re-published by Dean Street Press. In an introduction to the 2015 edition of The Crystal Beads Murder, author Curtis Evans speculates that the anonymous writer who completed the book after Haynes's death was Lucy Beatrice Malleson who also wrote under the pen names Anthony Gilbert and Anne Meredith.

Publications Featuring Inspector Furnival:

The Abbey Court Murder (1923)

The House in Charlton Crescent (1926)

The Crow's Inn Tragedy (1927)

Featuring Inspector Stoddart:

The Man with the Dark Beard (1928)

The Crime at Tattenham Corner (1929)

Who Killed Charmian Karslake? (1929)

The Crystal Beads Murder (1930, completed by another writer)

Standalone novels:

The Bungalow Mystery (1923)

The Secret of Greylands (1924)

The Blue Diamond (1925)

The Witness on the Roof (1925)

The Master of the Priory (1927)