Kirsten McKenzie
McKENZIE, Kirsten is a born and raised Aucklander, but lived one year abroad in London in 1996. She attended St Cuthbert’s College and later completed a Certificate in Business Computing at Auckland University of Technology (AUT). She has pursued a varied range of careers including working as a customs officer, an antique dealer, and, now, a full time author.
McKenzie’s list of published works includes: Fifteen Postcards (2015), Landmarks Anthology (2015), The Last Letter (2016), Painted (2017), Doctor Perry (2018), Telegram Home (2019), The Forger and the Thief (2020), and the Noir from the Bar Anthology (2020). Three of these novels, Fifteen Postcards, The Last Letter, and Telegram Home have been released as audio books this year. These novels make up her The Old Curiosity Shop time travelling series.
McKenzie has used her experience at the family antique dealership as inspiration for some of her books. Fifteen Postcards is the first book in the series and was also her debut novel. In an interview with The Joys of Binge Reading, McKenzie spoke of her inspiration for the book: “A catalyst was a slow day at work, and it seems so banal. I was at work at my family’s antique shop. There was an old Crown Lynn beehive pudding basin on the counter. And that one item just made me go, 'Oh, I’ve got a notebook in my handbag. Oh, there’s nobody in the shop. I might write a book'."
Painted (2017) was McKenzie’s first thriller, with Doctor Perry (2018) and The Forger and the Thief (2020) further increasing her contributions to the genre.
Though her first international panel appearance with Newcastle Noir in England was “derailed” due to Covid-19, McKenzie is set to appear on the Southern Cross Crime panel in 2021.
LINKS
