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 moved from Leicestershire to London and lived with her friend Ada Heather-Bigg, a journalist, philanthropist and feminist, at 14 Radnor Place, Hyde Park. According to Heather-Bigg, Haynes had an 'intense interest in crime and criminal psychology': she once cycled to Ightham in Kent to visit the scene of Caroline Mary Luard's 1908 murder and pushed her way into the Hilldrop Crescent home of Dr Crippen after the remains of his wife Corrine were found in the cellar in 1910. Haynes also attended Dr Crippen's trial.

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).