Rachael King is a novelist and short story writer. She gained a Masters in Creative Writing from Victoria University in 2001 and has worked in magazines, television and radio. Her first novel, The Sound of Butterflies (Black Swan, 2006), was published in nine countries, and won the NZSA Hubert Church Best First Book Award for Fiction at the 2007 Montana New Zealand Book Awards. Her second novel, Magpie Hall was published in 2009 (Vintage).

Website: www.rachael-king.com

 Books

'There were two rumours surrounding my great-great-grandfather Henry Summers: one, that his cabinet of curiosities drove him mad; and, two, that he murdered his first wife.' Rosemary Summers is an amateur taxidermist and a passionate collector of tattoos. To her, both activities honour the deceased and keep their memory alive. After the death of her beloved grandfather, and while struggling to finish her thesis on gothic Victorian novels, she returns alone to Magpie Hall to claim her inheritance: Grandpa's own taxidermy collection, started more than 100 years ago by their ancestor Henry Summers. As she sorts through Henry's legacy, the ghosts of her family's past begin to make their presence known.