Moody. Wordy. Bookish. Nerdy.

Hello and welcome! I’m Jaima, a USA Today bestselling author writing about strong-minded women in times past. I love heart-stopping tension, stacked odds and impossible truths. My latest thriller, The Specimen, about a mother searching for answers after the disappearance of her invalid son, was a finalist for the 2025 Crime Writers of Canada Best Novel Award. 

I also co-write STEMinist historical fiction with my friend Regina Sirois, under the pen name Audrey Blake. We met in an online writing contest, and now we have published three books together, with translations published or forthcoming in nine languages. 

No new books from me this year, but in 2026 I’ll be launching two: a retro Nancy Drew style thriller called Don’t Look Close, and a historical novel, All In Her Hands, about an aspiring female surgeon in Victorian London. For updates, check back here (okay), follow me on instagram (better) or subscribe to my newsletter (best!) 

My Latest Books

All In Her Hands

“An ode to female doctors, nurses and medical professionals everywhere. Audrey Blake’s latest sweeps you along to a satisfying and breathless conclusion.”

— Heather Webb, USA Today bestselling author of THE HOPE KEEPER

1849. Dr. Nora Gibson is the only female surgeon in London. In all of England, even. After earning her medical degree and overcoming the prejudice of those who wished to see her fail, she’s finally earned her place at the Great Queen Street Hospital alongside her newlywed husband and her eccentric but ailing adoptive father, the great Dr. Horace Croft.

But peace is hard to come by as a physician, and for one like Nora, it’s almost impossible. When Nora takes up the fight to bring midwives into the medical field, her already fragile reputation comes under fire by colleagues and London society itself. And if the possibility of losing her rights to practice medicine wasn’t enough, a dangerous enemy has made itself known: the deadliest cholera epidemic in over a century. It’s a swift disease that wreaks havoc and tragedy across the city, especially amongst the working classes, and Nora will do anything she can to help. Soon, she finds herself on the frontlines of the disease, and as those around her begin to fall, she’ll have to find the strength to stand alone and maintain her greatest oath: to save lives. Whether she’ll make it through, though, is up to fate.

 

The Specimen

1826. Isobel Tait finds herself, by chance, staring at a tiny human heart floating in a jar. It should be of little consequence; Dr. Burnett is renowned for his collection of oddities and medical specimens, and this, a juvenile heart with a damaged mitral valve, is not the strangest thing on display. Except that the condition is rare, and that Isobel’s young son, who has been missing for months, suffered from the ailment.  
A phantom pulse beats in Isobel’s ears. She knows something here isn’t right.
Missing persons cases are all too common in Edinburgh, where people simply vanish like mist. But Burnett is obsessed with his specimens – how far would he go to acquire a new one? Determined to investigate, Isobel joins his staff as the keeper of his collection. What she’ll unearth, though, is far worse than any of her nightmares…
Based on true crimes, The Specimen is a mesmerizing story about one woman’s search for truth and vengeance in the darkest of places—where the deadliest secrets lie hidden in plain sight, on a freshly dusted shelf.

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