R. A. MacAvoy was born in Cleveland, Ohio to Francis and Helen MacAvoy. She attended Case Western Reserve University and received a B.A. in 1971. She worked from 1975 to 1978 as an assistant to the financial aid officer of Columbia College of Columbia University and from 1978 to 1982 as a computer programmer at SRI International before turning to full-time writing in 1982. She married Ronald Allen Cain in 1978.

The Black Dragon series

• Tea with the Black Dragon (1983)
• Twisting the Rope (1986)

The Damiano series

• Damiano (1983)
• Damiano's Lute (1984)
• Raphael (1984)
• omnibus edition titled A Trio for Lute

The Lens of the World series

• Lens of the World (1990)
• King of the Dead (1991)
• Winter of the Wolf [vt The Belly of the Wolf](1993)

Other novels

• The Book of Kells (1985)
• The Grey Horse (1987)
• The Third Eagle (1989)
• The Go-Between (2005) (novella published as an e-book)
• In Between (2009)