With a degree in economics and finance and years of business experience with multinational firms based in Europe, Hannah Mary McKinnon never expected to find herself a best-selling author of seven thrillers and three romance novels.
The UK-born McKinnon, who will appear at Palatine Hills Estate Winery for the Niagara-on-the-Lake Public Library’s Wine and Words series on February 5, says it was shortly after a 2010 move from Switzerland to Oakville, Ontario with her husband Rob and their three boys when she decided to take the big leap.
McKinnon worked in purchasing in the Kevlar department at Dupont, Geneva, for a year before moving to Neuchâtel. While completing her university degree, she was hired to set up the back-office structure of a pan-European IT recruitment company. She did all the groundwork and eventually became the company’s CEO.
When the family arrived in Canada, she began her own human resources firm. But the venture’s “complete, utter and relatively swift” failure left her at a crossroads a year later. When considering her next move, her electrician husband urged her to do something she was passionate about.”.
“I thought about writing a book but that always felt like it was just a pipe dream,” she says. “But Rob encouraged me to try, and I did, now here we are years later and I’m working on my twelfth book outline.”
McKinnon quickly became determined that her dream of becoming a published author had to work out. She took several writing courses and researched agents, aiming to eschew the self-publishing route in favour of the approval of an agent and publisher.
“I didn’t have the confidence to write something myself and just put it out there,” says McKinnon. “I still wouldn’t. And self-publishing becomes a full-time job, you have to do everything from cover design to marketing and PR.”
She eventually lined up that agent in 2014 and two years later her first novel, Time After Time, was published by Harper Collins UK. It’s a light-hearted, comedic romance that sees protagonist Hayley Cooper wondering what her life would have been like if she had made different choices.
Soon, though, she found herself being drawn to the thriller genre, her favourite type of book to read.
“I had already started writing my second book (2018’s The Neighbours) before I had acquired an agent,” McKinnon says. “I realized that it was darker and different than the first one. I knew it couldn’t be a romance with a happy ending. I just kept writing, though.”
And when her agent pitched the new psychological suspense story to Harper Collins they welcomed the switch.
Since then the thrillers have been coming at a once-a-year pace, beginning with Her Secret Son in 2019, followed in order by Sister Dear, You Will Remember Me, Never Coming Home and The Revenge List.
In NOTL she will be reading from her latest, last year’s Only One Survives. It’s the fictional story of an all-female rock band named The Bittersweet who find themselves stranded in a blizzard after a car accident.
“Something happens to the band,” she says, “and they become worth more dead than alive.”
McKinnon originally conceived the tale as centred around a group of work colleagues at an abandoned lodge. Her editor didn’t think people wanted to read about work, though. She turned to some friends for advice, including fellow Canadian thriller writer Samantha M. Bailey, who suggested she change it to a band.
And McKinnon knew which band she wanted to model The Bittersweet after.
“I would compare them to the Toronto band The Beaches,” McKinnon raves. “I love The Beaches. I saw them in concert at Massey Hall and they were fantastic. They are brilliant.”
McKinnon claims to have no musical talent herself but professes that exhaustive research is her modus operandi for every book she writes. Her process also includes a three-page questionnaire through which she puts each novel’s main two to six characters.
It’s not uncommon, though, that her business experience works its way into her plots, as it did in the form of Lucas Forester, the focal point of Never Coming Home, who works in IT recruitment.
She hasn’t completely turned her back on romance novels, by the way. She recently revisited the genre under the pseudonym Holly Cassidy and published The Christmas Wager in 2023 and The Christmas Countdown last year.
“I’m with Penguin Random House for those books,” she explains. “I came up with the name ‘Holly’ and they suggested ‘Cassidy’ as a last name, so it was a collaborative effort. And I love the name ‘Holly’ because it’s very Christmasy.”
McKinnon points out, too, that ‘Cassidy’ is an Irish word that means ‘curly hair’. All one has to do is take a look at her bio photo and it’s obvious why that name pleased her.
Her next thriller, A Killer Motive, is set for release on September 9. It’s about a true crime podcaster whose brother mysteriously disappeared at a beach party six years prior.
It’s been just over a month since the author’s previous visit to Niagara - she met her readers at the Laura Secord Homestead for Niagara Parks’ Coast to Coast series on December 12.
“I love Niagara,” she says. “They took me to the Butterfly Conservatory and the Journey Behind the Falls. It was a lovely, fun day. I love Niagara-on-the-Lake, too. We were here as a family back in April.”
And she’s always grateful that her fans show up to her readings.
Tickets are available for Wine and Words with Hannah Mary McKinnon at Palatine Hills Estate Winery via the NOTL Public library’s website. The event begins at 7 p.m.
