Jennifer McMahon is an acclaimed American author, best known for her suspenseful and thrilling novels. She was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1968 and spent her childhood in her grandmother's house in suburban Connecticut. As a child, McMahon was convinced that a ghost named Virgil lived in the attic, which sparked her imagination and love for storytelling. She wrote her first short story in the third grade and went on to graduate with a BA from Goddard College in 1991. McMahon then studied poetry for a year in the MFA in Writing Program at Vermont College.
McMahon's debut novel, "Promise Not to Tell," was published in 2007 by Harper Paperbacks. The novel, a mix of ghost story and mystery-thriller, was well-received by critics and readers alike. It was published in Germany, the UK, Italy, and France, establishing McMahon's reputation as a talented author. She followed up her successful debut with "Island of Lost Girls" in 2008, which became a bestseller in the New York Times. Her subsequent novels, including "Dismantled," "The One I Left Behind," and "The Winter People," have also been critically acclaimed and commercially successful.
In addition to her suspense novels, McMahon has also written a fiction novel about lesbian teens, titled "My Tiki Girl." The book was added to the Rainbow List of the Association of American Library. McMahon has lived in various places, including Barre and Montpelier, Vermont, with her partner Drea and their daughter Zella. She enjoys living in an old Victorian house, which some neighbors refer to as the "Addams Family house," and draws inspiration from her surroundings to create her captivating and chilling stories.