The Revenge List by Hannah Mary McKinnon

I have been excitedly waiting for this book from the moment I found out the publication date. Hannah Mary McKinnon is one of my auto-buy authors for her great storytelling and writing. I love listening to her and Hank Philippi Ryan every Tuesday on First Chapter Fun where they introduce me to a new book. They read the first chapter live on Facebook and Instagram at 11:30 AM CT.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

As a therapy exercise, a woman writes a list of people she wants to forgive, and thinks nothing of it when she loses it in an Uber…until one by one the people on the list become victims of freak accidents. Set in Portland, Maine, Hannah Mary McKinnon’s breakout suspense novel THE REVENGE LIST will appeal to fans of Lisa Unger, Joshilyn Jackson, and Tarryn Fisher.

Following an epic run-in with a client who threatened to pull out of a contract at her father’s company if she doesn’t suffer some consequences, Frankie Morgan agrees to go to anger management. With the business struggling with cash-flow and her brother needing help with the medical bills for his sick daughter, she can’t risk harming the business further. But that doesn’t mean she’ll be happy about attending.

During the first session, the group is asked to spend some quiet time exploring their pasts and sitting with the emotions that generates, before making a start on a Forgiveness List—a list of people with whom they’re angry and might work on forgiving. She begrudgingly goes along with it and doesn’t worry too much when she forgets the list in an Uber on her way home. It shouldn’t matter—it was just a therapy exercise—except a few days later the first person on that list is injured in a freak accident. When the second person gets hurt, she hopes it’s coincidence. After the third is targeted, she knows it’s a pattern. And she’s in trouble. Because the next name on that list is…hers.

Review:

What a great book!! I loved Frankie as a character. She is a real person and you can get lost in her story. She is funny and she wants to do better. The author makes no secret of Frankie’s reasons for putting people on the Forgiveness List but what is happening to them and why is the mystery. 

Q&A:

What’s “the story behind the story.” Tell us about the inspiration for THE REVENGE LIST?

I can usually pinpoint exactly where the inspiration for my novels came from. Typically, it’s a news article (You Will Remember Me and Her Secret Son) or a radio segment (Sister Dear), maybe some daydreaming (The Neighbors) or a specific character (Never Coming Home).

With The Revenge List, it was after batting various plot ideas around with my agent Carolyn, and former editor Emily that a random idea popped into my head: “What if an anger management group therapy exercise went terribly wrong?” That was it—we all needed to know what the rest of the story was.

 

Five facts readers don’t know about THE REVENGE LIST

1.       The fictional coffee shop, Jake’s Cakes, originally appears in Sister Dear. It was fun to revive it as a little easter egg for anyone who reads both books.

2.       I put Frankie in construction because it’s such a male dominated industry, but also because, I often went to construction sites when I was a kid as my dad worked as an architect. I still find them fascinating.

3.       Like Frankie, I had a job at a grocery store when I was in school but thankfully nothing bad ever happened there.

4.       I set the book in Portland, Maine because I’ve been there and loved it.

5.       I modeled reporter Danika Danforth’s personality on my good friend Hank Phillippi Ryan. One reader told me “reporters aren’t that nice” and I replied, “Hank is!”

 

What is your writing process like?

Extremely structured with plots, deadlines, and word-count targets. For The Revenge List, the “what if” idea came first, then Frankie’s character, followed by the storyline. I noodled the thoughts around as the main characters took shape. The next step was to write an outline. I started by jotting down the big picture plot points, which I used as stepping-stones to build and write the rest of the outline. I filled out personality questionnaires for my main characters to understand them better, and searched for photos on the internet to build a gallery. I also put a map of Portland together to work out who lived and worked where.

I wrote the basic manuscript that was a little over two-thirds of the final word count, then layered and developed until I was happy calling it a first draft, and sent it to my editor. She loved it (phew!).

 

What was the most unique research you had to do for a book?

Bet you I’m flagged by more than one government agency with my search history. For 2022’s book, Never Coming Home, one element was figuring out what Drano does to a corpse (spoiler: it’s not pretty), the generalities of hiring a hitman on the dark web, as well as technical aspects of spyware on cell phones. Like I said: flagged!

 

Finish this: “I can’t write without…”

A tidy desk! For me, a cluttered space = a cluttered mind. It makes me jumpy. I also need a huge jug of water.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Hannah Mary McKinnon was born in the UK, grew up in Switzerland and moved to Canada in 2010. After a successful career in recruitment, she quit the corporate world in favor of writing. She now lives in Oakville, Ontario, with her husband and three sons, and is delighted by her twenty-second commute.

 

Keep in touch on social media:

Website: www.HannahMaryMcKinnon.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/HannahMaryMcKinnon (@hannahmarymckinnon)

Instagram: www.instagram.com/HannahMaryMcKinnon/ (@hannahmarymckinnon)

Twitter: www.twitter.com/HannahMMcKinnon (@hannahmmckinnon)

Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/author/show/15144570.Hannah_Mary_McKinnon

BookBub: www.bookbub.com/authors/hannah-mary-mckinnon

LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/hannahmarymckinnon