Jennifer McMahon

The Giveaway ended 7/​6/​09, the winners have been selected and notified. Thanks so much to everyone who entered! If you didn't win, don't worry -- more contests coming!

It's high time I gave away some books. In Dismantled, the character Emma believes the number 9 has magical powers. So in her honor, this contest will have 9 winners.

And what, you ask, are the winnings?

- The first 3 get a personalized, signed, hardcover copy of Dismantled.
- The second 3 get the signed copy of Dismantled, plus some other goodies, including a magnet spelling out the Compassionate Dismantlers' manifesto.
- The final 3 get all of the above, plus your choice of a signed copy of my debut Promise Not to Tell, the NYT bestselling Island of Lost Girls, or my young adult novel, My Tiki Girl.

Here's how to enter

- Embed the Dismantled trailer on your web site, Facebook, MySpace, blog, etc.
Use this link above to get it from YouTube
Or use this link to embed from Barnes & Noble Studio, if you prefer.
- Invite at least 9 friends to take a look at the trailer, wherever you posted it. (Emma also likes multiples of 9, so if you want to let, say, 81 people know, that is perfectly acceptable).
- Email me (jennifer@​jennifer-mcmahon.com) the link to wherever you posted -- I will take your word for it that you shared it with at least nine people.
- Everyone who embeds the trailer gets one entry into the contest.
- You can get an extra entry by also posting the "Browse Inside" widget for Dismantled -- here's the link for the widget
- The contest starts today (June 27, a multiple of 9 naturally), and will last for 9 full days, counting from tomorrow. Last day will be July 6.
- On July 7, I'll randomly choose (wait for it...) 9 names from the entries.
- Winners will be notified by email.

I think that's it -- let me know if you have any questions. Good luck!

HarperCollins put together this wonderfully creepy trailer for Dismantled -- I'm really happy with it!

The reviews are starting to come in for my new book, and I'm so happy with them, I just have to post big snippets here:

"A prank gone wrong drives this outstanding novel from bestseller McMahon (Island of Lost Girls). The summer after graduation, four friends, who formed an art group called the Compassionate Dismantlers at Vermont’s Sexton College, live together in a remote cabin and commit increasingly brash acts of sabotage. When they go too far and their leader, Suz Pierce, dies, the group disbands, vowing never to speak about what happened. Ten years later, two of the group, Henry DeForge and Tess Kahle, are unhappily married with a nine-year-old daughter, Emma. When the suicide of a Sexton friend sends a PI digging into the past, Henry and Tess fear that the dead may not be truly buried. By alternating the present-day lives of Henry, Tess and Emma with the origins of the Dismantlers, McMahon allows the inexorable sense of dread to build incrementally. Perhaps most memorable are not the young artists but Emma, a child whose intense imagination only adds fuel to the slow-burning fires." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Nine years after the [Compassionate Dismantlers'] catastrophic demise, survivors Henry and Tess live isolated in the countryside, harboring a ruinous secret. Now it seems that the time of reckoning is at hand. As their sweet, preternatural nine-year-old daughter, Emma, grows increasingly, even maniacally devoted to her imaginary friend, inexplicable messages appear, crucial objects disappear, and someone is watching, if not stalking the increasingly freaked-out family. Are the Dismantlers reassembling? In her third, elegantly spooky mystery revolving around the vulnerability of a young girl and a haunting past, McMahon fashions a fresh and entrancing ghost-in-the-woods tale replete with startling psychoses, delectable Hitchcockian motifs, and dangerous attractions." - Booklist

“The collective sins of four college friends come home to roost more than a decade after a bizarre tragedy scattered them in this disturbing, darkly hypnotic novel by McMahon.... McMahon’s deftly creepy prose creates a world of chaos and abuse; the book brims with unexpected and often startling plot twists, taking the reader on a strange journey that never disappoints.... beautifully written and extraordinarily imaginative.” - Kirkus

Sarah Weinman, blogger, journalist, and all-around goddess of the crime fiction world, mentioned my books in her column in the November 23 issue of the LA Times. The article also discusses recent work by excellent writers such as Stewart O'Nan, Laura Lippman and Catherine O'Flynn.

I'm thrilled to report that Sphere, an imprint of Little, Brown, will be publishing both Island of Lost Girls and my next suspense novel, Dismantled in the United Kingdom. Island should be coming out September 2009.

In the past couple of months, the clever souls at Writers House have been landed several foreign rights deals for my work. Island of Lost Girls will be published in the Netherlands, Promise Not to Tell has found a home at an Italian publisher, and both books will be released in France. Yay!

Island of Lost Girls is #17 on the New York Times trade paperback fiction list! It's posted on the website this week, and will be in the print edition June 1. I never dreamed one of my books would see this kind of success -- I am thrilled to pieces, and of course hugely grateful to my agent, the team at Harper, and of course to all of you who actually bought Island! Thank you, thank you, thank you! Update: Much to my amazement, although Island hasn't made it back to the printed edition of the list, it has spent several more weeks on the extended list (which includes the top 35 sellers)!

Rowohlt Verlag bought the German rights for Island of Lost Girls! They did a beautiful job with the German version of Promise Not to Tell (aka Das Madchen Im Wald -- sounds spooky, yes?), which you can purchase for all your German-speaking friends at Amazon.de. Pints of pilsener all around!

Update: Die Insel der verlorenen Kinder, as it will be known in Germany, will be released March 2009, and is available to preorder for all your German-speaking friends at Amazon.de.

I've got a new two-book deal with HarperCollins! The first book's working title is Dismantled and it's tentatively slated for release in May 2009. I'm very happy to be working with Jeanette Perez and the rest of the clever people at Harper again.

Someone at the Baltimore Sun is my new best friend. Listen to this:

"For Laura Lippman fans: The most common refrain among mystery readers who scarf down the backlist of a favorite author is, 'Who else writes books like this?' For those who have made their way through the complete works of Charm City's signature mystery writer the refrain's answer is Jennifer McMahon, author of Promise Not To Tell."

Yep, you read that right. Me! And Laura Lippman! Of whom I am a gigantic fan -- read my review of What The Dead Know here, if in doubt. To put it mildly, I am honored and thrilled.

Both of my books coming out in 2008 have brand new official titles! The young adult novel for Dutton, formerly called My LaSamba Blues is now My Tiki Girl; and the suspense novel for Harper, which had the working title Rabbit Island is now Island of Lost Girls. (I hope you're taking notes, these might be Jeopardy questions some day.)

Orion has bought the United Kingdom rights to Promise Not to Tell! Release is tentatively set for summer 2008. Orion is the UK publisher of many great writers, like Gillian Flynn, Ian Rankin, Harlan Coben and Laura Lippmann, so pints of lager all around!

Update: the UK version of Promise came out August 2008.

Here are links to a few of the reviews of Promise Not to Tell that are available online, so you can read 'em yourself if you're so inclined.

Entertainment Weekly (They gave Promise an A-!)

Pop Culture Madness ("engrossing and disturbing... a chilling and haunting tale")

BookFinds ("a compelling work of literary suspsense")

Birmingham Public Library Blog (This one made me extra-happy because it's written by a librarian)

Sure Woman (Promise was one of 5 editor picks for summer reading)

BookBitch ("McMahon’s powerful debut is one that will shake readers to the core. A story of childhood betrayal and the loss of innocence... a brilliant mystery")

I Love a Mystery (Thanks, Sally Powers!)

Bookreporter.com ("Is it a mystery story, a ghost tale, a thriller, or a literary meditation on redemption? I can't decide, but I do know it's irresistible.")

Maximum Horrors (Wow, what a gracious review -- thanks, MH!)

Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind (Sarah Weinman, luminary of the crime fiction world, chose Promise as a Pick of the Week!)

Mystery Scene Magazine (How cool is it to be reviewed by MSM?)

Badger Books (check out the May 6 post)

Publisher's Weekly

Promise Not to Tell was mentioned on NBC's Today Show Saturday (June 2) morning! I missed it, but apparently John Searles of Cosmopolitan listed ten suggestions for "sizzling beach reads" for this summer, and Promise made the cut! Here's the web version of the list. Update: they posted the video clip! It's at the same link.

Promise Not to Tell is now officially a bestseller! It hit the USA Today list
(which combines fiction, nonfiction, hardcover & paperback) for the week ending April 29 at # 132. A fourth print run has been approved, to keep up with demand. Heartfelt thank yous to every soul who has parted with their hard-earned money to buy my little book!