Book Series Guide

Author guide

Jennifer McMahon Books in Order

Jennifer McMahon is an American novelist whose fiction explores ghosts, family secrets, trauma, memory, and the ways the past haunts the present. She is the author of suspense novels including Promise Not to Tell, The Winter People, The Children on the Hill, and My Darling Girl, as well as the young adult novel My Tiki Girl. She lives in Florida with her partner, Drea.

horrorpsychological thrillersuspenseyoung adult fiction

Catalog record updated .

Jennifer McMahon's Newest Book

Cover of Stay Buried

Stay Buried

novel · First published 2026

From the New York Times bestselling author of Children on the Hill comes a queer folk horror in which a woman must confront decades of secrecy and superstition to learn the truth about her mother’s death. Some towns stay isolated for a reason. 1919: Frankie O’Massey has always been the black sheep of isolated Boone’s Ferry, Vermont. Her uncle, Dr. Thomas Endicott, has been training her in the science of medicine, something the townspeople are wary of. When a mysterious illness strikes the town, and the community suspects supernatural forces, the two desperately search for a logical explanation. Patient zero seems to be the town’s knackerman—a recluse who collects dead and dying farm animals to make use of their parts. 2016: Siblings Ashley and Malcolm lost their mother two years ago. When their grandmother dies, they inherit a property in Boone’s Ferry—a place they’ve heard of but their grandmother has always refused to talk about—and embark on a trip to their ancestral home. The idyllic town is full of autumnal décor, picturesque farmland, and small-town charm. But some of the townspeople aren’t very welcoming—and they have some unsettling traditions, like leaving offerings to a vengeful spirit four times a year.

Not sure where to begin?

Start with one of these

Cover of Promise Not to Tell

Promise Not to Tell

McMahon's debut novel and the natural publication-order starting point.

Outside the series

Bibliography by category

Novels (14)
  1. Promise Not to Tell

    novel · 2007

    Returning to her small home town in Vermont to care for her Alzheimer's patient mother, reserved forty-one-year-old nurse Kate finds herself inadvertently drawn into the murder investigation of a young girl, a case that reminds her of the…

  2. Island of Lost Girls

    novel · 2008

    While parked at a gas station, Rhonda sees something so incongruously surreal that at first she hardly recognizes it as a crime in progress. She watches, unmoving, as someone dressed in a rabbit costume kidnaps a young girl. Devastated…

  3. My Tiki Girl

    young-adult novel · 2008

    Maggie was looking for a friend in Dahlia. She never guessed shed find love, too.All the tenth-grade girls hate Dahlia Wainwrighta smart, natural beauty and freaky outsider all in one. And thats exactly what Maggie Keller is drawn to, for…

  4. Dismantled

    novel · 2009

    The New York Times bestselling author of the acclaimed Island of Lost Girls and Promise Not to Tell returns with a chilling novel in which the secrets of the past come back to haunt a group of friends in terrifying ways.Dismantlement =…

  5. Don't Breathe a Word

    novel · 2011

  6. The One I Left Behind

    novel · 2013

  7. The Winter People

    novel · 2014

    Coming of age in an old farmhouse, 19-year-old Ruthie begins a search for her agoraphobic mother and discovers the century-old diary of the farmhouse's long-ago resident, a grieving mother who died under mysterious circumstances. By the…

  8. The Night Sister

    novel · 2015

    The latest novel from New York Times best-selling author Jennifer McMahon is an atmospheric, gripping, and suspenseful tale that probes the bond between sisters and the peril of keeping secrets. Once the thriving attraction of rural…

  9. Burntown

    novel · 2017

    INTERNATIONAL THRILLER AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR On the surface, Ashford, Vermont, seems like a quaint New England college town, but to those who live among the shadowy remains of its abandoned mills and factories and beneath its towering…

  10. The Invited

    novel · 2019

    A chilling ghost story with a twist: the New York Times bestselling author of The Winter People returns to the woods of Vermont to tell the story of a husband and wife who don't simply move into a haunted house, they start building one…

  11. The Drowning Kind

    novel · 2021

    "From the New York Times bestselling author of The Winter Sister comes a ... work of psychological horror about a therapist who returns to the old family home after her sister drowns in its swimming pool, where she discovers that it has…

  12. The Children on the Hill

    novel · 2022

    From the New York Times bestselling author of The Drowning Kind comes a genre-defying new novel, inspired by Mary Shelley’s masterpiece Frankenstein, that brilliantly explores the eerie mysteries of childhood and the evils perpetrated by…

  13. My Darling Girl

    novel · 2023

    "Alison has never been a fan of Christmas. But with it right around the corner and her husband busily decorating their cozy Vermont home, she has no choice but to face it. Then she gets the call. Mavis, Alison's estranged mother, has been…

  14. Stay Buried

    novel · 2026

    From the New York Times bestselling author of Children on the Hill comes a queer folk horror in which a woman must confront decades of secrecy and superstition to learn the truth about her mother’s death. Some towns stay isolated for a…

Frequently asked questions about Jennifer McMahon

Who is Jennifer McMahon?

Jennifer McMahon is an American novelist born in 1968 who grew up in suburban Connecticut. She earned a B.A. from Goddard College and studied poetry in Vermont College’s MFA in Writing program.

Source: azpbs.org (opens in a new tab)

Where does Jennifer McMahon live?

McMahon lives on Florida’s Gulf Coast with her partner, Drea. She has also spent significant parts of her life in Vermont.

Sources: jennifer-mcmahon.com (opens in a new tab)penguinrandomhouse.com (opens in a new tab)

What inspires Jennifer McMahon’s ghost stories and suspense novels?

McMahon says her fascination with the unexplained, nighttime fears, and the way the past haunts the present drives her work. She describes her creative rule as “write what scares you,” drawing ideas from nightmares and personal experiences with family secrets.

Sources: jennifer-mcmahon.com (opens in a new tab)publishersweekly.com (opens in a new tab)

Which writers have influenced Jennifer McMahon?

Her stated favorite writers include Shirley Jackson, John Irving, Anne Sexton, Tana French, Gillian Flynn, Sarah Waters, and Patricia Highsmith, among others.

Source: jennifer-mcmahon.com (opens in a new tab)

What awards or major recognition has Jennifer McMahon received?

Her novel The One I Left Behind won the 2014 International Thriller Writers Award for Best Original Paperback Novel. Dismantled was also nominated for a Lambda Literary Award.

Sources: thrillerwriters.org (opens in a new tab)azpbs.org (opens in a new tab)