“Full of unexpected twists and jaw-dropping turns, this is Hannah Mary McKinnon finest yet!”
Becoming the star is easier when the rest of your band is dead…
All drummer Vienna Taylor ever wanted was to make music. If that came with fame, she’d take it—as long as her best friend, guitarist Madison Pierce, was sharing the spotlight and singing lead. And with their new all-female pop rock band gaining traction, soon everyone would hear their songs…
Except, on the way to an event, the Bittersweet’s van careened off an icy mountain road during a blizzard—leaving one member dead and another severely injured.
In order to survive the frigid night, the rest took shelter in a nearby abandoned cabin. But Vienna’s dreams devolved into a terrifying nightmare as, one by one, her fellow band members met a gruesome end…and Madison simply vanished in the night.
What really happened to the Bittersweet? Did Vienna’s closest friend finally decide to take center stage on her own terms?
She doesn’t want to believe it.
But guilty people run.
Let's Chat with Hannah:
I have been a big fan of Hannah Mary McKinnon (I’ve read every book) and one of the things I love most about her writing is her twists – and especially when it comes to her endings! I’ve called her the Queen of Endings and after you read her books, I think you’ll agree with me!
What did you prefer writing: character or plot?
Personally, I find it impossible to separate them because they’re intrinsically linked. I typically start with the plot, and as I thought about it and built on my “what if…” scenario, Vienna’s character took shape and guided the story. I couldn’t have grown one without the other.
Did any of your characters “speak” to you?
All. The. Time. I “heard” (i.e. imagined) conversations between my characters, or they’d nudge me to get my butt in my chair and tell the story. Sometimes I’d go to bed with a plot point bugging me and by morning it was be solved. The brain and sub-conscience are wonderful tools indeed.
What surprised you as you wrote ONLY ONE SURVIVES?
How much I enjoyed crafting the different pieces for the book, meaning newspaper articles, blog posts, radio interview transcripts, and social media comments. The majority of Only One Survives is told from drummer Vienna’s point of view, so adding these elements was a fun and interesting way to show what was happening from a different perspective. The radio interview transcripts, in particular, were a blast to write because I
could vividly imagine the characters chatting to one another.
