Photo of Colleen McKeegan by Sylvie Rosokoff

Colleen Leahey McKeegan, who grew up in the Salisbury/ East Penn area and a graduate of Emmaus High School, is making her debut as an author with a book published through Harper Collins.  Not an easy feat for any author, let alone a first-time author.

Her first novel, The Wild One, is a summer camp thriller set in the Poconos. The book release is timely for summer camp and beach reading season.  The Wall Street Journal featured a front-page story on the lessons learned at summer camps in its weekly Review section (7/09/2022).

The Wild One is getting good reviews and has been featured in People, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, Marie Claire, Harper’s Bazaar, The Skimm, and more.   Harper Collins has signed McGeegan on to write additional books.

Leahey McGeegan will be signing her new book from 4-6 pm, July 14 at Barnes & Noble at the Promenade Shops at Saucon Valley.

Audiences love the PA familiarity of this nail-biting novel. 

“Addictive from its first pages” and “a riveting tale of secrets, shame and a harrowing reckoning.”

– Megan Abbott, New York Times bestselling author of The Turnout and Dare Me 

“[The Wild One] has hints of Tana French and Tara Isabella Burton without being as dark.

An engaging thriller that touches on tough topics without becoming voyeuristic.”

— Kirkus Reviews  

THE WILD ONE  (Harper; June 14, 2022) is a dark and twisted coming-of-age thriller that reminds us that the past is never truly past. As three young women return to the woods of the summer camp where a childhood trauma inextricably bound them in secrecy a decade ago, much more than their carefully cultivated façade of normalcy is threatened. They reunite in the Poconos to confront their demons, but can they even trust each other — and how far will each go to make sure the long-hidden truth stays that way?

We all played a part in what happened that summer, and so we shared the burden of silence. For years, the three of us were the only ones who knew that I’m the one who killed him. And now I’m back in the same woods where it all began, once again helpless beneath towering oaks and elms and pines. They whisper to each other like they, too, want to unleash the truth.

The narrative alternates between past and present and takes readers into narrator Amanda Brooks’ mind as both child and adult, brilliantly captures the depth of her trauma and guilt, and highlights Colleen McKeegan’s natural storytelling gifts. Before turning to fiction, McKeegan was the senior features editor at Marie Claire, and she has held various editorial roles at The Cut, Fast Company, Bloomberg, Fortune, The New Yorker, and Bicycling.

It is the perfect summer read.

TO ORDER the book, visit THE WILD ONE . Barnes & Noble or Amazon.

Information provided to TVL by:
Pete Waldron