Adrian McKinty was born and raised in Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland, at the height of the Troubles in the 1970s and 1980s.
He studied politics at Oxford University and moved to the US in the early 1990s, living in both New York City and Colorado, where he worked as a school teacher.
He lived for some time in Melbourne, Australia, before relocating to New York City.
(Sources include Allen and Unwin website)