Best-selling author writes thrillers, but says he’s still a big wimp

When Kevin O’Brien was growing up in Glencoe, he loved watching scary TV shows and movies, including “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” and “The Twilight Zone,” which scared him so much he was then afraid to go to sleep. Now the New York Times-bestselling author makes his living scaring others. O’Brien returns to the North Shore on Aug. 6 to sign copies of his latest book, “No One Needs to Know,” at The Book Stall in Winnetka.

O’Brien graduated from New Trier High School in 1974 and attended Marquette University in Milwaukee. After graduating from college, his primary goal was to publish a book. He ended up working for the Association of American Railroads first in Washington, D.C. and then in Seattle, where he still lives, while writing at night. He finished his first novel, “Actors,” and it took two years for him to find a publisher. His agent admitted she’d given up on the book, but said that O’Brien could use her stationery and keep pitching to publishers himself. On his 30th birthday, he got an early morning phone call.

“I thought it was a railroad derailment,” he said. “I didn’t want to be stuck in some god forsaken town where there’s carnage and a wreck for who knows how long.”

It was actually his agent singing him “Happy Birthday” and telling him the book would be published, which it was in 1987. But success as a writer still didn’t come.

“I thought I’d be on the cover of Seattle Weekly and I’m going to be famous,” O’Brien said. “I was thinking I could quit my railroad job. One of my first autograph sessions, two people came.”

An author friend told him not to quit his day job until he’d made enough money that he could live for one or two years while working on his next book. That didn’t happen until 1997 when he published his second book, “Only Son,” which was optioned as a film. The screenplay was written, but the movie was never made. Still, O’Brien made enough money from the deal to buy a condo. He took a buyout for his railroad job and has been writing full time ever since.

After the struggle of publishing his first two novels, which were both literary fiction, O’Brien’s agent suggested he try his hand at writing a thriller.

“People are more willing to take a risk on a genre than literary fiction,” O’Brien said.

He wrote “The Next to Die,” which made USA Today’s bestseller list when it was published in 2001. His 2005 thriller, “The Last Victim,” landed him on the New York Times’ equivalent. The author drew inspiration from his love of Hitchcock, but also true crimes such as the Schuessler-Peterson and Judith Mae Anderson murders.

“In the late ’50s there were just a series of bizarre murders in Chicago,” O’Brien said. “They left an imprint on my sisters, who left an imprint on me.”

“No One Needs to Know” is based on the 1969 murder of actress Sharon Tate and tells the story of a film being made about a decades old murder where people start dying during shooting at the old crime scene.

O’Brien said he actually regretted choosing a case as recent as Tate’s because he wound up faced with graphic image while doing research, which are less common for older crimes. He also admits he sometimes scares himself while working.

“I’m the biggest wimp,” he said. “I’m getting a lot of my fears put on the page and it’s helpful, but I’m still a wimp. One night, I came up with a really creepy idea of a scene. I got up to get my thesaurus, which was in another part of my apartment, and my front door was open. I grabbed the first thing I could, which was a meat tenderizer. I’m running around my apartment looking in closets and behind drapes to make sure everything was fine.”

Many of O’Brien’s books are set in Seattle or on the North Shore. The main character in “Terrified” is from Glenview and her husband lives in Wilmette. Many of the victims in “Tell Me Your Story” attended New Trier and the book contains scenes at Wilmette beaches and Evanston’s Mustard’s Last Stand.

“I always have to get my Chicago roots in there,” O’Brien said.

Along with visiting The Book Stall, O’Brien will also be using his trip home to attend his 45-year elementary school reunion at Sacred Heart School in Winnetka and to join his siblings in raising a toast to their late mother, who would have turned 100 on Aug. 9. O’Brien said he always enjoys the chance to promote his books on the North Shore.

“My siblings are so supportive,” he said. “They all live in the Chicago area and they all show up and their kids show up and their kids’ friends show up.”

Now that he’s found his niche, O’Brien’s career shows no signs of slowing down. He just signed a contract to write three thrillers based on serial killers.

“I recently asked my agency ‘Would you object to me going back and writing something more literary?’ and they said ‘Yes.'” O’Brien said. “You can’t write anything but the genre you’re in, but there’s worse things to be stuck in.”

Kevin O’Brien book signing

When: 6:30 p.m. Aug. 6

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Where: The Bookstall at Chestnut Court, 811 Elm St., Winnetka

Cost: Free

Contact: 847-446-8880; www.thebookstall.com