Adrian McKinty was born in Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland, and grew up at the height of the Troubles. He studied law, politics and philosophy at university. In the early 1990s he moved to New York City where he worked in bars, bookstores and building sites.

He now lives in Melbourne, Australia. The first Sean Duffy novel The Cold Cold Ground won the 2013 Spinetingler Award, its sequel I Hear The Sirens In The Street was shortlisted for the 2013 Ned Kelly Award, and Sean Duffy Thriller #3, In the Morning I'll be Gone, won the 2014 Ned Kelly Award and was picked as one of the top 10 crime novels of 2014 by the American Library Association.

Gun Street Girl (Sean Duffy 4) was shortlisted for the 2015 Ned Kelly Award and the Edgar and the Anthony Awards in the USA. Rain Dogs was shortlisted for the Theakston's Crime Novel of the Year and longlisted for the CWA Ian Fleming Silver Dagger Award.