For our latest OL Spotlight we're delighted to feature Robin Mackie (1978) (pictured left) who, alongside Luna de Casanova, is the author of an exciting new thriller titled Consequential Loss. This latest publication is also available as an audiobook, read by Pip Torrens (Poldark, The Crown, Preacher).

Q1. Tell us a little about your career and background?

"I read English at Trinity College, Cambridge before moving to the US for several years. On my return to the UK, I worked in venture capital and private equity, before working on the build out of St James’s Place. Subsequently, I became an investment banker, specialising in insurance."

Q2. What led to your love of writing?

"Reading. And being lucky enough to have had some inspiring and outstanding teachers - David Stock, Peter Wood and Peter Lapping at Loretto, and Professor Adrian Poole at Cambridge."

Q3. What is Consequential Loss about?

"Consequential Loss concerns a disgraced agent, Chadwick, ordered to lie low in a shuttered hotel on a wintry French Riviera. Against his better judgment, he helps a Latvian woman retrieve documents from a corrupt private detective who she hired to investigate the shipwreck and drowning of her brother in the South China Sea. Unfortunately for Chadwick, the private detective is missing from his blood-splattered office, and the dead brother has just checked out of a hotel in Nice."

Q4. Why did you write Consequential Loss?

"We started writing the book when we were holidaying in the South of France. We both finished the books we were reading and decided we would write our own, basing it in the hotel where we were staying."

Q5. In your view, what makes a good thriller?

"Pace, plot, and engagement. The last is especially important. If the reader stops caring, you’re doomed."

Q6. What would you say is the best aspect of your career?

"Constantly adapting to change, relishing new challenges, and working with smart people."

Q7. What’s next for you?

"We have another thriller – The Tall Heat – coming out in 2026, and I’m in the middle of writing a non-fiction book."

Q8. What advice would you give to current Lorettonians?

"Be bold. Too many people are defeated before they leave the house in the morning. Nowadays, given today’s technology, you can be a global sensation before you’re allowed to drive a car. That’s an extraordinary opportunity which simply wasn’t available to previous generations."

Future OL Spotlights

To be featured yourself or to nominate someone else, please get in touch at society@loretto.com.