M.K. Oliver Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

M.K. Oliver is a successful British author.

He has not always written novels– M.K. Oliver is a former teacher and headteacher who originally hails from Liverpool. Although he worked a day job to pay the bills, he always dreamed of being a writer. He worked in schools for many years and after that made the choice to put down the whiteboard marker and take on the keyboard and give writing a try at last.

It has paid off as today he is a published author! Oliver has also written courses at Curtis Brown, Faber & Faber as well as the Royal Court Theatre. Today he resides with his family and their very talkative cat in North London. This gave him the inspiration for the location of his story but thankfully not the characters. His debut novel is titled A Sociopath’s Guide to a Successful Marriage.

A Sociopath’s Guide to a Successful Marriage is a 2026 book by M.K. Oliver. Sometimes a good mother will end up killing for her family– or for fun. Love a good thriller that is dark but entertaining? This might be the book for you in a novel that bestselling author Alice Feeney called a ‘wickedly dark and hilarious debut’.

Main character Lalla Rook has a lot going on in her life and has a to-do list that seems to stretch a million miles long. She is attempting to get so much done and it seems like it never ends. She wants to help her husband make partner, something that she is going to try and do by boosting his self-esteem and his sense of masculinity. She also wants to lock down her dream home in Hampstead as well as find a private school she can get her daughter into.

Lalla needs to get plans into motion to put on a lavish birthday party for her four year old child and should probably find some time to get the dead body out of her living room. So there are just a few small errands that she needs to get done– and one big one.

Lalla has a busy life but she has not always been this boring homemaker. She has transgressed in the past and cannot pretend that she does not miss the adrenaline rush that comes with it. She’s a wife and a mother now so she is really good at multi-tasking. It should be no problem to just get rid of a body, actively frame a friend for the murder, and maintain her status as the world’s best homemaker.

Even though she’s doing her best to try and take care of her family, Lalla has her doubts. Her husband seems to be distracted lately and she knows that her daughter is dealing with an academic future that is anything but certain. There’s also the intruder in her living room that happened to meet a horrible fate. And now she has stabbed the stranger seven times, which resulted in their death.

Lalla is going to have to work quickly if she wants to keep all of this under wraps and keep going with her happy suburban life. She wants to avoid the law and do everything that she can to manage her past and keep it hidden. Full of murder and some humor too, Lalla is an anti-heroine for the ages. But can she keep all of her plates in the air or are some of them destined to hit the ground and smash?

This is ‘the most wildly entertaining novel you’ll read this year’, according to bestselling author A.J. Finn. If you’ve been wanting to read a fun thriller that doesn’t take itself too seriously, this is the book for you. Get a copy of A Sociopath’s Guide to a Successful Marriage to follow along with every word and find out what happens and keep your eyes peeled for the upcoming sequel, A Sociopath’s Guide to Making a Killing.