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Andrew Mackay Books in Order

Browse Andrew Mackay books in order, with quick summaries, series guides, and simple tips on where to start with his sci-fi, satire, horror, and thrillers.

Last updated: July 12, 2026

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34 books

The Actor

by Andrew Mackay

2016

Joy's next assignment drops her into the pressure cooker of the stage as she follows actor Pat Cake through a major production. Public scrutiny, backstage nerves, and her own awkwardness make the day steadily worse.

The Model

by Andrew Mackay

2016

Joy Attwood steps into the glossy, competitive world of modeling and quickly learns how much vanity and pressure sit behind the image. Glamour is cheap here, but the personal cost is anything but.

The Teacher

by Andrew Mackay

2016

Rookie journalist Joy Attwood spends a day shadowing high school teacher Rachel Weir and gets far more than a tidy workplace profile. Burnout, bureaucracy, and a truly awful day at school push the comedy into chaos.

Convenience

by Andrew Mackay

2017

Public restroom janitor Willy Gee just wants to get through his shift at the mall. Instead, one foul Thursday becomes a spiral of disgust, secrets, and psychological horror in the last place anyone wants to lose their mind.

Pure Dark Vol 1

by Andrew Mackay

2017

A heroin addict trapped in a coma is dragged through nightmare after nightmare with no clean way out. The first Pure Dark book is surreal, nasty horror built on fear, guilt, and raw endurance.

Pure Dark Vol 2

by Andrew Mackay

2017

The nightmare does not let up. This second volume pushes deeper into the coma maze, where reality keeps slipping, the monsters get stranger, and survival feels less certain than ever.

Pure Dark Vol 3

by Andrew Mackay

2017

The third descent into Pure Dark turns the pressure higher again, with escape still maddeningly out of reach. Dream logic, body horror, and psychological punishment keep grinding the trapped mind down.

Simple Machines

by Andrew Mackay

2017

Inventor Xander Manning has built a companion designed to meet every human need, but his own marriage is cracking apart. Then Chloe Armstrong arrives, and desire, suspicion, and ambition begin wrecking everything he built.

The Artist

by Andrew Mackay

2017

Joy Attwood follows rising artist Jake Priestley to a major Paris event and expects ego, hype, and high culture. Instead, the day tips into danger as art-world ambition gives way to a terrifying heist.

The Dealer

by Andrew Mackay

2017

Drug kingpin D-REZ forces Joy Attwood to document a violent showdown over a devastating new narcotic. If she asks questions, runs, or gets it wrong, other people pay the price.

The Nurse

by Andrew Mackay

2017

Joy shadows charge nurse Sangita Gallagher through a chaotic graveyard shift at Shotterlay General Hospital. Blood, panic, paperwork, and pure exhaustion collide as the night keeps finding new ways to get worse.

Versus

by Andrew Mackay

2017

Fear, violence, and clashing loyalties drive this dark standalone into brutal territory fast. Mackay leans into panic, moral gray areas, and the ugly momentum of a conflict that keeps dragging more people in.

Exodus

by Andrew Mackay

2018

Stranded on a remote planet, Jelly, her daughter Furie, and the battered crew just want to get home. Back on Earth, mass removals, rebels, and war are already reshaping the world waiting for them.

Infinity Claws

by Andrew Mackay

2018

In the twenty-second century, house cat Jelly Anderson wins a brutal global contest to join a mission to Saturn. She may be the key to decoding a strange signal, but space has far worse plans waiting for her.

Killer Instinct

by Andrew Mackay

2018

Earth-side rebels, kidnappings, and the fallout from the Star Cat project push the series into open conflict. As Jelly grows more dangerous, the fight for control turns nastier, faster, and much more personal.

Let's Kill Mr Pond

by Andrew Mackay

2018

Twelve-year-olds Sam and Jonnie begin by joking about killing their woodwork teacher. As boredom, anger, and friendship twist together, the line between fantasy and action starts to disappear.

Pink Symphony

by Andrew Mackay

2018

Jelly and the Space Opera crew discover a force that could wipe out disease, and possibly humanity with it. Trapped in deep space, they face monsters, paranoia, and changes in Jelly that no one can control.

Star Cat Forever

by Andrew Mackay

2018

Jelly returns to Earth as a battle-hardened warrior with vengeance on her mind and USARIC in her sights. Rebels, mercenaries, and corporate power all want a piece of her, but she has brought back something bigger.

The Belch Park Field Trip

by Andrew Mackay

2018

Henry Williams is no born leader, but he ends up in charge of Chrome Junction's worst kids on a school trip. One rival school later, the day turns into a loud, filthy war for pride and survival.

Training Day

by Andrew Mackay

2018

Before the mission to Saturn, Jelly must survive USARIC's idea of training. Stealth tests, spacewalks, and brutal simulations show just how much work it takes to turn a cat into a Star Cat.

Vicky & Lizzie's First Period

by Andrew Mackay

2018

Two scheming schoolgirls start a vicious rumor about a teacher because they want attention and popularity. When the lie spreads too well, Vicky and Lizzie will do almost anything to dodge the fallout.

War Mage

by Andrew Mackay

2018

Outnumbered on a hostile ship, Jelly and the surviving crew wait for rescue while alien enemies close in. To stay alive, they must train Star Cat into something far deadlier than anyone planned.

Young Lions Pride

by Andrew Mackay

2018

Alan, Sam, Alice, and Aurora operate behind enemy lines during the Allied liberation of the Occupied South. In this alternate-history war story, survival means facing loss, chaos, and enemies on every side.

2 Drunk 2 Drive

by Andrew Mackay

2019

The race sparked by alien tech gets even messier as bad choices, louder egos, and ruthless rivals pile into the contest. Space is still the prize, but getting there may destroy everyone on the road first.

Shoot for the Moon

by Andrew Mackay

2019

When alien probes make vehicles fly, two reckless young men see a chance to escape their lives and race for the moon. The problem is that half the world has the same idea, and nobody plans to play fair.

Somnambulist

by Andrew Mackay

2019

Iris Goddard leaves home in the middle of the night during a sleepwalking episode, and her husband and son race into Chrome Valley to find her. What drives her into the dark is older, deeper, and far more violent than they know.

Glitch

by Andrew Mackay

2020

When programmer Evan Cole is murdered during a raid on a cheating app, he uploads himself into the network and comes back hunting revenge. Kara Milton is forced to help if she wants her own dangerous secret buried.

Glitch 2: Viral Nation

by Andrew Mackay

2020

After surviving the first bloodbath, Kara Milton and the digital ghost of Evan Cole face corrupt enemies who will not let the truth spread. Revenge gets bigger, messier, and far harder to contain.

My Lockdown

by Andrew Mackay

2020

Teenager Dolph Carter is trapped at home during a virus lockdown, with an infected father in isolation and his family falling apart. To keep them fed, he must cross lawless streets where desperation has turned violent.

Psychiatrist: aka Shrink

by Andrew Mackay

2020

Dr. Clive McCord spends his days helping fractured minds while his own life quietly falls apart. Alcohol, buried trauma, and slipping sanity turn the healer into a man who may be more dangerous than his patients.

Red Collar

by Andrew Mackay

2020

A group of laid-off workers decide that severance pay is not enough and plan a heist of their own. Greed, bad judgment, and simmering workplace rage turn the job into a fast, ugly spiral.

Terrorist: aka Versus

by Andrew Mackay

2020

A looming act of terror throws Chrome Valley into chaos and drags ordinary lives into a brutal conflict. As fear spreads, survival depends on knowing who to trust, and how far you are willing to go first.

Ventriloquist: aka Puppeteer

by Andrew Mackay

2020

Stage performer Lester Cleverley can still thrill an audience, but his home life is collapsing and drugs are making everything worse. As his bond with puppet Butterfly turns darker, memory and madness start to blur.

Glitch 3: Cyber God

by Andrew Mackay

2021

Evan Cole, now trapped inside a government war machine, has become a feral threat to every living person. Kara Milton dives deeper into the network to stop him, even if beating this new cyber god costs her everything.

Where should I start?

If you want funny, strange space opera: Training DayInfinity ClawsPink SymphonyWar Mage
If you like dark workplace satire: The TeacherThe ActorThe Nurse
If you want psychological suspense: SomnambulistVentriloquist: aka PuppeteerPsychiatrist: aka Shrink
If cyberpunk horror sounds best: GlitchGlitch 2: Viral NationGlitch 3: Cyber God

Author bio

Andrew Mackay is a British novelist and screenwriter who moves easily between satire, horror, thriller, and science fiction. He has said he was born in Edinburgh, grew up in London, and later lived in Hampshire. Before writing full time, he taught in both college and high school, which helps explain why so many of his books understand pressure, boredom, bureaucracy, and the strange comedy of everyday work.

He started early.

Mackay has said that one of the turning points came when he was eleven. An English teacher gave the class the first half of a story and asked everyone to finish it at home. Most of the class stopped after a page or less. Mackay kept going until he had filled the textbook, and he has described that moment as the point when his life changed.

For years, though, fiction was not yet the day job. He worked as a screenwriter for about two decades, taught students, and kept building stories on the side. In October 2016 he left teaching, started publishing through Chrome Valley Books, and released his first novel, The Teacher. He did not ease in quietly, either. His early run as an indie author was fast, and he quickly spread across multiple genres instead of settling into one lane.

That first book set the tone for a lot of what followed. The Teacher pulls from his own experience in education and introduces Joy Attwood, the rookie journalist at the center of the In Their Shoes books. In that series, Joy shadows a different professional each time, from a teacher and actor to a nurse and drug dealer, and the result is part workplace satire, part black comedy, part thriller. The books are rude, hectic, and very interested in the gap between what jobs look like from the outside and what they feel like from the inside.

He also likes taking a wild premise and pushing it until it becomes its own world.

That is easy to see in Infinity Claws, where a house cat named Jelly wins a place on a mission to Saturn. What starts as a funny idea turns into the much larger Star Cat saga, full of space crews, corporate agendas, strange creatures, and a surprising amount of heart. Readers who like Mackay there usually respond to the speed, the snark, and the fact that he never seems embarrassed by a big, odd idea.

Elsewhere, the books get much darker. Somnambulist turns sleepwalking into a tense and eerie city nightmare. Glitch follows a murdered programmer who uploads himself into a network and comes back as something far more dangerous. The Pure Dark books dive into coma-fueled horror, while novels like Simple Machines and Red Collar show his interest in obsession, greed, and people making terrible choices under stress.

Across genres, a few patterns keep showing up. Mackay likes trapped characters, corrupt systems, sudden violence, and jokes that land at exactly the wrong time. He has spoken about influences that range from Douglas Adams and John Cleese to James Patterson, Kurt Vonnegut, Tom Sharpe, and Chris Morris, which makes sense once you see how often his books mix pace, satire, and menace.

He has also spoken about being a world traveler and about being married to a Korean wife. Those are small details, but they fit the restless feel of the work. Whether he is writing about a hungover teacher, a cat in orbit, or a man losing his mind in a shopping mall restroom, Mackay tends to write like someone who wants the story to move, bite, and leave a mark.

Edited by

Richard Reis

Software engineer whose passion for tracking book recommendations from podcasts inspired the creation of MRB.

Anurag Ramdasan

Lead investor at 3one4 Capital whose startup expertise and love for books helped shaped MRB and its growth.

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