Mark Edwards Books in Order

If you want the classic neighbour nightmare: The Magpies → A Murder of Magpies → Last of the Magpies
If you like travel dread: Follow You Home
If you want eerie woods and true crime vibes: The Hollows
If you prefer police cases with personal stakes: From the Cradle → The Blissfully Dead → One Shot
If you want conspiracy thrillers: Catch Your Death → All Fall Down

Mark Edwards was born in Kent and grew up in Hastings, on England's south coast. He has said he wanted to be a writer from his teens, after discovering the kind of dark, compulsive novels that keep you up too late. That early pull never really left him.

The road was not quick. Before writing became his full-time job, he worked in the civil service, in customer service for a rail company, and later in publishing. He also spent time in Tokyo teaching English. For years he wrote around everything else, including on his daily commute, which helped him learn how to write in short, sharp bursts.

He kept going even when the industry kept saying no.

In 1999 he appeared in a BBC documentary about new writers, and that turned out to matter. Another novelist, Louise Voss, saw the programme, recognised a kindred spirit, and got in touch. The two became friends, swapped work, and eventually started writing together. Their partnership led to a run of twisty thrillers, including Catch Your Death, All Fall Down, From the Cradle, and The Blissfully Dead.

Their early books had a rough start. One was optioned before it was even finished, then stalled. Publishers passed on others. In 2011 they self-published together, and the response from readers changed the picture completely. Those books found an audience, climbed the ebook charts, and led to a traditional deal. Not long after that, Edwards published his first solo novel, The Magpies, and that book became the one that truly opened things up for him.

That was the turning point.

What readers tend to like about Edwards is easy to see. His stories start with ordinary people, a new home, a holiday, a family problem, a missing person, and then turn the screw. The Magpies takes bad neighbours and makes them terrifying. Follow You Home turns a European trip into a lingering nightmare. The Hollows brings eerie woods, true crime obsession, and a father-daughter story together. No Place to Run pushes into missing-person territory, with a search that gets more dangerous the closer it gets to the truth.

Even when the setups vary, his books share some habits. He likes domestic spaces that stop feeling safe. He likes secrets that spread through families, friendships, and online lives. He also likes characters who are not action heroes, just regular people trying to keep up when the ground gives way under them. That mix has helped him build a big readership in psychological suspense, both on his own and with Louise Voss.

These days he lives in the West Midlands with his wife, their children, two cats, and a golden retriever. By all accounts, the day-to-day routine is pretty normal, school runs, family life, writing during working hours, which feels fitting for an author who is so good at making normal life go very wrong. He has sold more than five million books, but the appeal of his work is still close-up and personal: familiar places, recognisable people, and one deeply bad turn.