MK Farrar Books in Order

M.K. Farrar is the crime and thriller pen name of British novelist Marissa Farrar. She was born in Torquay, Devon, and has also lived in Australia and Spain. Her work has moved across romance, fantasy, paranormal fiction, horror, and crime, but the M.K. Farrar name is where she turns toward psychological suspense and police investigations.

She came to writing early. After finishing university, where she earned a degree in zoology, Farrar began her first novel. She spent years writing and submitting work before Alone was published in 2009. It was a practical start rather than an overnight leap, with many pages, revisions, and the usual uncertainty that comes with learning the job in public.

She kept going.

Over time, Farrar built a large catalogue under her own name, often writing romances with darker situations, paranormal elements, or high emotional stakes. She has said that she likes stories that create tension and make her want to keep turning pages herself. That pull toward suspense helped lead to the M.K. Farrar byline.

Some They Lie, published in 2018, was her first psychological thriller under the new name. It follows Olivia Midhurst, whose uneasy new relationship becomes still more troubling when people around her begin to disappear. The book established a pattern readers can expect from this side of Farrar's work: a close point of view, secrets from the past, and danger that starts inside an ordinary-looking life.

The standalone thrillers keep finding different ways to isolate their heroines. In In the Woods, Cassandra Draper wakes chained to a tree after being abducted by a serial killer, then has to survive when circumstances take an unexpected turn. 21 Days puts author Lauren Kidwell alone in a Devon moorland cottage during lockdown, where small signs suggest that solitude may not be as complete as it seems.

Farrar also writes series for readers who like to spend more time with an investigation team. She co-wrote the Crime After Crime novels with M.A. Comley, bringing psychological pressure to stories about women in danger. The DI Erica Swift books take a more traditional police-thriller route through London, while the Detective Ryan Chase novels follow a Bristol detective carrying personal grief alongside his cases.

Her books tend to put people under strain and then stay close to what that strain does to them. Trauma, control, buried history, family responsibility, and the question of whom to trust come up often. The crimes can be grim, but the stories usually keep their focus on the people trying to make sense of them.

Away from the keyboard, Farrar lives in the English countryside with her husband, three daughters, and a busy collection of rescue animals. She has described writing as a full-time job, with family life, animals, reading, baking, and television filling the spaces around it.

That sounds like a full house.