Below is the complete list of John Marrs books in order. For each series, the chronological reading order is the same as the order of publication.
Publication Order of Standalone Novels Books
- The Wronged Sons / When You Disappeared (2013)
The Wronged Sons / When You Disappeared was published in 2013 and is listed as book #1 in the Standalone Novels series. - Welcome To Wherever You Are / The Vacation (2015)
Published in 2015, Welcome To Wherever You Are / The Vacation is listed as book #2 in the Standalone Novels series. - The Good Samaritan (2017)
The Good Samaritan is a 2017 release and appears as book #3 in the Standalone Novels series. - Her Last Move (2018)
In the Standalone Novels series, Her Last Move is book #4 and was published in 2018. - What Lies Between Us (2020)
What Lies Between Us was first published in 2020; within the Standalone Novels series, it is listed as book #5. - Keep It In The Family (2022)
Keep It In The Family was published in 2022 and is listed as book #6 in the Standalone Novels series. - The Stranger in Her House (2024)
Published in 2024, The Stranger in Her House is listed as book #7 in the Standalone Novels series. - You Killed Me First (2025)
You Killed Me First is a 2025 release and appears as book #8 in the Standalone Novels series. - When You Disappeared (2025)
In the Standalone Novels series, When You Disappeared is book #9 and was published in 2025. - Dead in the Water (2026)
Dead in the Water was first published in 2026; within the Standalone Novels series, it is listed as book #10.
Publication Order of Dark Future Books
- The One (2016)
The One was published in 2016 and is listed as book #1 in the Dark Future series. - The Passengers (2019)
Published in 2019, The Passengers is listed as book #2 in the Dark Future series. - The Minders (2020)
The Minders is a 2020 release and appears as book #3 in the Dark Future series. - The Marriage Act (2023)
In the Dark Future series, The Marriage Act is book #4 and was published in 2023. - The Family Experiment (2024)
The Family Experiment was first published in 2024; within the Dark Future series, it is listed as book #5.
About John Marrs
John Marrs is a British author best known for psychological thrillers and speculative near-future fiction that turns modern anxieties into sharp, page-turning plots. Before becoming a full-time novelist, he worked as a journalist, interviewing figures from film, television, and music. That background shows in the pace and construction of his fiction. Marrs is skilled at building hooks quickly, moving between viewpoints, and using ordinary contemporary concerns—relationships, family secrets, technology, reputation, and control—as the starting point for much darker stories.
His early work established him as a writer of twist-driven psychological suspense. Novels such as When You Disappeared, The Good Samaritan, Her Last Move, What Lies Between Us, and Keep It in the Family focus on hidden histories, damaged relationships, unreliable motives, and the unsettling possibility that the people closest to someone may be the most dangerous. Marrs often builds these thrillers around domestic or emotional pressure rather than large public conspiracies. Marriages, families, neighbors, missing people, and long-buried secrets become the spaces where threat gathers.
The book that brought Marrs his widest international recognition was The One, a speculative thriller built around a DNA test that can identify a person’s perfect romantic match. The premise is simple, but Marrs uses it to ask uncomfortable questions about love, choice, fate, obsession, and the way technology can turn private longing into a commercial system. The novel was later adapted into a Netflix series, helping introduce Marrs’s work to a broader audience beyond thriller readers.
The One also became the foundation for what is often called Marrs’s Dark Future series, a loose group of connected speculative thrillers set in the same near-future world. The Passengers explores autonomous vehicles and public judgment, The Minders imagines people used as living data vaults, The Marriage Act examines government control over relationships, and The Family Experiment turns parenthood and artificial reality into a moral and emotional battleground. These books are not sequels in the traditional sense, but they share a recognizable vision: technology promises efficiency, safety, or happiness, then exposes how easily human weakness can corrupt those promises.
One of Marrs’s strengths is that his speculative ideas feel close to the present. He does not usually write distant science fiction with unfamiliar worlds. His futures are only a few steps ahead of current reality, which makes them especially unsettling. DNA testing, surveillance, artificial intelligence, self-driving cars, virtual family life, and state-backed social incentives all feel plausible enough to be uncomfortable. The danger in his books rarely comes from technology alone. It comes from what people do with it when love, money, fear, grief, ambition, or revenge are involved.
Marrs’s bibliography is best understood in two broad strands: psychological thrillers and speculative thrillers. The psychological novels are often darker, more intimate, and rooted in personal secrets. The speculative books are broader in concept, using near-future systems to examine society at scale. Both strands share his taste for short chapters, multiple perspectives, escalating revelations, and endings designed to shift the reader’s understanding of everything that came before.
John Marrs has built his career on turning irresistible “what if?” ideas into accessible, high-concept suspense. Whether he is writing about a perfect-match DNA test, a dangerous family secret, or a future where technology manages love and parenthood, his fiction returns to the same disturbing question: how well do people really know themselves and the systems they trust?