A Sociopath's Guide to a Successful Marriage

A Novel

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About The Book

A good mother will kill for her family. And, sometimes, for fun in this “wickedly dark and hilarious debut” (Alice Feeney, New York Times bestselling author of My Husband’s Wife).

Meet Lalla Rook. Lalla has a lot on her to-do list: help her husband make partner by flattering his masculinity, secure her dream home in Hampstead, get her daughter into private school, host her four-year-old’s birthday party, and remove the dead body from her living room.

Lalla can’t pretend she hasn’t missed the adrenaline rush that comes with transgressing. And, as a wife and mother, she’s already an expert multitasker. So disposing of a body, framing a friend, and being the world’s best homemaker should be easy to achieve.

It’s just that her husband seems distracted, her daughter faces an uncertain academic future, and then there is the unexpected intruder in her living room, a stranger she has stabbed seven times. Avoiding the law is the least of her worries—not when she has a past to keep hidden.

Brimming with brio, humor, and just a dash of murder, A Sociopath’s Guide to a Successful Marriage introduces a brilliant new anti-heroine in “the most wildly entertaining novel you'll read this year” (A.J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window).

About The Author

© Zoë Norfolk
MK Oliver

M.K. Oliver is a former English teacher and headteacher originally from Liverpool. He long dreamed of becoming a writer and after many years of working in schools, he took the exciting decision to put down the whiteboard marker, take up the keyboard, and give it a go. He enjoyed writing courses at Curtis Brown, Faber & Faber, and the Royal Court Theatre and now lives with his family and talkative cat in North London.

Product Details

  • Publisher: Atria Books (January 26, 2027)
  • Length: 384 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781668096918

Raves and Reviews

“What a tightrope M.K. Oliver walks in A Sociopath's Guide to a Successful Marriage, the most wildly entertaining novel you'll read this year: suspenseful but funny, shocking yet stylish... and sophisticated, too—a story with cold blood in its veins and bright ideas in its head. Part crime, part comedy, A Sociopath's Guide to a Successful Marriage introduces Lalla Rook, a name fated to be widely known in our world, if not in hers. You wouldn't want to be Lalla's enemy. You probably wouldn't want to be her friend, either—but you'll definitely want to be her audience, as she raises a family, commits murder, disposes of corpses, and prepares the perfect birthday cake (or does she?)... all with wit, imagination, and good taste. This is that very rare novel that's fun enough for a binge read but provocative enough for book clubs. May Lalla return soon, please, with more messes to be sorted, more bodies to be buried, and more cakes to be baked (sort of).”
—A.J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window

"A wickedly dark and hilarious debut. The writing is witty, wise and wildly entertaining, with well-drawn characters you will love to hate. Motherland meets Killing Eve. Utterly brilliant."
—Alice Feeney, New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Ugly

“Does being a sociopath make you a bad wife and mother? Not necessarily! But when everything and everyone that Lalla has been (really trying hard) to hold dear gets threatened, what’s a sociopath to do? Defend herself, that’s what! And maybe (just maybe, if necessary, but only then), plan a couple of homicides. I mean, they started it, right? The twists and turns will leave you questioning right and wrong, in the best way.”
—Catherine Mack, USA Today bestselling author of Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies

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