Books in Order: Your Complete Guide to Kevin O'Brien's Novels

Kevin O'Brien studied journalism at Marquette University in Milwaukee before settling in Seattle, having grown up in Chicago. He worked as a railroad inspector while writing at night, and it was novelist Terry Brooks who convinced him to keep that day job until his fiction alone could cover two years of living expenses.

His debut, Only Son, was published in 1997. This guide runs two later Family Secrets novels in publication order: The Betrayed Wife (2019) and The Bad Sister (2020), best read one after the other.