Marshall Karp Books in Order – Complete List
New York Times bestselling author Marshall Karp is known for two popular series: the Lomax & Biggs humorous crime mystery series, and the NYPD Red series that he completely took over from James Patterson. He also wrote several standalone novels. He is also known for having been a successful advertising executive before becoming a known writer.
Here are the Marshall Karp books in order for his series and standalone books.
Latest Marshall Karp Books
Lomax and Biggs Books in Publication Order
- The Rabbit Factory, 2006
- Bloodthirsty, 2007
- Flipping Out, 2009
- Cut, Paste, Kill, 2010
- Terminal, 2016
NYPD Red Books in Publication Order
The first six novels were co-authored with James Patterson. Starting with NYPD Red 7, Marshall Karp took over the series completely.
- NYPD Red, 2012
- NYPD Red 2, 2012
- NYPD Red 3, 2015
- NYPD Red 4, 2016
- NYPD Red 5, 2018
- NYPD Red 6, 2020
- NYPD Red 7, 2022
- NYPD Red 8, 2025
Standalone Novels in Publication Order
- Kill Me If You Can (with James Patterson), 2011
- Snowstorm in August, 2022
- Don’t Tell Me How to Die, 2025
Marshall Karp Biography
Marshall Warren Karp was born in New York City in 1942 as the son of Benjamin and Beatrice Karp. When he was a kid, his family couldn’t afford to buy books, so he took out books from the library with his card. In an interview, he mentioned that one of the first books he had read was a novel in the Buddy series, all part of boys books.
He always liked writing, even as a child, but initially he didn’t think of becoming a writer. During his high-school years, in his senior year, in fact he wanted to become a dentist, knowing that his parents wanted him to follow a more practical route rather than that of a writer. So he enrolled at Rutger University to the dental department, but he failed biology which thwarted his ambitious plans, much to the delight of all of us, readers all over the world, who got instead a great writer to follow and read.
At that time, he started writing articles in the school newspaper, and thus his love for writing flared up once again. He then graduated with an English degree. He then stopped thinking of his career due to the upcoming Vietnam War where he knew he would be drafted. Thus he joined the National Guard which meant he could stay on his country’s soil rather than being sent off to Vietnam.
After six months of active duty, he went back to his goal of writing, but his path to become a published author took another some 20-year detour when he started working for an advertising agency becoming a – quite good – copywriter, a job to which he got introduced to by his at-the-time girlfriend. He worked as a direct mail copywriter, regular copywriter, and then moving up to becoming a vice president and associate creative director. His original two campaigns won several awards.
As an interesting side-note, his first successful ad campaign was with a very young John Travolta in one of the spots.
But after being a it for a good while, he got bored and decided to write a play, which he called Squabbles: A Comedy in Two Acts, which eventually was produced in 1982 at a dinner theater in Kansas City, Missouri. When the play got noticed in the relevant circles, he moved to Hollywood and engaged in various writing gigs including scrips and pilots for TV series. As a freelance scriptwriter, while still working in advertising, he produced or created or both various TV series such as Melba, Everything’s Relative, Amen, Marvin: Baby of the Year, Working It Out, Baby Talk, and Just Looking.
Then he started an ad agency which he eventually sold after earning good profits, and then he finally decided to write that first novel. And while it took him several years to finish his first novel, The Rabbit Factory, which he got it published in 2006, he thought he had done it and would move on. Who would have known that the book became so popular that it became a requested series, which he eventually wrote. The two LAPD detectives, Mike Lomax and Terry Biggs, became extremely popular and with good reason.
His working together with James Patterson happened while he was still a copywriter, and much to his surprise, Patterson eventually asked him if he wanted to co-author a full-length book with him. That book turned out to be Kill Me If You Can, which became a #1 bestseller quite fast.
What happened next was also rather unexpected. Marshall Karp had an idea about a squad of NYPD cops who evolved around the rich and famous and solving their crimes and. That telite task force would be called NYPD Red. James Patterson loved the idea, and their collaboration on this series began.
After six bestselling novels in the series, Patterson decided to give Marshall Karp full reigns on the book series. Afterall, it was Karp himself who had the original idea, and Patterson was already too busy with many other projects. Thus from NYPD Red 7, Marshall Karp became the sole owner of the novels.
When it comes to doing the research for his novels, he puts all of himself into it. The author realized soon enough that accuracy is often crucial when adding information to the books. When he had a particular idea of a plot twist or device, he would call or meet relevant professionals to guide him and give him the right info.
However, except for writing books, being a screenwriter and playwriter, he also does charity work. For example, after learning that his daughter survived the 9/11 terrorist attack, he decided to pay back the universe. Learning that many children around the world were going blind due to lack of vitamin A, he contacted the megacorporation Johnson & Johnson to help with sponsoring a program that would eradicate Vitamin A deficiency childhood blindness. After J&J agreed, he put them in contact with Vitamin Angels to help the children with this illness around the world.