Joanna Jenkins
Award-winning author of How to Kill a Client,
The Bluff and Bad Neighbours
THE NEW RUTH DAWSON THRILLER | OUT NOW
BAD
NEIGHBOURS
One building. One body.
Everyone is hiding something.
Ruth Dawson has found the perfect apartment in Potts Point. Then the homeless man in the garden turns up dead, and she's certain one of her neighbours knows why.
WINNER | DAVITT AWARDS 2026
The Bluff | Adult Fiction
Get to know
the neighbours
One building.
One body
Everyone is hiding something.
A page-turning thriller of fraud and lies, murder and greed.
Ruth Dawson finds her ideal living space in an Art Deco building in Potts Point, The Lumen. A twenty-minute walk from her office in the city, the apartment boasts parquetry flooring, a wall of books and Harbour Bridge views from the sofa.
It's perfect until Ben, the homeless guy, dies under the corrugated iron lean-to in the garden where he lived.
The residents of The Lumen do little to hide their relief. They can cease their half-hearted attempts to find an acceptable solution to 'the Ben problem', and return to more important issues.
They are not happy when Ruth brings in a detective. But she's certain Ben was poisoned, and one of her neighbours knows it too.
MODERN APARTMENT LIVING
Bodies Corporate, Selfishness, Greed
Camaraderie.
Praise for Bad Neighbours
"Come for the murder, stay for the almost-too-close-to-the-bone social satire. I loved it, but don't tell my neighbours."
Jack Heath
Author of Kill Your Husbands
WINNER | 2026 DAVITT AWARD FOR ADULT FICTION
THE BLUFF
Did you think no one was watching?
A page-turning rural thriller of loyalties and lies, murder and greed.
"People like Dash didn’t die. He was only what? Mid-thirties? Well off. Adored. By some anyway. World at his feet. Well, Myddle at his feet, which was his world."
Ruth Dawson has taken a break from big city law to fill in for a few months at a mate’s small-town legal practice in Myddle. It’s not what she’s used to ...
An unputdownable thriller of deception and greed, The Bluff, reveals an enmeshed web of family and community loyalties, set in the lush rural hinterland of east coast Australia.
AWARDS
Winner, Adult Fiction
Davitt Awards (2026)
Shortlisted Authors:
-
Shaeden Barry for At Cafe 64
-
Zeynad Gamieldien for Learned Behaviours
-
Fiona Hardy for Unbury the Dead
-
Sally Hepworth for Mad Mabel
-
Angie Faye Martin for Melaleuca
Praise for The Bluff
"A deftly crafted novel, filled with sensory writing and an authentic rural setting. The writing is brave without being moralising."
"An outstanding winner chosen from a group of impressive novels."
AWARDS
THE BESTSELLING DEBUT | RUTH DAWSON #1
HOW TO KILL A CLIENT
Everyone wanted him gone. But who killed him?
Taking on law's old boys club can have deadly results... A gripping thriller from a bold new voice about misogyny, corruption and the legal industry.
"Everyone is going to say what a great guy and a great lawyer he was. He wasn't. He was a prick … And a shithouse lawyer."
Gavin Jones is dead at thirty-nine. As an in-house lawyer who controlled millions of dollars in fees per year, he was legal firm Howard Greene's biggest client and wielded that power with manipulative contempt.
A fast-paced and wickedly funny thriller about power and revenue set in the pristine towers of capitalism, How to Kill a Client is a scorching debut straight out of tomorrow's headlines.
Shortlisted Best Debut Crime Fiction Australian Crime Writers Association (2023)
Shortlisted Best Debut Crime Fiction Ned Kelly Awards (2023)
Shortlisted Best Debut Fiction Danger Awards for Crime Writing (2024)
IN DEVELOPMENT
Praise for How to Kill a Client
‘Nobody knows how to play dirty like a lawyer; Joanna Jenkins gives John Grisham a run for his money.’
Candice Fox, author of The Chase
About Joanna Jenkins
Joanna Jenkins grew up on a small farm in country Queensland.
After graduating from the University of Queensland with degrees in English Literature and Law, she practised as a solicitor, including for many years as a partner of an international law firm.
She now writes full-time.
Her debut novel, How to Kill a Client, was published in 2023 and shortlisted for the Ned Kelly Awards. Her second, The Bluff, won the 2026 Davitt Award for Adult Fiction. Bad Neighbours is her third novel.
Married with three sons, Joanna lives in Brisbane.
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PRAISE FOR JOANNA
CANBERRA WEEKLY
'A very
impressive novel.'
BOOKS + PUBLISHING
'A satisfying and twisting thriller.'
SYDNEY ARTS GUIDE
'A fabulous page turner.'
THE JUSTINIAN
'Eminently readable.'
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Events and Bookings
Date
Event
Tickets
More coming ...
Past Events
September 2026
Melbourne
Sisters in Crime
2026 Davitt Awards Adult Fiction Winner
The Bluff by Joanna Jenkins
August 2026
Queanbeayan
In Conversation
Queanbeyan - Palerang Libraries
August 2026
Brisbane
In Conversation
Eddie Scuderi
Lacuna Lunches
August 2026
Brisbane
In Conversation
Poppy Gee
Books @ Stones
August 2026
Brisbane
Bad Neighbours Launch
Fiona Stager
Avid Reader
July 2026
Melbourne
Law & Disorder
Sisters in Crime
Panel with Rebecca Lim, Eve Thomson and Lyn Yeowarts
October 2025
Brisbane
Brisbane Writers Festival
Suspense
Panel with Sam Guthrie, Zeynab Gamieldien and Toby Schmitz
May 2025
Maleny
Sunshine Coast Hinterland Writers Festival Blood & Soil panel with Fleur McDonald and Michael Burge
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Joanna can be contacted directly about speaking engagements here
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