Joanna Jenkins
Bestselling author of How to Kill a Client
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 case 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. But also cameraderie.
Events and Bookings
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Past Events
12 October 2025
"Suspense!" - Panellist at Brisbane Writers' Festival
25 September 2025
Ned Kelly Awards at Brisbane Square Library
4 May 2025
Sunshine Coast Hinterland Writers Festival Maleny
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.
Married with three sons, Joanna lives in Brisbane. Her debut novel, How to Kill a Client, was published in 2023. The Bluff is her second novel.
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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.'
Did you think no one was watching?
The Bluff
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.
Praise for The Bluff
"It has become a popular staple of Australian rural crime - the small town with big secrets - but this clever second novel from former lawyer Joanna Jenkins resists cliche and builds to a satisfying conclusion, with plenty of surprises along the way, even as it explores pressing issues of our time - consent, race and greed."
Cheryl Akle - Notable Books,
The Australian
How to Kill a Client
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 revenge set in the pristine towers of capitalism, How to Kill a Client is a scorching debut straight out of tomorrow's headlines.
Awards
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Shortlisted Best Debut Crime Fiction, Australian Crime Writers Association (2023)
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Shortlisted Best Debut Crime Fiction, Ned Kelly Awards (2023)
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Shortlisted Best Debut Fiction, Danger Awards for Crime Writing (2024)
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
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Joanna can be contacted directly about speaking engagements here
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