Ben’s Book Club

Joanna Jenkins grew up on a small farm in country Queensland. After graduating from the University of Queensland in the late eighties with degrees in English Literature and Law, she practised as a solicitor in Big Law, including, for many years, as a partner of an international law firm. In one firm she worked at, Joanna was the first person to work part-time after having a baby, and in another was, for a couple of years, the only female partner of the Brisbane office. She now writes full-time. Married with three sons, Joanna lives in Brisbane. ‘How to Kill a Client’ is her first novel.

‘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. But he saved his worst behaviour for women, at work and at home.

The partners of Howard Greene relied on his favour to fund their lavish lifestyles. If sycophantic admiration of the man was all it took to secure work from Gavin, that’s what they delivered.

But no one liked Gavin. The list of those who suffered from his cruelty was long enough to include pretty much everyone who had contact with him. So who actually killed him?

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.