I'll be honest, the premise of Bad Neighbours isn't new. Homeless man dies outside a fancy apartment block, residents are a bit too relieved about it, turns out someone in the building is involved. You've read some version of this domestic thriller setup before, and if you're a regular crime fiction reader you'll probably clock the shape of it early.
But it didn't matter, because this was still a really good read. Joanna Jenkins's pacing is what carries it. Short chapters, plenty of different points of view, and just enough held back each time to keep you guessing without it ever feeling like a cheap trick or a withheld clue for the sake of it.
The characters are what really made Bad Neighbours for me though. Lead character Ruth is easy to like without being flat, sharp and a bit funny without tipping into unbelievable. The people around her felt properly lived in too, her colleagues, her son, her neighbours with their homeowner meetings and petty politics, rather than just being there to fill out the plot or move the murder investigation along.
It also helps that this reads fine as a standalone thriller. I hadn't read the earlier Joanna Jenkins books in this series and never felt lost or like I was missing context. If anything, not knowing the backstory meant a few character details landed as pleasant surprises rather than reminders.
The apartment building setting does a lot of work too. A block full of residents who all quietly want the same inconvenient problem to disappear is a good pressure cooker for a murder mystery, and the social satire around property and neighbourhood politics gives Bad Neighbours a bit more bite than a straightforward whodunnit.
So four stars for Bad Neighbours. Not the most original setup going, and I don't think Joanna Jenkins is pretending it is. But it's a genuinely well paced murder story with characters I actually cared about, and that matters more to me than a completely fresh premise. I'd read another Joanna Jenkins thriller.
Our rating 4/5
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