Jaye Ford Books in Order

Jaye Ford grew up on Sydney's northern beaches, where she attended Mackellar Girls High School. At 18, she moved west to Bathurst in New South Wales to study communications. Long before her novels arrived on shelves, she was building a life around stories, deadlines, and asking people questions.

Her first career was in journalism. Ford began as a cadet in radio and later worked across print and television, covering both news and sport. In 1988, she became the first woman to host a live national sports program on Australian television when she fronted Sport Report.

She later presented evening news in Newcastle, then left journalism after 12 years and ran a public relations consultancy.

Writing fiction had been on Ford's mind for years, but getting a novel finished was another matter. While raising two children and moving through career changes, she kept returning to the idea. Around age 40, she decided she needed to stop leaving manuscripts unfinished and give the work a real chance.

It took time. Ford spent nearly a decade writing, completing several manuscripts before her debut thriller, Beyond Fear, was published in 2011. The book follows Jodie Cramer, whose teenage trauma returns during an uneasy weekend at an isolated country cabin. It became Australia's highest-selling debut crime novel of 2011 and later won two Davitt Awards, for Best Debut and Readers' Choice.

That early novel set the pattern for much of Ford's suspense work. Her stories put ordinary women under frightening pressure, then make the danger feel uncomfortably close to home. In Scared Yet?, Livia Prescott faces a stalker after fighting off an assault. Blood Secret follows Rennie Carter as the quiet life she has built begins to fall apart. Darkest Place traps Carly Townsend in a terrifying question: is someone entering her locked apartment while she sleeps?

Ford also brought a journalist's curiosity to Already Dead, which introduces Miranda "Jax" Jack, a grieving reporter drawn into a dangerous mystery after an armed man gets into her car. The later novella Already Gone looks further into the unanswered questions surrounding Jax's husband's death. These books balance immediate danger with characters who refuse to leave difficult questions alone.

She has another writing identity, too. As Janette Paul, Ford writes lighter contemporary fiction, including the romantic comedy Just Breathe. It is a sharp turn from the fear and pressure of the thrillers, following a yoga teacher whose carefully managed life is disrupted by an unexpected romance.

Ford lives at Lake Macquarie in the Hunter region of New South Wales. She has also remained active in the reading and writing community, appearing at libraries and author events, interviewing fellow writers, and taking part in workshops and festival panels.