A while ago I published a review of The Dry, Jane Harper's debut novel which blew me away (http://thisreadingmummy.blogspot.com/2017/03/book-review-dry-by-jane-harper.html ).
Since then she has written 2 more books which are just as good. Each novel has a different setting and a different set of characters though the setting is always an isolated area of rural Australia. In each novel it is her description of the setting and dramatic evocation of the harsh and dangerous landscape which lifts her writing away from conventional crime writing and gives it an extra dimension. All the novels are exceptionally well plotted with a seemingly impossible conundrum to solve that is revealed cleverly, allowing each character to be a suspect for a while before drawing to a satisfying and plausible conclusion. The suspense and tension created is electrifying - I could not put any of these books down - reading long into the small hours of the night.
Force of Nature centres around a corporate team building weekend in a remote nature reserve. A team of 5 women set out on a hike and only 4 return to the rendezvous point. What happened to the 5th woman? The missing woman, Alice Russell, is the whistleblower on the current case of Aaron Falk (the detective from The Dry), a money laundering investigation, so Aaron and his colleagues begin looking into her disappearance. It soon transpires that the relationships between the 5 colleagues were filled with mistrust and suspicion and everyone has a motive for wanting Alice out of the way.
Again, the setting takes centre stage as Harper deftly shows the reader just how frightening it would be to be lost in the impenetrable forests she describes.
The Lost Man is Harper's latest offering. I just finished reading it and I literally could not put it down. It is a little different from her previous two novels in that Aaron Falk does not feature. In fact there are no real detectives or police investigation at all. Instead the focus is completely on a handful of characters within the Bright family.
The novel opens with Cameron Bright being found dead on the boundary of his vast cattle station in outback Queensland. The autopsy confirms that he died from dehydration having walked away from his vehicle. The police believe he walked away deliberately, opting to end his own life, but the family thinks differently. His brother Nathan (Cameron's closest neighbour, but still a 3 hour drive away) ends up investigating the circumstances of his death and working out what actually happened. There are few characters and therefore few suspects owing to the geographical isolation of the setting, which is vividly brought to life. Again, Harper uses the setting to build tension as the remoteness and isolation increases the pressure on the characters and begins to show the cracks in the outwardly perfect family life of the Brights. Everyone is suspicious of everyone else and the reader is cleverly led to suspect everyone in turn before we find out what took place. This is a fast paced thriller with likeable, believable characters and an incredibly well described setting that completely drew me in as a reader. Definitely my favourite of her novels so far.
Jane Harper writes thrillers that are so much more than thrillers. I can't recommend them highly enough and I can't wait to read what she writes next!
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