Publishers Weekly
10/23/2017
Australian author Harper follows her bestselling debut, The Dry, with a gripping tale of an elemental battle for survival. Federal agents Aaron Falk and Carmen Cooper are investigating the role of a respected Melbourne accounting firm in an extensive money-laundering scheme with the help of insider source Alice Russell. Then she vanishes during a team-building wilderness expedition that includes the chief executives of the company she has been working to expose. Pressed by their bosses to get the remaining documents needed for the probe and worried that Alice may have met with foul play, Falk and Carmen head for the rugged Giralang Ranges to aid in the search. Once in the bushland, they discover that the beautiful, brainy, but unabashedly cruel Alice had no dearth of enemies, ranging from her bullied assistant to a fellow executive who’s been her frenemy since their years together at an exclusive private school. Although certain plot strands seem contrived, Harper once again shows herself to be a storytelling force to be reckoned with. Agent: Daniel Lazar, Writers House. (Feb.)
From the Publisher
"I love Jane Harper's Australia-based mysteries." —Stephen King
"Compelling...Harper continues the intense plotting and detail for characters and setting that she established in The Dry."
—Associated Press
"All of the novel's characters have been drawn with exceptional complexity, and none more so than Aaron Falk...So much more than a conventional detective, the reflective and compassionate Falk provides the book's moral compass."
—New York Times Book Review
“Secrets revealed as the investigation unfolds will keep readers guessing until the unlikely plot reveals itself in the last pages of the novel. Fans of her debut book The Dry will find Force of Nature lives up to the exciting expectations Harper is becoming known for building.”
—Florida Times-Union
“Force of Nature reinforces Harper’s gift for creating characters with complicated relationships and especially for writing about wild landscapes, where anything can happen.”
—LitHub
“Even more impressive than The Dry…An almost unbearable level of suspense…Nature is a hostile, unpredictable force in both of Harper’s novels, but her brilliance lies in making it into a test of horribly fallible human nature.”
—Sunday Times
“While the plot unfolds at an expertly controlled pace and is resolved in a satisfyingly ambiguous fashion, it is the relationships between the women that drive the novel…Thoughtful, moving, troubling.”
—Irish Times
"Both novels are intense, deeply intelligent psychological thrillers that explore how our pasts – especially our childhoods – mold and disrupt our lives in the present."
—Christian Science Monitor
"Riveting, tension-driven thriller…Perfect for fans of Tana French and readers who enjoy literary page-turners.”
—Booklist, starred review
“Harper’s crackerjack plotting propels the story…Harper layers her story with hidden depths, expertly mining the distrust between Alice and her four colleagues, and the secrets that simmer under the surface…A spooky, compelling read.”
—Kirkus
“Stellar… The briefest dip into the prologue results in stomach-tightening anticipation that begs the reader to continue… [Harper] infuses the narrative with energy and atmosphere as Falk plumbs professional and personal relationships for clues to Alice's fate.”
—Shelf Awareness
"Set against the fascinating backdrop of a wild, rural location in south Australia...Presents an intriguing crime that might not actually exist and potential suspects with realistically complex personalities and possible motives. The two story lines, past and present, collide with a satisfying yet not gratuitous conclusion."
—Library Journal
“A gripping tale of an elemental battle for survival…Harper once again shows herself to be a storytelling force to be reckoned with.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Jane Harper is a must-read writer, and Aaron Falk is the Harry Bosch of the outback. Force Of Nature is a remarkable hybrid of suspense, wilderness survival, memorable characters, and gorgeous writing.”
—Michael Koryta, New York Times bestselling author of Those Who Wish Me Dead
“I loved The Dry. Force of Nature is even better. Brilliantly paced, it wrong-foots the reader like a rocky trail through the bush. I adored it.”
—Susie Steiner, bestselling author of Missing, Presumed and Persons Unknown
“A major voice in contemporary fiction. Like Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad series and Kate Atkinson's Jackson Brodie novels, Jane Harper's deftly plotted mysteries double as sensitive inquiries into human nature, behavior, and psychology. And like The Dry, Force of Nature bristles with wit; it crackles with suspense; it radiates atmosphere. An astonishing book from an astonishing writer.”
—A.J. Finn, author of The Woman in the Window
“Lord of the Flies in the Australian outback, with grown women in place of school boys. I loved every chilling moment of it. A blistering follow-up to The Dry from one of the best new voices in crime fiction.”
—Sarah Hilary, author of the bestselling DI Marnie Rome series
“Manages to be two things at once. It's a financially skewed police procedural with a likeable detective with his own personal trajectory at its heart, and it's something of a "locked room mystery". The fact that the "locked room" is neither in a vicarage, nor on an island, but somewhere in the claustrophobic vastness of the Australian bush renders Force of Nature all the more original and engaging.”
—Sydney Morning Herald
“As thick with menace as the bush that seems to swallow the difficult Alice…Force of Nature cuts between past and present, corporate and domestic, and cements its author as one of Australia’s boldest thriller writers.” —Australian Women’s Weekly
"The narrative is finely constructed, with perfectly measured pace and suspense. So much so that it reminded me of another master of form, Liane Moriarty...There are echoes of Picnic at Hanging Rock and Lord of the Flies as any appearance of civility slips away and the women lose direction in a hostile landscape."
—The Saturday Paper (Aus)
"Harper’s mastery of pace makes Force Of Nature one of 2017’s best thrillers."
—Elle (Aus)
"Gripping thriller will have readers hooked."
—Sunday Telegraph
"Force of Nature proves Jane Harper, author of The Dry, is no one-hit wonder. Its premise is instantly gripping."
—Herald Sun (Aus)
Library Journal
10/15/2017
Australian federal police agent Aaron Falk and his partner Carmen Cooper are called from Melbourne to the remote Giralang area, where a hiker has disappeared. The missing woman was on a corporate retreat, and the two agents from the Financial Crimes section are involved because she was their confidential informant in the company they are investigating for money laundering and other crimes. The four other women on the hike all returned to base camp late and claim Alice Russell had left their shelter in the middle of the night with their one cell phone and flashlight. As the search intensifies, Falk and Cooper carefully question the women, trying to determine if anyone knew that Russell was a whistleblower. The story alternates between the investigation and the earlier team-building hike. All the participants have reason to be angry with Alice, but were any of them fed up enough to do something drastic? Further complicating the situation, the area was the hunting ground for a notorious serial killer. That killer is long dead, but no one has seen his now-adult son in years, and like his father, he knew this remote wilderness well. VERDICT Set against the fascinating backdrop of a wild, rural location in south Australia, Harper's sequel to her acclaimed Ned Kelly Award-winning debut, The Dry, presents an intriguing crime that might not actually exist and potential suspects with realistically complex personalities and possible motives. The two story lines, past and present, collide with a satisfying yet not gratuitous conclusion.—Dan Forrest, Western Kentucky Univ. Libs., Bowling Green
