All of the novel's characters have been drawn with exceptional complexity, and none more so than Aaron Falk, the federal agent investigating the case…So much more than a conventional detective, the reflective and compassionate Falk provides the book's moral compass.
The New York Times Book Review - Marilyn Stasio
"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)
09/01/2017 Harper, who had a huge international hit with the New York Times best-selling The Dry, returns with the story of a woman gone missing on a supposedly team-affirming corporate hike through rugged mountains in Australia. Federal Police Agent Aaron Falk (of The Dry) is particularly worried because Alice Russell is a whistle-blower about to reveal all about the corporation in a case Falk is coordinating. Big promotion.
In this second powerhouse audiobook from Harper, five women go on a corporate retreat, and only four return. The setting is the Australian Outback, not a location where most people would expect a corporate retreat to take place. Narrator Stephen Shanahan puts his clear Australian accent to good advantage as he portrays Aaron Falk, the lead investigator in the search for the missing woman. He also creates the backstory for each of the other female participants. His voice doesn’t change much, but his tone and inflection do, and that makes every one of the female characters an individual. Harper may have created this amazing whodunit, but Shanahan makes it sizzle to the very end. Both story and narrator are not to be missed. E.E.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
2017-11-12 A woman goes missing in the Australian wilderness in Harper's (The Dry, 2017) second thriller to feature Agent Aaron Falk of the Federal Police.Falk is still recovering from his last case, and the fire that burned his hand badly, when he gets a call from his new partner, Carmen Cooper, that a woman named Alice Russell has gone missing in the Giralang Ranges three hours outside Melbourne, where she had been taking part in a corporate retreat with her colleagues from the BaileyTennants accountancy firm. This sparks a grim memory for Falk: more than 20 years ago, when the policeman was a teenager, a killer named Martin Kovac littered the same area with the bodies of young women he'd murdered. Kovac couldn't have taken Alice, because he's dead, but her disappearance dredges up some horrific memories in the collective consciousness, which adds a creepy dimension to an increasingly puzzling case. Falk and Cooper don't work missing persons—they're financial investigators, and Alice was helping them with a case on the down low, gathering information on her boss's money matters. Falk can't help worrying that her disappearance might have something do to with the investigation, especially when he realizes he has a garbled message from Alice on his phone. After Falk and Cooper join the search, they discover that Alice's problems with her co-workers went beyond the professional and that tensions ran as deep and wide as the wilderness she's lost in. Harper's crackerjack plotting propels the story, splitting the narrative between Alice and her BaileyTennants co-workers navigating the team-building exercise—and their own secrets—in the days leading up to her disappearance and Falk and Cooper's look into the untoward financial doings of the company's CEO, Daniel Bailey. 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.Lacks some of the scorching momentum of Harper's first book but is nonetheless a spooky, compelling read.