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Summary
Summary
Goodreads Choice Award Finalist (Mystery & Thriller, 2018)
BookBrowse Best Books of 2018
Winner of the Prix Polar Award for Best International Novel
BookRiot's 25 Best Suspense Books from 2018
Davitt Awards shortlist for Adult Crime Novel 2018
Dead Good Reads shortlist for Best Small Town Mystery 2018
Five women go on a hike. Only four return. Jane Harper, the New York Times bestselling author of The Dry, asks: How well do you really know the people you work with?
When five colleagues are forced to go on a corporate retreat in the wilderness, they reluctantly pick up their backpacks and start walking down the muddy path.
But one of the women doesn't come out of the woods. And each of her companions tells a slightly different story about what happened.
Federal Police Agent Aaron Falk has a keen interest in the whereabouts of the missing hiker. In an investigation that takes him deep into isolated forest, Falk discovers secrets lurking in the mountains, and a tangled web of personal and professional friendship, suspicion, and betrayal among the hikers. But did that lead to murder?
" 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
Select praise for The Dry :
"One of the most stunning debuts I've ever read. Every word is near perfect. Read it!"
--David Baldacci, #1 New York Times bestselling author
"A breathless page-turner ... Ms. Harper has made her own major mark."
--The New York Times
Author Notes
Jane Harper is an author who won the 2015 Victorian Premier's Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript for her novel The Dry. The $15,000 award was presented at the opening night of the 2015 Emerging Writers Festival. Harper's winning manuscript was chosen from a shortlist of three from more than 130 entries. The Dry tells `the story of a city policeman who is dragged back to the country township he fled years earlier to investigate a multiple homicide'. The Victorian Premier's Literary Award, for an Unpublished Manuscript, is administered by the Wheeler Centre. The Dry won the 2017 Indie Book Award for Derbut Fiction and as Book of the Year. It was also the winner of the 2018 British Book Awards, Crime and Thriller book of the year, and won the 2018 Barry Award for Best First Novel. Her second book entitled Force of Nature was published in May 2018, which won the 2018 Davitt Award for Readers' choice. The Lost Man is her third book and was published in October 2018.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (6)
Publisher's Weekly Review
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.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Melbourne author Harper faced a challenge in equaling the success of her first book, The Dry (2017), which was an award-winning international best-seller; but in this second Aaron Falk novel, she manages to match her debut's intensity with another riveting, tension-driven thriller. The sere landscape of The Dry has been replaced by the damp and dense bush of the Giralang Ranges, where the precious few footpaths have the added menace of a serial killer, who once selected his victims from the paths' female hikers. Now, only four women have returned from a five-woman corporate survival exercise over the rugged terrain, which was meant to test their resilience and enhance teamwork skills. The missing woman, Alice Russell, is the whistle-blower of a money-laundering case that Falk, a Melbourne cop focused on financial crime, has been working on. Has Russell fallen victim to a copycat serial killer or to corporate retribution (all of the other women on the exercise had reason to want her out of the way), or has she simply wandered off track on her own? Falk's partner, Carmen Cooper, is a welcome addition to the series. She manages to nudge Falk out of his self-imposed exile, driven by regrets about the past, and her insights into the anguish and uncertainty of the characters are invaluable. Perfect for fans of Tana French and readers who enjoy literary page-turners.--Murphy, Jane Copyright 2017 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
FORCE OF NATURE, by Jane Harper. (Flatiron, $16.99.) In this thriller from the hugely popular Australian crime novelist, five colleagues set out for a hike in the bush, but only four return. Aaron Falk, a federal agent, investigates the missing hiker - a woman who was widely disliked and secretly looking into her firm's dodgy finances. He turns up a web of betrayals and secrets, and acts as the book's moral compass. FEEL FREE: Essays, by Zadie Smith. (Penguin, $18.) Ajoyful current guides these selections, which touch on everything from a philosophical consideration of Justin Bieber's appeal to the thrill of public parks in Italy. As our reviewer, Amanda Fortini, put it, "It is exquisitely pleasurable to observe Smith thinking on the page, not least because we have no idea where she's headed." ANATOMY OF A MIRACLE, by Jonathan Miles. (Hogarth, $16.) When an Army veteran who has been paralyzed from the waist down suddenly can walk again, his recovery raises a number of questions: Was it divine intervention? A medical breakthrough? And above all, why him? Miles's novel mimics a New Journalism narrative style, and our reviewer, Christopher R. Beha, called the book "a highly entertaining literary performance." DAUGHTERS OF THE WINTER QUEEN: Four Remarkable Sisters, the Crown of Bohemia, and the Enduring Legacy of Mary, Queen of Scots, by Nancy Goldstone. (Back Bay/Little, Brown, $18.99.) Goldstone is known for her histories of royals, and this one charts the stormy life of Elizabeth Stuart. The daughter of Charles I and known as "the most charming princess of Europe," she schemed for her children in 17th-century England. The book doubles as a useful introduction to a time when Britain's relations with Europe were strained. THE ESSEX SERPENT, by Sarah Perry. (Custom House/William Morrow, $16.99.) In this romance-meets-ghost-story, it's 1893 and Cora, recently widowed, heads to the coast of England with her son. There, she finds a town racked with worry that a fearsome monster has returned. As Cora investigates the phenomenon, she is drawn to a local pastor, and their dialogues about faith and science help create a richly satisfying relationship. THE LINE BECOMES A RIVER, by Francisco Cantú. (Riverhead, $17.) To better understand immigration in the United States, Cantu joined the Border Patrol. He writes of his time with the agency, where he witnessed casual cruelty toward migrants. A later section, which tells the story of a friend who was deported, makes a meaningful contribution to literature of the border.
Guardian Review
One missing, four traumatised In this gripping follow-up to The Dry, police detective Aaron Falk investigates an outward-bound trip that loses its way in the bush Jane Harpers 2017 debut, The Dry, was an international bestseller, and has been optioned by the production company behind the film of Gone Girl. Force of Nature, her second novel, looks likely to attract similar enthusiasm for a screen adaptation. It is a gripping procedural, with the narrative chops and assured pace of a Hollywood thriller. Elevator pitch: Deliverance with oestrogen, or a menopausal Picnic at Hanging Rock. First introduced in The Dry, Aaron Falk is a police officer in the financial investigation unit in Melbourne. Along with his partner, Carmen Cooper, he has pressured Alice Russell, an employee of family-run conglomerate BaileyTennants, into cooperating with them in building their case against the company for unspecified financial peccadilloes. But Alice has gone missing while on an Executive Adventures outward-bound course with four other BaileyTennants employees: CEO Jill Bailey, twitchy old schoolfriend Lauren and dysfunctional twins Breanna and Beth, all of whom emerge from the bush traumatised by the events surrounding Alices disappearance. Throw in a competing male team that includes Jills shady brother, Dan, along with the unsolved mystery of a local serial killer and the desperate last message Alice left on Falks mobile, and the scene is captivatingly set. The story spools deftly between the present tense of Falk and Coopers investigation and the past tense of the expedition, leading up to Alices disappearance while filling us in on everyones backstories. As in The Dry, which drew a lot of its power from its setting in the remote, arid town of Kiewarra, the hostile bushland of the Giralang Ranges plays a major part in the book. The women quickly lose their way, geographically and emotionally. Unspoken rifts are acknowledged, then disagreements turn physical. The rapid descent into feral chaos once the city folk are far from civilisation is satisfyingly done (a woman first seen rejecting her latte for being lukewarm is reduced to slurping brackish water from a tree stump). The Giralang Ranges are fictional, which may explain a certain descriptive vagueness. Its unhelpful just to be told there is a gum tree, for example, if the only thing you know about gum trees is that its not good to be up one. Although as the days of Alices disappearance tick by, she looks like being up the worst gum tree of all, whatever her connection to the dodgy contracts Falks boss is exhorting him to get hold of at all costs. A woman first seen in the city rejecting a latte for being lukewarm is later reduced to slurping water from a tree stump As in The Dry, Harper deploys end-of-chapter hooks and narrative misdirections with aplomb. But with a style that is efficient at best (people never smile: instead, their mouths always lift at the corners), Force of Nature begs for an internal dynamism. Perhaps Falk is the problem. In The Dry hes personally connected to a story that forced his exile from his hometown. Here, its strictly business, and given the nature of that business the clue is in financial he is more methodical accountant than maverick cop. His USP is his decency, and although he gets the job done, hes not the most personable or intriguing protagonist. The resolution of his father issues feels like a rote attempt to sketch a third dimension for a two-dimensional character, as does his mild flirtation with the engaged Carmen. With the exception of an excursion to Melbourne that comes at the perfect point in the story, whenever the focus pulls back to Falks trudging investigation one resents leaving the more vividly rendered escalation of conflict between the firms suspects out in the bush. Among the warring women, the stripping down of personality effected by the cheerless landscape encapsulates a compelling sense of 21st-century dread. As Breanna summarises when they realise danger surrounds them, some of it of their own making: Forget having choices and being in control, what if thats all bullshit? I dont feel in control at all. What if we dont have any choice in anything, and were actually all destined to stay lost out here? Alone and scared and never found? Force of Nature definitely leads you into that wilderness, even if Falk wont let you get lost. - Amanda Coe.
Kirkus Review
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 personsthey'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 exerciseand their own secretsin 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. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
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 © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
