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Force of Nature: A Novel Mass Market Paperback – July 30, 2019
Jane Harper (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
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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
“CRACKLES WITH SUSPENSE.”―A. J. FINN, AUTHOR OF THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW
When five female office workers are forced to go on a corporate retreat in the wilderness, they reluctantly pick up their backpacks and start walking down the muddy path. After all, this retreat is all about taking them out of their comfort zone. It’s supposed to be a bonding experience―one designed to build trust. But it doesn’t work out that way. One of the women never comes out of the woods. And each of her colleagues tells a slightly different story about what happened.
Federal Police Agent Aaron Falk has a keen interest in the whereabouts of the missing hiker. Alice Russell is the whistleblower in his latest case―and, without her, there’s no way he can win it. Now, in an investigation that takes him deep into isolated bushland, Falk discovers dark secrets lurking in the forest and a tangled web of loyalty, betrayal, and suspicion among the hikers. Still, a question remains: Is Falk on a search-and-rescue mission―or is this a case of murder?
“COMPELLING…INTENSE PLOTTING.”―ASSOCIATED PRESS
“EXCEPTIONAL.”―THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
- Print length448 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherFlatiron Books
- Publication dateJuly 30, 2019
- Dimensions4.07 x 1.21 x 7.54 inches
- ISBN-101250214629
- ISBN-13978-1250214621
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"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)
About the Author
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Product details
- Publisher : Flatiron Books; Reprint edition (July 30, 2019)
- Language : English
- Mass Market Paperback : 448 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1250214629
- ISBN-13 : 978-1250214621
- Item Weight : 9.6 ounces
- Dimensions : 4.07 x 1.21 x 7.54 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,185,633 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #10,142 in Small Town & Rural Fiction (Books)
- #20,534 in Police Procedurals (Books)
- #27,753 in Murder Thrillers
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Jane Harper is the author of The Dry, winner of various awards including the 2015 Victorian Premier's Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript, the 2017 Indie Award Book of the Year, the 2017 Australian Book Industry Awards Book of the Year Award and the CWA Gold Dagger Award for the best crime novel of 2017. Rights have been sold in 27 territories worldwide, and film rights optioned to Reese Witherspoon and Bruna Papandrea. Jane worked as a print journalist for thirteen years both in Australia and the UK and lives in Melbourne.
Customer reviews
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Reviewed in the United States on August 24, 2020
Top reviews from the United States
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Harper wrote this book with an interesting timeline. First, present time with Falk’s POV. Then at the end of each chapter, a past timeline with varying POVs of the five lost women. It was very effective. In the early pages, the drudgery of police investigating slowed the pace of the story, but I found myself looking forward to the later chapter sections, anxious to find out what happened to the women as they trekked deeper into the wilderness. As I progressed through the pages, Falk and Carmen’s investigation gained stream, and eventually their story became just as interesting as the hikers’. The twin storyline’s convergence is somewhat complex, but Harper does a good job of keeping the reader on track. I thought I had the big answer to the question of ‘What happened to Alice’ several times. But the real answer eluded me until the climax. I enjoyed this book a lot, and would recommend it to fellow readers. Seems that many readers compare this book to ‘The Dry’, also by Harper, and voice their disappointment. Now I have another book on my TBR list, ‘The Dry’.
Top reviews from other countries



The story evolves from five women, led by Jill Bailey, senior executive of Bailey and Tennants company, who ventures into the Australian outback on an endurance and bonding exercise. The four other members of the party, all mature women, some with children at home, are the twins Beth and Breanna, Lauren and Alice, in whom Falk has an interest concerning other matters altogether. One of the girls goes missing, the launchpad for almost all that follows. We shift back and forth between the search party and the events that reveal the women and the events that lie behind the disappearance of one of them. These shifts in location and time are handled most skilfully, ratcheting up the suspense until the dramatic climax. The novel is part psychological thriller, part whodunnit, but much more than either. The personalities and backgrounds of the key figures give depth to the novel, and the unself-conscious evocation of the natural world in which the women have to survive and negotiate their path provides a powerful background to the narrative.
I found this to be an exceptionally fine novel, as indeed are the other books in the trilogy. Thoroughly recommended.

I really enjoyed Jane Harper’s debut novel The Dry and I was keen to see if Force of Nature would match its quality and success. It appears to have matched its success but not quite its quality. The beginning is promising and Harper builds some nice anticipation, teasing the reader with numerous possibilities for Alice’s disappearance. I was therefore expecting some thrilling revelations but sadly, this is never realised, as a number of threads are revealed as nothing more than red herrings with no conclusion. The real reason behind Alice’s disappearance was painfully underwhelming although the final scenes add some much-needed drama into an otherwise pedestrian plot. Perhaps it is a case of second book syndrome but I am hoping it is third time lucky for Jane Harper with The Lost Man.

Alice and four other women who work for Bailey are sent on a team building exercise in the outback, a hike in the bush intended to teach resilience. Five women set out on the muddy track. Only four come out the other side. Alice is missing.
Harper builds tension as the plot moves between the last days of the hike and Falk's endeavours with other searchers to find the missing woman. Four women tell Falk about their relationship with Alice, a tale of suspicion and disintegrating trust. Who is telling the truth?
A brilliantly paced plot wrong-footing the reader at every turn. It's another stunner from Jane Harper.