Jane Harper: Force of Nature, 9781408711019, C format paperback, Little Brown, publication date February 1, 2018

Ever since reading the CWA Dagger Award winning novel “The Dry”, I am a big fan of Jane Harper. I was thrilled to be able to read her new novel “Force of Nature” before pub date February 1^st and boy, does this woman know how to spin a yarn! “Force of Nature” is just as gripping as “The Dry” and Aaron Falk, the very sympatico detective featured in The Dry, is making his reappearance.  I hope she continues the Aaron Falk series and might chose a case with more illegal financial transactions, Aarons special investigation skills. Not that I do not like her current novels set in the Australian bushland…..

 

Five women embark on a company sponsored team building trekking tour into the bushland not far outside Melbourne. When they reappear a few days later, one of them has gone missing and their world is upside down.

Alice Russel, a manager and troublemaker at work and in the hiking team, has disappeared in the Giralang Ranges.  Bree and Beth, the unlike twins, are battered and bruised, one of them suffering from a snake bike. Lauren, Alice’s old friend and Jill Bailey, co-owner of family owned Bailey Tennants, are unharmed but deeply shaken. Falk and his colleague Carmen Cooper are called into the investigation as Alice had been aiding their team as a whistle blower supplying information of supposed illegal financial irregularities within Bailey Tennants. Her last sign of life was an interupted call to Falk. 

What unfolds is a nail biting page turner of a thriller.  Harper unravels the story in two story lines. One follows the day by day events of the women’s hike and the other Falk’s and the search teams discoveries.  Until the very end several outcomes seem possible as to why and how Alice disappeared  and this suspense is kept up pretty much to the last pages.  A fantastic crime novel set in Australia from start to finish, I loved it!