Force of Nature: A Novel

"Force of Nature" (FN) is Jane Harper's second book following her very successful debut with "The Dry", also featuring Australian Federal Police officer Aaron Falk. This time Falk is assisted by fellow investigator Carmen, also 38 and single. They are assigned to a financial crimes unit and have been pursuing a money laundering case. Suddenly, a spanner is tossed into the works - their secret source is one of five women gone missing while on their company's executive training course in a nature reserve outside Melbourne. Hours later, four of the women arrive at their ultimate destination. Guess who is missing. From this point, Harper tells her story in a very interesting fashion - flashback chapters of critical moments throughout the women's journey interspersed with the rescue efforts to find all of them. I hesitate to use the word "flashback" because it is such an overused device but clearly the story of FN could not be told any other way and still achieve the ever-increasing levels of tension this excellent book delivers. And the financial investigation slowly and deliciously morphs into something entirely different. The story is loaded with sub-plots, all very interesting, all hopping back and forth. But not so difficult nor so twisted as to be impossible to follow. The characters are all well developed, the dialog flows very naturally and the prose is excellent. I particularly enjoyed a bit of a respite from all the tension when Aaron extends a last minute invitation to grab a bite at his nearby apartment. As she enters his rather spartan digs, she quickly deducts the salient points of his entire life history, and soon is given an opportunity to share her analysis. A great scene. I have no major criticisms of FN - only tiny ones here and there. For example, I thought that the five women, once on their own in the woods and somewhat insecure rather quickly and frequently got very aggressive with each other, including punching, scratching, hair pulling. And this executive training course was very different from anything I had been exposed to in the USA; I didn't quite see how it would result in enhancing team building skills. But maybe that's the way things are done down under. I recommend "Force of Nature" highly and look forward to Aaron #3.

You don’t have to read The Dry to enjoy Forces Of Nature, but it would help. Similar to officer Aaron Falk’s introductory novel, Forces of Nature is an atmospheric thriller with a complex plot and strong characters. Yes there are some callbacks to The Dry, but they are almost entirely unimportant to the plot here. I enjoyed the premise of this book very much and it was perfectly used to provide a number of suspects in the disappearance of poor Alice, a character few will feel sorry for. I can usually figure out who did it about halfway through most mysteries, but both of Ms Harper’s novels that I’ve read kept me guessing until the end. ****Spoilers from here***** Unfortunately, this book fails where The Dry succeeded mightily. The reveal felt very unsatisfactory to me. After all the hardships these character go through, Alice deserved a better end than she received. Maybe that was the intention. Like No Country for Old Men, there is tension built and then poor Josh Brolin is just dead, killed off-screen. All of the characters were developed nicely except for Carmen. She’s young and is about to be married to a man who is admittedly not like Aaron. There is some manufactured sexual tension that I thought was a little synthetic, and the payoff under the falls seemed a bit rushed. Other than that, I have no real idea who she is. I liked this book very much. The Dry was such an excellent read, Ms Harper had a tough job for the next one. She succeeded, but in the end, Forces of Nature fell just a little flat. I am very much looking forward to the next one though. I highly recommend this series, especially The Dry.

... but I'm afraid the ending managed to be obvious, contrived and unsatisfying. The basic construction of the plot (five women go for a walk in the woods, only four come out) was compelling, with lots of twists and personality conflicts that result in everyone hating Alice. Chapters providing an hour-by-hour account of the women's activities alternate with chapters involving federal investigators trying to get to the heart of the matter, after-the-fact. But after hinting at the pivotal conflict mid-book, it was very obvious where we here headed. In the end, multiple characters had to act in uncharacteristic ways in order for the "mystery" to play out the way that it did. The penultimate scene at the waterfall was ludicrous - the one character spontaneously coming clean after nearly a week. And the loathsome Alice can't even be said to have truly gotten what she deserved. So disappointing.

Sometimes I hear about authors in roundabout ways. This time, the guy from my college who was helping me with my resume saw that I reviewed genre novels and told me I should read Jane Harper’s thriller/mystery The Dry. I loved it so much that I almost immediately afterward went on to read Force of Nature: A Novel. It’s every bit as good. The company of BaileyTennants sent a bunch of its employees on a kind of corporate retreat in the woods. The women took one trail, and the men took another. When the women arrive–late and injured–they’re missing one of their number. Alice Russell has vanished. The group insists she left to move on in the middle of the night because she didn’t want to wait until morning, but there’s reason to believe that isn’t the case. Federal Agent Aaron Falk and his partner Carmen Cooper were using Alice to get files and contracts implicating her bosses in money laundering, and more. On the night she disappeared, she tried to leave a voice mail for Aaron. While rescuers search the woods looking for Alice, Aaron and Carmen question everyone involved, trying not to give any hint to the employees that they are in fact already investigating the bosses. So the question is, did one or more of the ladies do something to Alice? Did the son of a serial killer who’s rumored to live in the woods nearby kill her? Did someone else, like maybe the guy running the executive adventures company, do something? There’s a lot of ill-will between the various women, leaving Aaron and Carmen with quite a few suspects. Force of Nature follows after The Dry. Aaron is still facing some of the fallout from what happened in that novel. I don’t think you have to have read it first–this is primarily about the mystery–but it wouldn’t hurt to have that personal background for Aaron. Besides, The Dry is an excellent novel worth reading! The characters have a lot of depth to them. There’s Jill, who didn’t want to work for her father but when he insisted, she buckled down and got to work. Her brother is the CEO. We gradually discover that Alice isn’t exactly going to be missed by a lot of people, with the exception of her teenaged daughter. Beth and Bree–twins–are about as different as night and day. Bree is Alice’s assistant, and constantly trying to impress the woman. Beth is the troublemaker of the family, although not always in the ways you might expect. Lauren and Alice both went to the “Endeavor Ladies’ College” together, which put some focus on learning to handle the out-of-doors, and their daughters have followed in their footsteps. The women find a mysterious, run-down cabin out in the woods, and they start to wonder whether it has any connection to a serial killer who hunted the area some years ago. He was caught, but everyone wonders if his missing son has picked up the family torch. We watch the women make their way through the woods in parallel to the unfolding investigation, and it’s timed well. I never felt confused as to where or when I was. This is a really fascinating tale and I highly recommend it! Content note for death and injury of course.

Jane Harper has become one of my favorite authors. The first book I read by her was The Dry and it was quite good. The next book I read was The Lost Man which was a stand alone book and was my best read for 2019. It seems like I raved about it to anyone who asked " What are you reading now?" So I went into reading this book with high expectations. It is the second book in the Aaron Falk series. Jane Harper is an Australian author and her books so far have taken place in different locations in Australia. A reader learns about the different locations. Often times, the locations chosen have been harsh and each with their own challenges. A company decides to go on a retreat to build team cooperation. A person from different areas of the company are chosen. The teams are divided into men and women teams and are sent out into the dense bush country with a map and a compass. They are suppose to arrive at different locations each night to set up camp. New supplies will be there. They were to turn in their phones. One team on the second day took a wrong turn and were lost. When the teams came back to home base at the conclusion, one team arrived quite late and one team member short. The book is mainly about the search for this team members and about family relationships. Aaron Falk arrives there as a policeman because one team member is doing undercover work for him regarding the company who is sponsoring this weekend retreat. The book was a good read but I enjoyed The Dry and The Lost Man much more. I will look for and read the next book that the author writes.

There is no sign of a sophomore slump here in the second book by Jane Harper featuring Federal Agent Aaron Falk who is based in Melbourne. The story begins with a corporate bonding backpacking trek into the wilderness. The women’s group loses its bearings on the second day. When they finally stumble out of the wilderness, one member of the group has disappeared. The search is on. No one knows if she is lost, dead because of exposure, or murdered. Aaron specializes in financial crimes and the missing woman is a confidential informant who is reluctantly cooperating with the investigators in return for concessions. He is trying to protect the progress of his investigation and to determine if her cooperation lead to her disappearance. The story is told in alternating narratives between the investigation of her disappearance and the events on the trek. The transitions are very smooth and skillfully written so there is no confusion or wasted text. Complications abound between the personal lives of the people involved, the not so distant history of a serial killer who had been based in this area, the financial crimes investigation, and survival against the elements. This series has a very strong sense of place with the first book set in a small outback agricultural town, and this second book unfolding in the Australian bush. Man against the elements is a recurring theme that coexists with the murder mystery plot. The Australian settings add a great deal of interest to the stories, much as Arthur Upfield’s Australian outback did in his books. There is nothing repetitive here. The series began with The Dry, and it must have tempting to title this book The Wet. Here the cold, the wilderness, and the rain are battering our characters at almost every turn. The pacing of the story is good. It is not essential that you read these two books in order. Although it is a series, so far we have no continuing secondary characters or major developments in Aaron’s personal life that would make the books better or less confusing if read in order. This series is becoming one that we follow and pre-order like Elly Griffiths, Martin Walker, Mark Pryor, Peter Livesey, Louise Penny, Ann Cleeves, Peter May, and Paul Doiron among a few others. The only thing that these series have in common is excellent writing that makes the characters, the setting and the plot so very much better.

I liked Jane Harper's first book, The Dry, a lot, and her second book didn't fail to meet my high expectations. It is refreshing that the protagonist is not your usual half-brilliant-half-loser outsider PI type, instead, he is very human, in good and bad. He reminds me a little bit of George Simenon's Maigret. I also liked how the book had this ominous atmosphere of very bad things that happened in the bush before, and how it was eventually resolved in an unusual way (unusual at least for modern crime mysteries that are full of serial killers.) I can't say more about it while avoiding spoilers. There were many other aspects of the story that didn't go down the usual path, such as romantic possibilities that were real yet not consummated (except for one kiss.) How refreshing to not have to witness yet another roll in the hay with a miserable outcome -- the characters are actually adults rather than teenagers that never grew up. Also, what actually happened in the bush as far as the crime was concerned felt very true to life -- I could definitely imagine something like that happening to a group of perfectly normal people when they are pushed too far by dire circumstances. There is no need to bring some whacko killer into the mix to improve the story. Jane Harper's fluid and confident writing allowed me to relax, sit back, and enjoy the ride. She is one of my favorite crime mystery writers today and I look forward to reading her next book, hopefully sooner than later!

Second reading I purchased this novel as soon as it was released because the first of this series, The Dry, touched me so deeply. Force of Nature lived up to my expectations, and with the second reading, I found it even more poignant than the first time around. Though these books are independent of one another, as a series they spread the story wider and deeper. I hope there will be more in the future. Jane Harper tells a tight, intriguing story that pulls at your humanity and fuels your imagination. She is an author to follow. In the second in the Aaron Falk series, Falk is again an agent with the Australian Federal Police but that is not as exciting as it sounds. Falk is a staid keeper-of-the-books, a follower of the money, working out of the Melbourne field office, though we again spend no time there. Instead, all the action takes place in the wilds of Grampians Gariwerd National Park, and the setting of the scenes is excellent, taking you right to the heart of the tale. As with The Dry, the locale is an important member of this cast of characters. Our protagonists are five women, each unique and responding to the pressures of the situation differently as would be in life. Some we feel empathy for, some we silently scorn, but all are in my mind real characters with the hopes and dreams of us all. Some have redeeming features, all are just humans responding to the wilderness as life has trained them to respond to danger. Or has failed to train them. This is a series of books you will want to binge on, so cut out some special time and go for it.

Jane Harper knows how to write and this second book after The Dry is a decent book. The stage is once more the Australian bush, the wilderness of this enormous continent. The writer uses the forces of nature to explore the depth of the human soul. She partially succeeds, but the story is long, elaborate and a bit oppressive: it could have been shorter. The usual trick of dedicating one chapter to the present and the following to the past is effective to a certain extent and soon becomes tedious. I agree with others that The Dry is better, but capturing the readers’ attention throughout several books on similar subjects is very difficult…

Following on from the success of 'The Dry', Jane Harper once again impresses with her mastery of suspense, character and atmosphere. Beautifully written in confident, limpid prose, with once again the Australian bush as a genuine, sometimes sinister presence. Highly recommended

I really like Jane Harper’s writing. She holds your attention until the last page. I enjoyed this book as well as her other two I read. Can’t wait for more Aaron Falk mysteries.

There is nothing harder than the follow up of an incredibly successful debut novel, so I read 'Force of Nature' with some trepidation. Fortunately, Jane Harper doesn't disappoint. This is a great follow up, if not better than 'The Dry'. Both have her signature style and incredible sense of place and both books kept me on edge late into the early hours of the morning. The premise of 'Force of Nature' was highly unusual but totally relatable - who hasn't been on a team building exercise with work colleagues only to wonder who you can trust? In this instance, five women walk into the bush on a similar team-building exercise yet only four emerge - everything goes awry when the team gets lost... what happened to Alice? Once again, the Australian landscape was very much a character in the book however instead of 'The Dry' we have the wet, windy backdrop and the most miserable conditions for those who are lost, hungry, and distrusting of each other. The switching of times and points-of-view between chapters helps keep the pace quick and plot moving along. Definitely, a slower burn than its predecessor, but the complicated plot, the pace of the last half of the book and the vivid descriptions certainly make it addictive reading. It is a great examination of the wild nature of the human condition. It kept me breathless. Another confronting 5 Stars.

Jane Harper has a gift for writing thrillers - this is the 2nd of her book that I read. If you are bored of larger than life characters and unbelievable chain of events - that you read in most books, Jane Harper's books will make you happy. She mixes real life ordinary characters with actual settings to write page turners.