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 … 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
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This is one of the best books I’ve read all year. Original characters, a creepy setting, plus it had me guessing all the way to the end.
A good story – this would make a brilliant film.
A group of company employees are sent trekking into the bush as a team-building exercise. The men and women are split into groups. 5 women set out, but only 4 return.
The author tried really hard to build suspense and menace as the search for the missing woman developed. For me, her efforts missed the mark. Lots of red herrings thrown in to suggest what happened to the lost woman as the reader gradually learns what really happened. Unfortunately, I didn’t connect with the main investigators or the women, so again the suspense didn’t work for me.
Great story – I just didn’t connect with the story telling.
Alice Walker had been part of a group participating in a team building exercise in the Australian outback. Five women set out but Alice does not return.
“Force of Nature” weaves between the past and the present, as we follow police officers Aaron Falk and his associate Carmen, and the search for Alice.
Has she been murdered for assisting Aaron in his latest investigation? Or is the truth more complicated?
I was hooked from the outset. An excellent thriller.
“Five women go on a hike. Only four return.” Such a simple premise told by a master storyteller. This one will have you enthralled from the very first page. Simply amazing.
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?
The past – A bush walk, tents, bush fires, rustic camp outs and clues of puzzling happenings. This is what 5 women tramp their way through until 1 goes missing.
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Alice goes missing and I’m not surprised she does as she’s a nasty piece of work. Alice to me, started acting slightly off when she was caught using her cellphone, you see the rule was that everyone had to leave their cellphones behind, it didn’t work in spots that they were tramping to, but her attitude! man it stunk!
.
The present – The four returning women tell Falk a tale of fear, violence and fractured trust during their days in the remote Australian bushland. And as Falk delves into the disappearance of Alice, he begins to suspect some dangers ran far deeper than anyone knew.
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Jane Harpers writing was very intriguing, the author feeds you little bread crumbs of info and clues throughout. To me this was definitely a page turner and I throughly enjoyed the experience of being thrown into the wilderness and the thrill and excitement that something very sinister was about to happen at some point in time.
This is a new author to me and gifted to me by Ellen Read, she knows me well as this certainly had me laid back on the couch wanting to know more, just thank goodness our weather was crappy when reading it.
This is a five star review and recommend to all who like a cosy mystery and who want to be transported to Australia.
Well, Jane Harper certainly didn’t disappoint in her sequel to The Dry. I actually will be very honest here when I say that I found this book better than her first. While both her books are very compelling, I found her first book to be more plain than this one. And let me just say, Force of Nature was a hell of a lot more intense!
Harper creates these settings in her books that makes it feel like we’re suffocating from the drought and heat in a small rural Australian town like in The Dry, but in Force of Nature she takes us deep into the forests of a wilderness retreat where five female colleagues get lost and only four make it back.
Detective Aaron Falk returns again to investigate what happened to Alice, the woman who is missing from the retreat. We then learn that Falk’s ties to Alice go beyond the case, and her disappearance could be related to the information she was providing him as a whistleblower. Along the way, Falk and his colleague Carmen learn that Alice was not well liked at all by her colleagues, due to her mean and cutting remarks and cocky attitude. Not only that, her co-workers arrived back from camp injured and tense. This all leaves Falk and Carmen asking could they have something to do with Alice’s disappearance?
What really kept me on the edge of my seat through this was the riveting characters and their dynamics throughout the book. My mind was spinning trying to figure out if Alice became a victim of exposure or of a serial killer, I literally couldn’t put the book down and finished it in one evening.
The suspense and haunting writing by Harper truly came out in this sequel. I would even go so far to likening her writing to Agatha Christie, shocking right? But her style of writing and the settings that draw the reader into this world of lurking danger and fear made me want a third book. Please tell me Harper is writing a third book?!?
And for those of you wondering if this could be a standalone book, it most certainly could. You don’t feel like you have to have read The Dry to understand what’s happening in this book. But you really should go back and read the first one!
Overall, I must say this sequel is a must have on your bookshelf! You will not be disappointed as Harper brings you back into the world of Aaron Falk and his investigations into the Australian wilderness. You’ll be anxiously waiting for the next instalment of Harper just like I have and will be!
Read more of my review here: https://bit.ly/2SrCoUX
I really enjoyed this book. The writing style was interesting and kept the story moving quickly. And did I guess the ending before I got there? No way!
I loved The Dry and this was a nice continuation of Falk’s story.
Worth your time, without a doubt, even if some aspects mightn’t have been done to perfection, which is why it’s 4 and not 5 stars.
Five women go into the bush on a weekend team-building exercise. Only four come out. What happened to Alice?
This is Jane Harper’s second book, and I must admit I enjoyed it more than the first. The Dry, her debut, was great; a small-town murder mystery set in drought-stricken rural Australia. I very much enjoyed that one, but I had it solved way too early. Force of Nature had me baffled, though. It has everything I love about a good murder – a limited cast of suspects, determined but fallible detectives, a great setting, and that alternating point of view thing that keeps you needing to read just one more chapter. I’m now a Jane Harper fan.
Force of Nature is a suspenseful mystery book. It will keep you guessing until the end who did it. The multiple POV gave the unique experience of seeing the events unfold from the past along with seeing things unfold in present time. It meshes together so well. Every character is unique. Also, even though this is the second book in a series it can be read as a standalone. I was never confused by any parts of this book. I can’t wait to read more of the series.
Jane Harper’s second book that follows agent Aaron Falk is just as fantastic as the first–in fact, I’d go so far as to say this one surpasses the first book in the series. Five colleagues enter the Australian rainforest … only four make it out. What happened? To maximize the tension, Harper switches narrative perspectives throughout, slowly building up to the exciting climax. The motives of each character will keep you guessing … and reading.
After reading The Dry last year, I was keen to sink my teeth into Jane Harper’s second book. Force of Nature is another gripping crime novel featuring Detective Aaron Falk whom we grew to love in the first book.
Alice together with four female colleagues attend a work retreat in mountainous country where they are expected to trek for three days through remote wilderness without communication with the outside world. When they return to their designated point the women are distressed, injured and have no idea what has happened to Alice. Panic ensues and Aaron Falk and his sidekick Carmen Cooper who happen to be secretly investigating money laundering in the firm with Alice’s assistance, become involved in the search for her.
The story weaves back and forward into the point of view of each of the women hikers from the beginning of their journey then back into the Aaron’s present day point of view. It is a clever and engaging way of progressing the story compelling the reader forward as information is revealed bit by bit.
For me the premise seemed far-fetched and a little hard to believe. To put executives in such a situation without communication would be a health and safety issue and would hardly be accepted practice in today’s corporate world. There seemed to be no real purpose to the exercise and the company running the expedition would surely have been more involved. Nevertheless, if you disregard all this, it is an engaging enough story.
The intertwining relationships of the women’s private lives is really interesting but we learn little more about Aaron Falk whose personal story unfolded in The Dry except for his relationship with his father, which frankly for me wasn’t that interesting. I wanted more about him but he was as remote as the wilderness which, I might add, is very beautifully and accurately described.
Carmen who was an interesting character seemed a little out of place and a gratuitous romantic notion toward Aaron left me puzzled. However, the tension between the women and the bleakness of the environment was portrayed very well – I felt for their misery and desolation.
The second half of the novel is gripping and makes for a fast paced read. Like The Dry it’s a page turner with twists and turns of the unexpected. I did enjoy this novel, but not quite as much as The Dry. I would however read another of Jane’s books again.
An interesting story about corporate retreats especially when the co-workers have a history and no one seems to like the other. This retreat divides the teams into two groups all men and all women and takes place in the isolated bushland. The men all return but the women are missing. When the women’s team finally shows up they are missing one of their group. The storyline is told through dual viewpoints. One chapter takes you day-by-day on the hike with the women through the Australian bush. The next chapter is Federal Agent Aaron Falk, who desperately wants to find the missing woman who is a whistle blower in an investigation he is working on with his partner. Red herrings and unlikable characters made this a good subtle thriller.
I like this book as much, if not more, than her first novel. Very atmospheric,pulls you right in to the story. Enjoyed.
Even though it’s #2 in a series, I picked up this book and had no problem reading it without knowing about/having read the first.
Any interesting blend of suspense, mystery, and a bit of thriller set in a dual timeline, the author really hooked me with the prologue (I think it was the prologue; I’ve already returned the book to the library, so I’m not sure). I encourage you to read it, even if you don’t usually read prologues. Harper uses it well, and there’s a spot at the end of the book when you say, “Ahhh … I see it now.”
Suspense/mystery novels always amaze me because I have no idea how authors can put together those kinds of stories. It was exciting and interesting to find out what happened, but there were also several parts of the story that really made me sad for the characters. Overall, though, it hooked me early and kept my interest — an entertaining read.
Rated PG-13/R for language and thematic elements.
I read everything Jane Harper writes – she’s that good!
This story continued the tale of Aaron Falk and his next case. The story was slow and steady, a tad creepy and a lot more going on than I first thought. There was no particular hook that grabbed me making me read faster, but perhaps the author is clever with her subtlety as I had to know whodunnit.
I hope my company never puts together adventures like this, not even glamping.
This group of woman strayed off the path, Alice is missing…do any of the others really care?
The author brought the area to life, I could almost smell it…well it’s close to home for me so I’d know.
Fabulously woven tale of mystery keeping me guessing all the way.
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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 book you will want to binge on, so cut out some special time and go for i
I have read all Jane Harper’s books but this one is my favourite. A real page-turner.