Instant New York Times Bestseller “As always, Harper skillfully evokes the landscape as she weaves a complicated, elegant web, full of long-buried secrets ready to come to light.” -The New York Times Book Review Kieran Elliott’s life changed forever on the day a reckless mistake led to devastating consequences. The guilt that still haunts him resurfaces during a visit with his young family to … resurfaces during a visit with his young family to the small coastal community he once called home.
Kieran’s parents are struggling in a town where fortunes are forged by the sea. Between them all is his absent brother, Finn.
When a body is discovered on the beach, long-held secrets threaten to emerge. A sunken wreck, a missing girl, and questions that have never washed away…
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Here we go again. Another great book to read by Jane Harper who doesn’t seem to put a foot wrong when it comes to crime fiction. The Survivors is her fourth novel and doesn’t disappoint.
Now for some background.
Kieran Harper returns to his childhood home in a seaside village on the coast of Tasmania to visit his parents with his partner (who had once lived there) and their young baby. But coming home dredges up painful memories of survivor guilt when his brother and friend died trying to save him during a once in a lifetime storm more than twelve years earlier. When a young waitress from Canberra is found dead on the beach it dredges up long held secrets and questions and the finger pointing by the locals begins.
As with Jane Harper’s previous novels, she has you guessing who the murderer might be and again I had many theories, none of them correct. The first half of the book was a little slow but the second half ramped up so much I couldn’t put it down.
The setting was wonderfully descriptive of the Tasmanian rugged coast, the caves and the ship wreck. The characterisation of Kieran was well developed and little baby, Audrey almost steals the show.
This is a well written book evocative and full of mystery around the events of twelve years earlier and on the beach in present day. Are they connected or is it another red herring? You’ll have to read and find out for yourself.
Jane Harper is one of my favorite authors, and I so looked forward to this while I was on vacation a few weeks ago. I enjoyed this slow burn mystery and the complex characters who all are keeping secrets from their shared past. When a young girl dies unexpectedly, all those secrets are in jeopardy of spilling out.
The narrator was an especially refreshing character – an unmarried dad with a 3 month old baby (his partner is great too and their relationship was unique and well done). Some of his friends had that shady vibe Harper is so good at building, creating an ambiance of something chilling.
The climax was maybe a tad bit of a let down, but still thrilling and I tore through it. This book reminded me a bit of her second book which had the same slow build and plotlines that didn’t perfectly connect like in The Dry and The Lost Man. Readers will love it for the mystery and small town family drama thrills, a perfect escape.
I’m a big fan of Jane Harper, and although this book isn’t quite as good as The Lost Man, it’s still great. No one does a sense of place like Harper. This time a sea side village in Tasmania.
Jane Harper writes intense stories! In The Survivors, Kieran has returned home with his girlfriend, Mia, and young daughter, Audrey, to help his parents pack up their home. His father has dementia, and Kieran is still feeling guilty about the death of his older brother, Finn, and Finn’s best friend Toby – who is the older brother of Kieran’s best friend, Sean. Additionally, there is an unsolved disappearance of a 14-year old girl, Gabby, from the same day 12 years earlier.
When another young woman, Bronte, goes missing, old memories are dredged up. The community still hasn’t recovered from the deaths 12 years earlier.
Set near the ocean in Tasmania, with dangerous caves and brutal tides, this is a story of secrets.
I really like Jane Harper’s writing. She brings the brutal landscape into her stories, and the pain and emotion of her characters is felt on each page.
She’s just such a great writer. This is another wonderful book that kept me up far too late reading.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review. It is set to be published in January 2021.
“The Survivors” by Jane Harper was a bit of a disappointment for me.
The blurb is great, the premise very interesting, but then… The story takes forever to get started: the first 50 pages or so are nothing more than conversations, background and info dump. Even afterwards, the pacing doesn’t improve much.
The characters spend way more time talking to each other about each other than actually doing things, and it feels like the first 5 chapters are the far too detailed account of an interminable high school reunion where everybody’s catching up with literally everybody else, and I as a reader couldn’t have cared less about most of it. Way too much backstory for my taste, and besides, most of it was completely irrelevant to either the main plot of the novel or the subplot about what happened twelve years earlier.
There’s a huge cast of characters, all of them one-dimensional and with no distinct voice, so I didn’t manage to get emotionally invested in their dramas, big and small.
There’s also a blatant overuse of flashbacks in this novel. I don’t mind reading stories containing flashbacks, I actually enjoy that, but you can have too much of a good thing to the point that it becomes bad. Most of the flashbacks in this novel are not even that important, they don’t show us something fundamental to the plot: they’re just trivial flashbacks, giving us insight into the characters’ temperament, their personal background or relationship with each other. All those things could have been shown in the narration in many other ways, without needing to resort to one thousand flashbacks. That looks like lazy writing to me.
Besides, all the different flashbacks go back and forth not only between two timelines but also skip a few days ahead and a few days back along the older timeline (twelve years before the events narrated in the novel), and that’s confusing. Especially when the author switches from the main timeline to twelve years ago to a few days before twelve years ago back to the main timeline with no warning or clear demarcation. Some of the flashbacks in the novel have their own chapter, but many more are just inserted seamlessly in the text, not even separated by a blank space or signalled by italics. That’s annoying.
The ending was quite disappointing as well: the identity of the person responsible for the girl’s death is painfully obvious way before it’s finally revealed, and the final scene is totally anti-climactic.
As a side note, I think the issues about sexual harassment and the general insecurity related to being a woman (such as “do not walk home alone after dark on unlit streets” or “don’t get out of the house in the night”) were very poorly handled in this book. I’m perfectly aware of these problems, and I agree that those are some serious issues, but the way they were presented in the narration was just awkward and unrealistic.
Also, what kind of policeman would just give random civilians inside info about an ongoing murder investigation? I don’t buy that, my suspension of incredulity doesn’t stretch that much.
Overall, this was the first book by Jane Harper I read, and it will probably be the last.
Really good story and if I could have given it 4.5 stars, I would have. This is the fifth book from Jane Harper that I’ve read now and she is a really good writer and storyteller. I’ve been on a streak now of sticking to authors that I’ve read and really liked in the past. So far, it’s working out really well and I’m very pleased to be reading some really great stories and books.
Like so many other readers, I love trying to figure out “whodunit”. This book had me completely guessing. Every time I thought I knew, something else would happen and I would start thinking it was someone else. The ending really surprised me and I liked that. To me, I believe that’s a sign of a good writer and storyteller. I will looking forward to her new books as they come out. I would love to see her continue her Aaron Falk series.
A missing girl from long ago and now one found dead on the beach of Tasmania. Are they connected? Jane Harper takes you on an adventure as the past unravels. You don’t really know the truth until the very end. There are many questions and suspicions along the way. Great book.
If you’re looking for an engrossing mystery, Jane Harper delivers a pretty solid option with The Survivors.
Kieran, his partner, and their baby daughter return to his Tasmanian hometown to help his parents pack up the family home. He left years earlier, escaping grief that came with a heartbreaking loss. Shortly after coming back, though, the murder of a friend of his brings back torrents of memories, opening up fractures in his group of chums.
There are zigs, zags, and red herrings as you try to figure out whodunit. I’ve always been far more fascinated by the whydunit than the who, and the “why” here is interesting and works. It doesn’t feel contrived (nothing in this book does). Harper lets you discover it along with Kieran, showing you his feelings and reactions that mirror yours.
I listened to the audiobook and then read the text. Stephan Shanahan’s narration–even when sped up to 1.5–sometimes falls flat. He reads the book almost too drily, never permitting us to experience the book through his voice. So I’d pass on the audio, but you do not want to miss the book and Harper’s story. Will you know the culprit? Maybe. I had occasional suspicions. The denouement of that person’s discover, though, is harrowing and even a little heartbreaking.
This is the first Jane Harper book I’ve read, and I can’t wait to read more.
Great who done it.
Kieran Elliot is a young man who, with his partner and child, return to Tasmania after more than a decade’s absence. Coming into contact with old friends and others who are not so glad to see him, causes calamitous memories to resurface. Then a woman’s dead body is discovered and old wounds are reopened, with the town’s trauma relived all over again. Are the two events connected? Coincidences between the two and local involvement raise even more questions and then an anomaly is discovered. The town has once again questions to answer and a mystery to solve. Jane Harper’s The Survivors is a riveting read with a five-star, not to be missed rating.
I was thrilled this summer when I saw Jane Harper’s next book was due out soon but I was dreading having to wait over 6months to read it!! So I did a serious celebratory jig (yep, I said jig) the day I got an email informing me I had won an ARC of the audiobook! And I’m glad to say (as with all Harper’s novels): it did not disappoint!
I have really struggled to focus on books since this infernal pandemic but this one I flew through. While it is a mystery, it goes deeper focusing on complex human emotions like survivor’s guilt, shame & fear.. It delves into how a singular event from our past can shape us into who we are now and how our brains can distort our memories. This deeper look into humanity is something I’ve enjoyed in all of Jane Harper’s books, she doesn’t write shallow whodunnits that you can figure out half way into the book. Although, even if I could figure out the “who” of it all, I would still enjoy reading the rest to learn more about the characters and the “why” of it. It’s so easy to connect with her characters.
I was glad to hear narrator Stephen Shanahan, who you’ll recognize if you’ve listened to any of Harper’s other books on audio or any of Candice Fox’s Archer and Bennett series. He does a great job at conveying the characters emotions without sounding over the top or doing high falsettos for females (one of my BIG audiobook pet peeves).
Overall another winner from Jane Harper!
I tend to go the opposite of Jane’s other fans when it comes to her books, I thought The Dry was an alright read but absolutely loved Force of Nature and found The Lost Man my least favorite. That brings us to her latest The Survivors, which I adored.
It did take a bit to take off and there were a lot of characters introduced in the first chapters to keep track of. I found myself thumbing back and forth to remind myself who was who. However, the slow burn is what makes it a great mystery. She does a wonderful job of introducing a cast of characters who I both sympathize with and are suspicious of. That makes it very hard to figure out the who-dunnit at the end. It’s so refreshing to read a mystery where I can’t determine the murderer in the first chapter (one time from the book flap).
Like her other books she sets the scene using nature as a major character (and additional antagonist), and I want very much to visit the places she describes even though lots of people die there. I only wish we saw more of her books come out.
I love Jane Harper’s writing, she builds such relatable worlds and characters, always original and always so deeply connected to place. So I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Having said that, I just couldn’t buy the motive for the murder, so was left a bit unsatisfied. I don’t want to include spoilers, but it just didn’t seem a choice that made sense or the character would make. I’d love to hear others thoughts on this! Have you read it?
Favorite Quotes:
She was four years younger than him and shy to the point that he wasn’t even sure he knew what her voice had sounded like.
… it must have been good fun, Kieran thought, otherwise why did they do it every weekend? But it was interesting looking back how the good fun had sometimes felt a lot like hard work… It had all seemed so important at the time, Kieran thought as he stood on the beach now. Life and death.
He had fed Audrey and read to her from a picture book that hinted heavily on its front cover that it would unlock her genius potential. Instead, it had sent her back to sleep, which in that moment seemed like an even better result. They should have put that on the cover.
My Review:
This was one of those slowly unwinding tales that kept me feeling a bit uncomfortable, on edge, impatient, tense, and unable to put my Kindle down without feeling annoyed at the intrusion. I was hooked from the beginning and full of nagging suspicions as at one time or another, almost every character seemed a bit off and capable of something dreadful. The writing was cleverly realistic with deeply flawed yet enticing characters while shrewdly plotted and cunningly paced to drive me mad in brain itching increments. It was brilliant.
The Survivors has layer upon layer of mystery and intrigue; my perfect sort of a story with plenty of puzzles to be solved. Half-way through I thought I’d sussed out the culprit and the motives, but, just as I was congratulating myself with my theory, Harper chucked something into the mix to blow it out of the water. Basically, I bought the red herrings Harper threw in by the bucketload. I love the Tasmanian setting of Evelyn Bay with its beachside bar, caves, shipwrecks and sleepy police station. This is a claustrophobic, small-town seaside resort where everybody knows, and seems connected to, everybody else, and you do not want to get on the wrong side of the EBOCH forum. I like that the setting is enclosed – all the action happens within close distance of each location and it is very well described, giving me a great visual map of the place in my head.
The mystery begins on the very first page and the opening scene eventually slots back into the story. Kieran returns home to help his mother move his father, who has dementia, into a nursing home. He has arrived there with his girlfriend, Mia, and new baby, Audrey, but it is not a place he likes to visit as it holds too many painful memories, although it takes a while to discover the dreadful thing Kieran did which makes people whisper about him behind his back. It is interesting to see how the different parties wrapped up in the aftermath of the storm react to Kieran and how they apportion blame. I especially like the description of how Kieran’s Mum, Verity, has communicated with her son over the years; it is always very measured, but you know there’s lots simmering under the surface. There are two mysteries going on – the historical one and then a young woman’s body is found on the beach whilst Kieran is there. Is it possible they are connected?
The ending really took me by surprise and I then had to go back and look for the clues I missed which are, of course, there. I think Harper handles very well the different ways people express their grief and how, over time, a lot of the not-so-pleasant characteristics of someone’s personality are almost forgotten. She explores the impact of childhood friendships, what it is like living with someone who has dementia, and how guilt seemingly always takes its toll. I also love how two of the characters’ names, Pendlebury and Barlin, were bought at a charity auction and that Harper considers them to be two of her favourite fictional creations; a lovely touch. The sculpture of The Survivors looms in the backdrop of the narrative; a constant reminder of the main theme of the book – the ability to overcome and survive whatever life throws at you. This is definitely my favourite of Harper’s novels so far…
I had this one in audio and even though I listened to it from beginning to end I feel I was missing something. Kierran comes home after an absence of 12 years to help his mother pack up her home so they can move his father to a long-term facility because he is suffering from dementia. (this is a storyline on its own) Twelve years ago Kierran’s brother and friend were killed in a boating accident to which Kierran was to blame and at the same time a young girl went missing. Now, there is another death with a young woman found murdered on the beach. So many twisting side stories I just felt lost at times as if I should have read a book previous to this one to know who, what, and why. That doesn’t mean I will not give this author another try. At least the narration was perfection.
I enjoyed this book – not as much as her others but they are exceptional so a lot to live up to. Well recommended!
Another winner from Jane Harper. I love her writing- the way she builds the tension, creates realistic characters and twists the plot in a way that keeps you turning pages. The Survivors follows Kieran, who returns home with his young family to help his mother move and care for his father. The day after his arrival a waitress is found murdered on the local beach. The investigation starts to dig up the town’s secrets and forces Kieran to confront old feelings and his brother’s tragic death. A well crafted mystery!
Not an action-packed thriller, but a quietly devastating study of how an old tragedy weakens the bonds of a close-knit community, and the murder of a young woman threatens to tear it apart for good. .