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.

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

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.

As with the other books of hers I have read, this is compelling and beautifully written. She coneys the atmosphere and location which almost makes you feel what she is writing, brilliant.