Force of nature by Jane Harper
Aaron Falk book 2. Macmillan Australia, 2017. ISBN
9781743549094
(Age: 15+) Recommended. Mystery and suspense. Aaron Falk returns in
the second of Jane Harper's mysteries, following her best-selling The
dry. This time partnered with Carmen Cooper, they are
investigating a family company, BaileyTennants, which is suspected
of money laundering. His whistle blower, Alice Russell, has promised
to give them the documents to prove the case, but she turns up
missing after a team building bush walk in the rugged Giralang
Ranges. Five women from the company walked into the bush and only
four returned.
The action and the setting keep the reader riveted. Told in
alternative chapters, Harper describes what is happening on the
bushwalk and the direction that Falk's investigation into Alice's
disappearance is taking. The Giralang Ranges provide a dark and
frightening background and when the women take a wrong turning and
become lost there is not only the never ending sameness of the bush
to contend with but the lingering fear that once a serial killer and
his son roamed this wilderness.
Harper brings alive the characters of the five women: there is Jill,
daughter of the patriarch of the family company and nominally in
charge of the group; Alice Russell is self-centred and nasty but
committed to her daughter; the twins Bree and Beth constantly bicker
and Lauren is a self-effacing woman who lacks confidence. As the
members of the group try and find shelter and the way home any group
cohesiveness is lost and old wounds are opened with often nasty
results.
Family dynamics are vividly described. Lauren's daughter is
suffering after being brutally bullied at school. Alice's daughter
who goes to the same school, is also experiencing problems with the
son of the company's director and these complexities add a depth to
the story and the reader's feelings about the main characters.
The reader is never certain if Alice is still alive and has just
chosen to disappear or if she has been murdered by a group member or
someone following them in the bush. This suspense is kept up until
the very end when there is a very satisfying denouement.
This is a worthy follow-up to The dry and I look forward to
reading about Aaron Falk's future investigations.
Pat Pledger