The second book in the Aaron Falk series and a different setting to the first. Good relationship with his partner in work and a decent whodunnit. Enjoyable holiday read that I didn’t want to put down.

This was a brilliant read. As soon as I started reading this book I just knew I was going to love it. Highly recommended

Harper is an amazing writer and this thriller did not disappoint. The mystery is genuinely challenging to solve on your own and I enjoy Falk's way of investigating.

An even-better follow-up to The Dry, Force of Nature expands the world, weaving back and forth in time to build the tension as we uncover the story of five women who enter the wilderness and which one of them did not make it back. Aaron Falk is a worthy main character, who deftly handles the mystery investigation side of things. Harper deftly builds her story and improves on her excellent debut.

Thank you to both Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC of this title and apologies in the delay in reviewing as it saved to Goodreads but not here. March 2019

I loved this book. Claustrophobic crime thrillers with limited characters in an unfamiliar place is a popular and enthralling theme (that seems to be in vogue again, with The Last, The Hunting Party, etc). This corporate trip to the Australian outback with a woefully prepared teambuilding company is all you could want in this genre. I couldn't put it down, didn't figure out the twist, and have recommended it to many crime readers since.

Loved the first book, one of the best debut novels I have read and I find the force of nature to be equally good. I think I may even favour this one over The Dry. Amazing stuff from Jane Harper

This follow up to Jane Harper's acclaimed debut, The Dry, is every bit as good as. Again, the Australian wilderness is expertly rendered by Harper as the setting for a gripping mystery. The story is compelling, the characters well rendered, and this makes for a hard to put down read. Would definitely recommend.

She writes great characters. The woman who is missing in the forest is a good example of this - not entirely likeable but layered and interesting. You don’t need to read the first book ‘The Dry’ before this one but I would recommend it anyway as I have that book 5 stars. Really love her descriptions of the Australian forest - it was very visceral and scary. Good twists. 4 stars from me!

It's interesting to read the reviews for this book. Some thought the first in the Aaron Falk series was better; some thought this one is better. I like both of them for different reasons. The Dry was punchier, more immersive. Growing up in a big country town, I could identify with the different types of characters. Living now in a big city, working for an enormous company and escaping into nature on the weekends, I could also identify with the themes in Force Of Nature. Both books are fantastic reads & the hype around them is completely justified (for once). I can't wait to see where the next instalment takes us.

I enjoyed Harper's first novel, The Dry, very much. I felt Force Of Nature, revisiting Police Officer Aaron Falk and the themes of nature as threatening and dangerous, shows the author has honed her skills further. I was gripped from the first page, intrigued by the power politics involved in the group of female hikers who set out to hike a trail as part of a team building exercise, and encouraged to read 'just one more' short, punchy chapter by the decision to flip between the timeframes of past and present. Harper has written another satisfying whodunit against the backdrop of a beautiful but unforgiving landscape.

This is the second book in the Aaron Falk series, its predecessor being the successful 'The Dry" There are a few references to the first book, but if you haven't read it yet it is completely possible to read this book on its own. Although, I highly recommend The Dry.

This one takes place in a remote area where a group of five women go on a mini hiking expedition somewhere in the Australian wilderness, and one of their group ends up going missing.

Aaron Falk and his partner Carmen are brought in to investigate, as they have ties to the missing women through a different ongoing investigation.

With the chapters alternating between the women on the hike and Aaron Falk and his partner, Carmen, the tension is builds up and slowly until the last 100 or so pages where the pace picks up along with the tension.

I enjoyed Aaron's interaction with his partner Carmen and although it wasn't quite as good as Jane Harper's first I am really looking forward to the next book in the series.

Definitely a slower burner but the ending will make all that build up worthwhile and wont disappoint.

A big thank you to the author Jane Harper, publishers Little, Brown Book Group UK and NetGalley for my copy of this book in exchange for an honest and independent review.

https://debbiesbookreviews.wordpress.com/2019/01/10/force-of-nature-by-jane-harper-aaron-falk-2/

Having read, and loved Harper's debut The Dry I was really keen to read Force of Nature, and while I didn't love it quite as much, I was so impressed that once again the book captured a strong sense of the setting and even weather. The Dry builds tension through a sense of building heat, whereas Force of Nature felt chilling and isolated.

Once again, there is a mysterious death at the heart of the novel, and I found myself gripped as Falk again tries to solve the case. Thrillers/murder mysteries aren't a genre I read often, but I thoroughly enjoyed Force of Nature and will look out for Harper's next novel.

I am currently working on expanding our school library's senior section after years of a dismal and uninspiring selection of books that our older readers never checked out. My job has been to seek out much more diverse, gripping and modern books that will get them into reading by appealing to as broad a range of readers as possible. This really appealed to me because of its fantastic narrative and sense of atmosphere, combined with believable characterisation and its page-turning nature. It's hard to get young people into reading and if the library is not stocking the kind of book that they might grow up to buy as adult readers then we are not really meeting their needs. I can imagine this provoking lots of discussion after finishing it and a long queue of people trying to reserve it as they've heard so much about it. Will definitely be buying a copy and know that it's going to be a very popular choice. An engrossing read that kept me up far too late to finish reading it. It certainly stood out from the other books that I was considering and I look forward to converting more Jane Harper fans in future!

Really enjoyed this book, the second in the Aaron Falk series by Jane Harper, another mystery to solve and Jane Harper’s style has just enough thriller for me with a great storyline!

Many thanks to Netgalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK for the ARC

Great story involving Aaron Falk, country boy moved to Melbourne. Great use of structured flashback overctwo distinctvperiods of time and slow introductions of characters and characterisation as the plot unfolds. The title is key as the influence of the wilderness area plays a major part in the resulting events.
Readers of this book would be keen to see the following titles involving Aaron Falk.

Force of Nature is the second book in the Aaron Falk series written by Jane Harper.

Five women go out on a corporate retreat, but only four come back. This story, told in a back and forth manner and from a variety of different viewpoints, tells the tale of how it all went wrong

Really enjoyable mystery with a psychological element.
2 groups of people from the same workplace go into the outback on a team building exercise, but is there a lot more going on? One of the women disappears and the book takes us back over the 3 day trip to learn what has really happened.
The setting and sense of place in this novel are excellent. The characters are very well rounded allowing you to get a real feel for each one I really enjoyed the characters of the two detectives, and look forward to hopefully seeing more of them. The story line made for a very enjoyable mystery with suspense and twists along the way that kept me guessing and wanting to find out what happened next. A very exciting page turner. Have already ordered her other novel The Dry.

Jane Harper’s second novel, like her first, has a story that could have been ripped from the headlines.

Two teams – five men and five women – set off on a corporate team-building exercise in the Australian bush. The men arrived back at base on schedule but the women didn’t. Four of them emerged hours later, and they couldn’t – or wouldn’t – explain what had become of the fifth.

Time had passed since the end of the story told in that first book. The drought had broken, winter had come, and Federal Police Agent Aaron Falk is back at work in the city, investigating financial crime. He is drawn into this story because the missing woman was the whistle-blower in a fraud case that he and his partner, Carmen Cooper, were close to breaking.

She had left a message on his phone, but the signal had been so weak that he couldn’t make out what she was saying. When he tried to make contact he found out what had happened, the local police were grateful for the information that Aaron and Carmen were able to share with them, and open to them to make investigations of their own.

They didn’t know if the disappearance was linked to the fraud investigation, if there were other factors at play, or if it was purely chance that linked one woman to two potential crimes. And they didn’t know if she had chosen to disappear, if there had been foul play within the group of five, or if there had been somebody else out there.

The story has two strands. It follows the investigation; and it looks back to see what happened when the group of women set off into the bush. That works well. The tension mounts and slowly and steadily the picture comes together of what happened on the expedition – and what had been happening before – until it is clear what was wrong in the company and how and why the woman went missing.

Things that had happened at work, things that had happened in individual lives, and things that happened in the bush were all significant.

The plotting is very well done, but it is the depiction of the landscape, the drawing and the delineation of the characters and the sheer believability of it all that made the plot so effective.

Each of the five women had their own story, and their own agenda, and I can only think that whoever put the group together care for any of them. That they fell out, got lost, and failed to agree on a plan of action was not a surprise; but the consequences were.

The plot, the vividly drawn scenes and the atmosphere were more than enough to hold me at the beginning of the story, but the development of Aaron’s own story and his relationship with Carmen drew me further in and made me think about future possibilities. This all happened quite naturally as the story touched on their lives during the investigation. I came to understand how Aaron had reached a particular point in his life, I was interested in Carmen and in her story, and I liked the way their relationship developed and left open interesting possibilities for the future.

However clever, however well plotted, a crime story may be, it won’t hold me without real human interest. This book has that in abundance.

The story kept moving, and I always felt that I was in the safe hands of an author who had wonderful control of her material. She held me in the moment, she paced her revelations perfectly, and every development felt plausible.

I couldn’t work out the solution and I was held to the very last page, and I appreciate the final act was a continuation and a resolution that flowed naturally from what had come before. An ‘aha moment’ but not a ‘grand finale’.

This book has confirmed that Jane Harper belongs on my very short list of ‘must read’ contemporary crime novelists.

Absolutely loved this book, really recommend it to fans of crime fiction - the setting of the outback really helped to give it an incredible twist. Added this author to my goodreads as i'm a fan now!

This is a tense, atmospheric read. Early on, I found that I was having trouble distinguishing the five female characters, but they soon came into focus. The narrative switches between the search for Alice and the days leading up to her disappearance, and the technique works really well to keep the reader hooked. I loved the short, sharp chapters and enjoyed navigating the frequent twists and turns. Harper kept me guessing until the end, and the ending felt right, and satisfying. I'd definitely read more from this author.