When a body is found on the beach, the residents of Evelyn Bay, Tasmania, are deeply shocked, but there is a sense of deja vu. Minds are inevitably drawn to a similar death twelve years earlier and to the freak storm that preceded it - a storm that devastated the community and ripped apart several families.
Kieran and Mia return to this small seaside resort with their baby daughter, years after leaving to pursue their careers in Sidney. They are visiting Kieran’s parents who are dealing with the failing mental health of Kieran’s dad, and arrive a day before the body is discovered.
Whilst back in the community they link up with their old circle of close friends and become involved in the frightening events that unfold around them.
The Survivors is a superbly crafted thriller. The characters are carefully drawn and act naturalistically.
Although Jane Harper juggles a reasonably large cast, there’s a clarity to her writing that keeps all personalities and strands of the plot in focus.
The sense of place is good too - a ramshackle community clinging to the coast, windswept beaches, troubled seas, the scream of seabirds, jagged cliffs and deep caves carved into the rock ........ all under the watchful gaze of three striking statues sunk into the sand, The Survivors.
In this atmospheric novel there are no tricks, misdirection or unlikely twists. Just a compelling mystery that is gradually uncovered.
The clues are all there but it’s very subtle - furtive glances, half heard conversations, fleeting memories etc and we gradually join the dots, along with the main characters. It’s all small signs and ciphers that if you’re clever enough you’ll spot and solve the mystery (I of course came nowhere close!)
The plot builds to an ending that’s almost unbearably tense.
The Survivors is an intelligent and gripping novel, my third so far by Jane Harper. Much recommended!
I thank Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC.

I was really looking forward to The Survivors as I'd heard great things about Jane Harper and this was the first book of hers I had tried. I'll be honest I was finding it really hard going and I actually didn't finish it. I had no rapport with the characters and found I didn't really care for the story. This book is very heavy on the dialogue which I'm not a fan of. Maybe I'll come back to it at some point. I will definitely be checking out one of her other books to see if I get the same feeling though.

The Survivors is a contemplative slow burn mystery in a stunning locale that unfortunately fell a little short for me. I loved the setting of the fictional Evelyn Bay in Tasmania! I could visualise the ocean waves from the characters’ backyards, the deep dive into the sea, the dark and claustrophobic caves. And then there’s the close-knit community that support their own but just as easily turn onto each other. I liked the way the book shows how suffocating such a community can be. The book deals with the themes of grief, guilt and shame so it’s pretty bleak. It has the perfect moodiness for the setting.

However, I wish the story is more effective. I found the pacing too slow and the mystery simplistic. I thought the main character is bland. He doesn’t come across as someone who’s in turmoil or troubled by his past. The other characters aren’t much better. Their conflict doesn’t feel genuine and it was difficult to keep track of everyone’s connection with each other due to the tangled nature of the relationships. While the story has some surprises, the ending feels unresolved. Hopefully I will have better luck with the author's next book!

Another intelligently written inevitable best seller from Australian author Jane Harper.

A body, a missing child, the secrets un-fold and the story develops with high intrigue.

The author has I believe been trained to write novels, it shows, in that there clearly is some structure to this novel that comforting in terms of pace, where the strands go, and how the come together in a satisfying conclusion.

Ms Harper is now an author whom I going to read everything she writes. She joins my current favorite's Will Dean and Ragnar Jonasson

From the author of The Dry and The Lost Man - and others which I have not read - this is another gripping and compulsive read, and like so many of Harper's works takes place over two time periods: the present day when Kieran and his wife and baby return to his parents house to help them pack; and the past, fourteen years previously, when a terrible storm tore into the seaside town.

Tragedy links both parts of this: the body of the waitress at the local bar is discovered on the beach in the present day; the storm had claimed lives - very significant lives - for our protagonist and left terrible scars.

This was a slower burn than some of Harper's novels, driven perhaps by the fact that Kieran is not a policeman and not charged with or under any pressure to secure the investigation. It is more contemplative, a careful exploration of the grief that flowed through the town, and of its impact on those it touches. For me, the balance between the revelations of the past and the narrative thrust of the present was really well balanced and structured - although I do think one key revelation was left a little too late and that felt a little forced by the author, but not enough to take me out of the novel.

The resolution was also a little more open and ambiguous than a 'traditional' detective novel, and a little less melodramatic that The Dry - and I enjoyed that.

What Harper can do is create a really vivid sense of place, and the town and the relations between its citizens was beautifully done!

Having loved Harper's previous, Australia-set mysteries I was eagerly looking forward to The Survivors. It's just as atmospheric as them, with just as well drawn characters and an involving mystery plot, but Harper gives us a rather different sort of story - I love it when an author does a swerve like this!

In The Survivors, we visit the small coastal town of Evelyn Bay in Tasmania. It's a place dependent on tourism - busy and bustling in the summer with fierce competition for every parking place, deserted and quiet in winter apart from the keen divers who come out of season to dive the local wrecks. These are a notable local feature celebrated with a statue - the three Survivors of the title - at low tide to mark one particular disaster.

Kieran Elliott, his partner Mia and their baby daughter have come home to Evelyn Bay to help his mother Verity pack up their house. His father, Brian, is suffering from dementia and the time has come for them to move on. It's a bittersweet visit for Kieran, evoking old memories and regrets. Kieran, too, is a survivor - his brother drowned more than a decade ago, on the night of the worst storm in living memory. Kieran escaped, but with a sense of guilt - there are those that blame him for his brother's death, and more besides.

All of this is simmering beneath the calm surface of Evelyn Bay, until the death on the beach of a young woman, Bronte, makes a collision with the past unavoidable. The secrets of Evelyn Bay will be exposed and no-one may ever be the same again...

I would say this is a rather unusual crime story. The central character, Kieran Elliott, is neither a detective seeking to solve the mystery, nor a man accused of some crime and trying to clear his name. (Well, I say that - but while he is held responsible for a death, it's not the one that's central here, and he already blames himself). Rather, Kieran is - more or less - minding his own business, trying to resist getting drawn in and having the past reexamined. There is a detective here - DI Sue Pendlebury, brought in to oversee the local police - but she, and they, are pretty remote, which Harper shows by having them observed by the townsfolk: seen from afar on the telephone, searching a house or striding on the beach. We're shut off from the investigation. Pendlebury and her team are apparently search for something but we don't know what, or why. I think it's only in the last quarter or so of the book that Kieran even talks to her for any length of time.

Rather than the investigation, the focus is on Kieran's tense relationship with his mother, clearly one of those who blames him for his brother's death, and on the web of friendships and former friendships between men - mainly - who grew up together in Evelyn Bay. That's intercut with Kieran's sense of guilt, the disintegrating situation with his father and the additional stress all that places on Kieran's relationship with his partner, Mia. From a certain point of view, despite the death early on, relatively little happens in the first half of the book as Harper follows Kieran and Mia around the town, using them to explore its personalities and their connections and to convey the atmosphere of the place - peaceful and calm, but with something of an undercurrent.

The townsfolk are determined that Bronte's killer must be a stranger, not a local, but there is a sense of something darker behind Evelyn Bay's happy-go-lucky, blokes image. There's malicious chatter on the town's Internet forum. Kieran himself reflects (as he strides confidently along the beach) that he's in no danger, is he? 'Whatever else might come the way of grown men, they didn't wind up strangled to death in the surf'. We hear of a boy - among that group whiling away the sleepy summer months, year before - who seduces a girl to get back at her boyfriend over a business dispute. And, most chilling of all, it's not the first time that a young woman has come to grief here, is it? It all gives the impression that a young woman's life may not be of much account.

There is, then, a powerful tension between the urge to uncover secrets, explore and explain the past and thereby, perhaps, find resolution, and the attraction of pushing the blame elsewhere, pinning it all on some unknown stranger, and getting back to business as usual. Those competing pressures meet in Kieran himself, and possibly his family, whose lives, since the storm, are almost a microcosm of Evelyn Bay.

It is all coming to a climax, but what will be revealed, and who will pay the price, is anybody's guess.

The Survivors feels, as I said, like a rather unconventional crime novel, but it is an absorbing and thought-provoking one, with themes much wider than merely identifying a killer. I'd recommend.

I love Jane Harper’s books and this one didn’t disappoint. Although a bit of a slow burner it held my attention throughout.
Kieran returns with his wife and baby to his childhood home in a close-knit community in Tasmania. He renews the friendships he made in his youth but everyone remembers his involvement in a tragic event that resulted in the death of his brother and another man.
While there a young waitress is found dead on the beach under mysterious circumstances. This is not the first mystery to occur on the beach and brings back memories of the unsolved disappearance of another young girl around the time Kieran’s brother died.
The book kept me guessing who the murderer was along with an ending I didn’t see coming. Jane Harper is an expert at writing murder/suspense novels and the next one can’t come soon enough.

Murder mystery in Tasmania

The story is set in a small seaside town in Tasmania. It's a tight-knit community where everyone knows everyone else's business and where families have intermarried. Several years before the time in which the plot is set, a gigantic storm took the lives of two young friends who were attempting to save a young family member, Kieran, from drowning. Instead, they paid the ultimate price although Kieran survived to marry Mia and have a family of his own. However, the scars of that night remain raw and lurk beneath the surface of apparent everyday life, waiting to break out and disrupt the township. This is the story of the inhabitants and how the truth unfolds.

A significant number of characters are introduced quite quickly at the beginning of the plot, and it is very easy to become confused as to who is married to whom etc. However, it is worth persevering because any confusion clears as the protagonists develop their own identities within a few chapters. This speaks volumes for the author's ability to develop individual personalities while moving everything forward.

The picture painted is that of a rather sleepy little town that relies heavily on the tourist industry and where it not very much happens out of season. It's a picture painted very well as the place's atmosphere is captured so brilliantly that it's almost possible to smell the ozone.

The eponymous survivors are metal sculptures in the ocean, but the name equally applies to those touched by the earlier tragedy. Of course, the truth will out, and the final chapters build the suspense to breaking point. All in all, it's a very credible plot where the reader doesn't have to stretch his imagination. It more than earns the five-star rating.

mr zorg

Elite Reviewing group received a copy of the book to review.

The Survivors by Jane Harper

I am such a huge fan of Jane Harper - I loved The Lost Man in particular but I enjoyed all three previous novels. Unfortunately, while I liked The Survivors, it's my least favourite of Harper's books. She writes beautifully, especially about places and relationships, but I thought that this was at the expense of the story. There is a lot of talk, a lot of reflection, a lot of remembrance, but, for me, not enough movement. Unfortunately, Lockdown has affected my ability to rest with a novel. I listened to the audiobook and read the kindle galley. I thought the narration was excellent. I think that I would have rated this one higher if I hadn't inevitably have been comparing it to the previous wonderful novels.

In this title, we have a change of scene from mainland Australia in Harper’s previous titles to the rugged coastline of Tasmania.

Kieran returns home to Evelyn Bay to assist his mum, Verity, move home and help settle his dementia suffering dad into a care home. Along with Kieran’s girlfriend Mia and their infant daughter, Audrey, the couple are enjoying reminiscing with old friends when tragedy strikes after the body of a young woman is discovered on the beach. The close-knit town is devastated and fearful – emotions that soon turn to anger as the community becomes awash with theories and accusations.

For Kieran and his friends, the incident evokes memories of twelve years ago when a fierce storm claimed the lives of Kieran’s brother and his friend. Deaths which Kieran feels were directly caused by his rash decision to visit the coastal caves prior to the storm. In addition to these deaths, another young resident, Gabby, also lost her life on the day of the storm. Her death has never been resolved, and the present-day tragedy stirs up many questions surrounding what happened to her.

Having read two of Harper’s previous titles, I found The Survivors was a much slower paced read but I would urge other readers to stick with it – it definitely picked up pace in the latter half. The descriptive writings were very good – I could almost feel the ocean spray against my skin and the harshness of the rugged coastal rocks. This was a very well written title with excellent characters.

Many thanks to Little, Brown Book Group UK, and NetGalley UK for the review copy.

I love Jane Harpers books and this is no exception. Although I'm sad for it not to include the detective Falks, this book is both intriguing and the flows exceptionally well. I also found I was unable to guess 'who-dunnit' although the clues were pretty much all there. A really good crime fiction novel.

I am a huge fan of Jane Harper and meeting her at Theakston’s Crime Writing Festival back in 2019 (remember book events? Ah, they were the days) was a real highlight. Her previous novel, The Lost Man was one of my favourites of 2019 and is one I recommend often. She is the Queen of writing about small, insular towns and the close-knit, often stifling, relationships that exist within them. In The Survivors, the action moves to a small town on the island of Tasmania situated 150 miles off the coast of Australia. Evelyn Bay is one of those places which in summer is full of tourists but in winter, when the temperature drops and the sea becomes cooler, is a ghost town and returns to the ownership of those who live there.

Set during the winter, The Survivors is a tale of secrets, murder and deception. Our protagonist is Kieran, a man who grew up in Evelyn Bay but left a number of years earlier. He has returned with his wife Mia and their infant daughter to visit his parents who are about to undertake a huge life change. His father has dementia, the time has come for him to go into assisted living and they are selling the family home. For Kieran this is distressing as not only does he witness the great deterioration in his dad, but he is haunted by the events of the past. When he was a teen his beloved brother, Finn, died alongside one of his best friends in a huge storm. Kieran has blamed himself ever since and has carried the guilt around like a millstone around his neck. Whispers and glances follow him around the town, the town folk have long memories and he can’t quite escape the events of that night no matter how hard he tries.

When a young woman, Bronte, a waitress at the local restaurant is found dead, it brings the events of the past back to the surface in startling technicolour. Fingers are pointed, gossip runs wild and the town online forum lights up with theories and accusations. Bronte was a young woman with her whole life ahead of her, why would anybody want to kill her? As the police descend on Evelyn Bay it stirs up memories of the night of the storm, because not only did Finn die that night, but a teenage girl also went missing and history seems to be repeating itself.

As ever the star of the show though is the wild landscape. The sea is omnipresent; crashing upon the rocks, filling the caves which run under the cliffs and holding the secrets of the past. Amidst this are ‘The Survivors’, a metal structure of three people in memory of the souls who lost their lives in a shipwreck a century ago. It sits amongst the waves, marking the spot where the shipwreck lies. It almost acts as a portent of doom, a ghostly spectre on the horizon and a constant reminder of death.

Jane Harper’s novels are never cut and dried crime books, the mystery of Bronte’s death is central to the plot but there is also a myriad of other themes explored. Grief, loss, guilt, illness and despair run through the narrative, making this a multi-layered novel of depth. There are twists and turns and a few red herrings here and there and, even though I tried to stay one step ahead (and failed, miserably), the enjoyment is in seeing the story unfold. It’s not quite as good as The Lost Man, but it is still a brilliant read and one I recommend.

This is my second Jane Harper novel after 'The Lost Man' and I have no doubt that it won't be my last.

'The Survivors' is intensely gripping and effortless reading, allowing you to completely get lost in it and just enjoy it. It's crime without being too dark, believable, but still twisted enough that it keeps you guessing right up to the end.

It's just really good storytelling, and I can't say any more than that. Would recommend!

Synopsis/blurb ....

Kieran Elliott's life changed forever on a single day when a reckless mistake led to devastating consequences. The guilt that haunts him still resurfaces during a visit with his young family to the small coastal town he once called home.

Kieran's parents are struggling in a community which is bound, for better or worse, to the sea that is both a lifeline and a threat. Between them all is his absent brother Finn.

When a body is discovered on the beach, long-held secrets threaten to emerge in the murder investigation that follows. A sunken wreck, a missing girl, and questions that have never washed away...
------
My take....

My third outing with author Jane Harper after enjoying two of her previous three books - The Dry and Force of Nature. The Survivors is another gripping read, one which I kind of thought I had a handle on where it was heading and what had happened, but which ultimately showed me to be clueless as Harper neatly managed to outfox me.

Kieran Elliott, his wife and baby daughter return to the town of his childhood to help his mother with her relocation. His father has dementia or Alzheimers - I forget which and needs to be homed in order to provide the best level of care for him and allow his mother some respite. Kieran doesn't return home too often.

Home is a painful place, full of unresolved grief and guilt and trauma, which affects not just Kieran, but his family, his childhood friends and the wider community. Kieran's brother Finn drowned along with a friend years ago, an event which Kieran bears responsibility for. Another event of a tragic nature occurred around the same time - read the book to discover what.

Barely back in town 24 hours and Kieran is already the target of some barely restrained hostility. A few more hours pass and a body is found on the beach - murder.

The book leads us through the present day police investigation and back into the past where we eventually discover what actually happened and it's connection to the killing which has just transpired.

I really enjoyed this one. I listened to it over a month ago on Audible and I was quite taken by the narration. I think it added to my enjoyment. Events, unless I'm mis-remembering are mostly seen through Kieran's eyes. He's a likable character. I wouldn't class him as damaged because of events of the past, but I would say it has affected his relationship with his parents. The loss of his brother was never really discussed openly and it has sort of festered, like an untreated wound. There's no rejection or rift as such, it's just the bloody big elephant in the room. His father's condition doesn't lend itself to a frank discussion and a baring of the soul. Reconciliation and forgiveness doesn't seem a likely prospect.

I enjoyed how the author developed the plot and relayed the tale. I'm a sucker for a kind of dual timeline narrative where we flip flop back into the past and forward to the present. There were a few likely suspects for the present day murder, which kept me on my toes guessing. Similarly I was sucked in by an event in the past, which had me patting myself on the back prematurely as I had everything all sorted and solved in my head. Jane Harper knew better.

Aussie crime, Aussie setting - tick.
Tragedy of the past, murder in the present - confusion, possible scenarios and happenings, secrets, misunderstandings - multiple suspects - plenty of intrigue - big tick.
Characters - well-developed, credible, interesting relationship dynamics, conflict, love, hatred, guilt, separation - big tick.
Outcome - satisfying, all questions answered.
Pace - worked for me. I probably enjoyed it more as an Audible book, than I might have done on the written page. I perhaps would have taken a lot longer to get through it and as a result it might not have had the same impact.
Length - okay. No real sense of padding or drag or boredom at any point.

5 from 5

Despite a massive TBR pile, I think Jane Harper is an author I want to try and follow with each new book. I do still have her third - The Lost Man to get to at some point. Sooner rather than later.

Read - (listened to) December, 2020
Published - 2019
Page count - 385 (11 hrs 57 mins)
Source - Net Galley - audible copy
Format - Audible

http://col2910.blogspot.com/2021/01/jane-harper-survivors-2020.html

Ten years ago a small seaside town in Tasmania was rocked, a young girl disappeared and two local men died during a violent storm. Kieran Elliott has lived with guilt ever since, he believes that his older brother died trying to rescue him from the storm, and he moved away. Returning with his girlfriend and baby daughter he finds his father suffering dementia and his mother exhausted, then a girl is found dead on the beach. Now all eyes are on the town again but, a decade later, will the truth come to light.
Jane Harper is described as the mistress of Outback Noir but here her setting is a quintessential backwater. It's a different place but Harper's ideas are brilliantly transported. In her previous novels, space and huge spaces are central, here it is the claustrophobia both in terms of a small town and the theme of the caves. The story is character-driven and complex and the solution to the puzzle obvious when revealed.

The Survivors by Jane Harper
I give this book 3.5 stars
Kieran Elliott's life changed forever on a single day when a reckless mistake led to devastating consequences. The guilt that haunts him still resurfaces during a visit with his young family to the small coastal town he once called home.
When a body is discovered on the beach, long-held secrets threaten to emerge in the murder investigation that follows. A sunken wreck, a missing girl, and questions that have never washed away...
A story of murder,mystery, secrets and guilt.A slow paced read involving a past and present storyline.Some great detail involving a small town community in Tasmania and a group of family and friends.The ending sadly didn’t satisfy me personally . I wanted to enjoy it but this particular book wasn’t for me. I’ve loved the Authors previous books and will be looking out for her next one.
With thanks to Netgalley,Jane Harper and Little Brown Book Group for my chance to read and review this book.

Jane Harper is consistent in providing a fantastically well researched novel, with complex characters and a storyline which keeps on giving. Love her books! Thank you for the opportunity to read and review.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, the second I've read by Jane Harper. Set in Tasmania, Kieran and his partner Mia are back in the small coastal town where they grew up to help his parents pack up their house. When a body is discovered on the beach, old memories surface. Gradually we discover the reasons why they don't come back often, and what happened on the fateful night of the worst storm the town had ever seen twelve years previously. Family dynamics had changed, relationships were destroyed and more than one person is living with guilt. The town and its people then and now are brought to life through the writing and the story. I read this in one day without noticiing how long I was sitting with it. #netgalley #thesurvivors

Jane Harper’s Australian settings for her novels are generally atmospheric and “The Survivors” definitely has this quality. The descriptions of the small coastal town and landscape are very evocative.
The story is about Kieran who returns to the town to help his parents move after a dementia diagnosis. He brings his girlfriend, Mia and their baby daughter, Audrey.
However Kieran has terrible memories of his home after a storm many years previously led to several deaths and a young girl’s disappearance. Kieran feels responsibility for the deaths and has avoided returning to his family. “The Survivors”refers to both Kieran and his friends who survived the storm as well as the memorial statue to an old wreck which has been erected on the coast.
When there is a murder in the town old memories are stirred up and everyone is shocked. In the course of the investigation links are made to the past and it becomes clear that all is not as it seemed.
Although this was an interesting story it did not really grip me in the same way as this author’s other books. I did not have as much invested in the characters and the actual mystery and its resolution was not as compelling.
One thing that seemed unrealistic to me was that during the book Kieran takes baby Audrey everywhere in a sling but I was quite surprised that he felt comfortable leaving her on the beach alone when he went swimming- I cannot imagine most new fathers doing this!
The Survivors is enjoyable but not quite as compelling as Jane Harper’s earlier books. I will definitely look out for future reads by this author as she is generally an excellent writer.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for my arc in exchange for an honest review.

Jane Harper has an incredible skill for getting under the skin of her characters, particularly troubled men in their late 20s/early 30s, and women in middle age. She's a brilliantly talented writer, evoking detailed setting and intricate threads of plot woven together. The Survivors is no exception: set in a coastal community on the Tasmanian coast, you can smell the sea and feel the crush of the waves against the rocks. There's a dual mystery and we're with the characters throughout as they try to work out what's happened - and if the questions are all connected.

Highly recommended.