A Force of Nature
Jane Harper
Narrated: Stephen Shanahan
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Published: February 2018 (FlatIron Books)
Rating: 
Five women reluctantly pick up their backpacks and start walking along a muddy track.
Only four come out on the other side.
The hike through the rugged Giralang Ranges is meant to take the office colleagues out of their air-conditioned comfort zone and encourage teamwork and resilience. At least, that’s what the corporate retreat website advertises.
Federal Police investigator Aaron Falk has a keen interest in the whereabouts of the missing hiker, Alice Russell. Because Alice knew secrets, about the company she worked for and the people she worked with.
The four returning women tell Falk a tale of fear, violence and fractured trust during their days in the remote Australian bushland. And as Falk delves into the disappearance of Alice, he begins to suspect some dangers ran far deeper than anyone knew.
This is the third book I have read of Jane Harper’s this year. Her ability to create a hair-raising, sinister atmosphere continues to impress me and this is my favorite book so far. I primarily listen to my audiobooks at night when settling or resettling my daughter and after three incredibly creepy moments, I decided this was an audiobook that I had to listen to in the daytime. Anyone who has grown up or spent significant amounts of time in a rural, wooded area will have no problem imagining the rising tension felt by the hikers even on the first night.
A Force of Nature begins at a comfortable pace that slowly quickens as the story unfolds. We alternate between present day from Aaron Falk’s perspective to various hikers from the women’s group. Side note: Normally reading from the perspective of more than two characters frustrates me, but I really think it worked in this book. Each of the hikers were telling the same story, from their view, leaving off where the last one left off. This kept the women largely in the same moment with the exception of some flashbacks that truly added a dimension of reality to their characters. At the last 20% of the book I wanted to scream in frustration each time Shanahan cut away from the scene in the woods. Jane Harper really brought the suspense in the end.
While it is the second in the Aaron Falk series, it functions as a standalone novel with minimal references to book one. I highly recommend this thrilling, intense book especially if you enjoy listening to audiobooks. Stephen Shanahan is absolutely fabulous! I am looking forward to Jane Harper’s next book and listening to Shanahan’s delicious drawl in the future.
