Force of Nature

A Novel

By: Jane Harper

Narrated by: Stephen Shanahan

Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's Summary

"Narrator Stephen Shanahan...makes it sizzle to the very end. Both story and narrator are not to be missed." (AudioFile Magazine, Earphones Award winner) 

From Jane Harper, New York Times best-selling author of The Dry, comes a riveting new audiobook featuring Federal Police Agent Aaron Falk. 

Five women go on a hike. Only four return. Force of Nature begs the question: How well do you really know the people you work with? 

When five colleagues are forced to go on a corporate retreat in the wilderness, they reluctantly pick up their backpacks and start walking down the muddy path. 

But one of the women doesn't come out of the woods. And each of her companions tells a slightly different story about what happened. 

Federal Police Agent Aaron Falk has a keen interest in the whereabouts of the missing hiker. In an investigation that takes him deep into isolated forest, Falk discovers secrets lurking in the mountains and a tangled web of personal and professional friendship, suspicion, and betrayal among the hikers. But did that lead to murder? 

Praise for Force of Nature:

"All the novel's characters have been drawn with exceptional complexity, and none more so than Aaron Falk.... So much more than a conventional detective, the reflective and compassionate Falk provides the book's moral compass." (New York Times Book Review)

"Harper yet again delivers a very satisfying mystery from beginning to end, perfect to curl up with.... Stephen Shanahan does an excellent narration with his calm, deep, Australian accented voice." (BookRiot)

“Force of Nature bristles with wit; it crackles with suspense; it radiates atmosphere. An astonishing book from an astonishing writer.” (A.J. Finn, author of The Woman in the Window)

"Set against the fascinating backdrop of a wild, rural location in south Australia, Harper's sequel to her acclaimed Ned Kelly Award-winning debut, The Dry, presents an intriguing crime that might not actually exist and potential suspects with realistically complex and possible motives." (Library Journal) 

©2018 Jane Harper (P)2018 W.F. Howes Ltd

Thankful this is a series!

The Dry was one of my favorite books of 2017. I didn't realize it was to become a series, but I couldn't be happier. Force of Nature is a great follow up. It does take a few chapters to get used to going from past to present. The story unfolds quickly and with a perfect amount of character development. The one slight disappointment, that is also why I liked it, is the mystery solves itself. It's not heavy on police procedures. It was different and I liked it even thought I was expecting something different.

Excellent New Series Continues

I stumbled upon Harper's first book, The Dry, a police procedural mystery set in rural Australia and was hooked. As a matter of fact I practically listened non stop. I thought the characters were well developed and that the story was consistent and believable. Harper really captured the feeling of the location and the extreme drought. Shanahan's narration was perfect in the way he captured the nuances and the flashback time shifts. Had I written a review I would have given The Dry all five stars--I liked it that much.

The next day I snapped up book two, Force of Nature and jumped right in. I'll admit that I struggled with this second book in the series. There was something different with the writing this time around. Where The Dry had hard hitting descriptions and abrupt time shifts between past and present events, book two seemed almost vague. The storytelling felt hesitant in a strange way. At times, I had trouble keeping the five women coworker characters straight. For me, they were often just a sea of faceless names. Several times I resorted to rewinding and re-listening just to be sure that I hadn't missed something.

Shanahan's narration started out a bit flat and lacked some of the dynamics from book one. I don't know if this was just a case of the narrator mirroring the writing style or something else. But as the book progressed the writing improved and as the writing improved the narration also got better. Phew--I'm glad it worked out because I enjoy Shanahan's reading style.

In the end Harper pulled it together and I liked the book. Honestly, I didn't like it anywhere near as much as I liked The Dry, but the series has a balance I really look forward to. It has a level of kindness or maybe really a feeling of heart that I'd like to think exists in life but is often missing in this genre.

Recommended if you like police procedural/mysteries set in Australia with lots of local atmosphere. I definitely will be keeping an eye out for book three.

A good follow up - but loses its Falk-ness...

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I was surprised at how much I loved "The Dry"...so I was excited for the second book in the Falk series to drop. I think if my friend wanted a good mysteries series, I would point them in the direction of these two books. I think "The Dry" is quintessentially Australian and definitely creates a connection between the mystery our our new detective character. Where its sequel falls short is that Falk is only involved in the central mystery on the periphery and could've easily been replaced with any literary detective. Also, "Force of Nature" takes the majority of the focus away from Falk and focuses instead on the women potentially involved in the disappearance of Alice Russell on a corporate wilderness retreat. The books are part of the same series, but have completely different feels.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

I think "The Dry" was really effective creating a potboiler tension, especially among the drought ravaged town of Kiwara. Falk fit into that story perfectly and added to the tension, as the murder took place in his childhood home and he had history with some of the characters. The central mystery was clearly laid out.

In "Force of Nature", Falk is connected with Alice Russell, but it's never clearly explained what exactly Russell was doing for him. And although he and his partner did some investigating, if that was the majority of the book, there wouldn't have been much story. Only with the addition of story from the women suspects' perspective, was the book substantial enough to serve as a novel.

Which character – as performed by Stephen Shanahan – was your favorite?

Shanahan didn't necessarily narrate the characters any differently. With the 5 different women characters plus Falk, his partner Carmen, and additional characters, it would've been pretty difficult to develop that many different characterizations. But, his Australian accent definitely improved the story and seemed easier to understand than his narration of "The Dry."

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

The central mystery is intriguing enough to want me to see this on screen.

Another great story from Jane Harper

I enjoyed The Dry immensely when it came out, and was excited to listen to another story about Detective Aaron Falk. Although this mystery lacks the personal connection Falk had to the town and the victims in the first book (to its minor detriment), I was still drawn into the story and eager to learn about this group of ladies whose hike took a disastrous turn. This was definitely a book I was sad to have to turn off every day after my commute was over; I wanted to keep listening to the end! I telegraphed the ending quite a bit before it happened, but there were still some great surprises thrown in that I didn't anticipate.

You don't have to read The Dry first, although I recommend you do. There are some minor callbacks to that novel in this story, but they are either briefly explained or don't really affect the clarity of the plot. It does help deepen the story of Falk though, and helps explain his strained connection with his late father - something that is referred to a lot but not elaborated on.

Can't wait for the next one in the series!

Another well done mystery down under!

After The Dry I knew I wanted to read anything written by Jane Harper. Force of Nature is
focused on a group of women who are lost while on a hike/trip. It has many twists and turns and the guilty party was a surprise to me. Great story and well narrated by Stephen Shanahan. I enjoyed his accent! I recommend this mystery!

Lord of the Flies, adult female version

Five female professionals are sent by their company into the Australian bush country on a hiking/camping retreat...what could possibly go wrong?! Well, how about someone get a weather report first? Or maybe a pro from the local guide outfit could check in on them daily? None of them had outdoor experience. That aside, not a single sympathetic, much less likeable, character in the bunch...the bickering and whining was so pervasive and unpleasant I was anxious for the book to end. Mean girls masquerading as corporate professionals.

Terrible!

Struggled to finish. Terrible narrator and story lacked depth. Book suited to teenagers. Found it utterly boring.

Good book, but not The Dry

First, I did like the narrator. I'm a sucker for an accent and his Australian one helped to pull me into the setting. That said, I believe I'd prefer to read this book. Since it's a whodunit with foreshadowing, there were several points where I wanted to go back and check something out again. That's difficult to do in an audiobook. Although I gave the original book The Dry a review here, I did read it as a book and did quite a bit of that, checking back to see what had already been written about this or that character. In general, I was drawn to the characters, even the unlikable ones. I felt that I understood what drove them and why they made the decisions they did. As in The Dry, the geographical setting served as a character itself. Because most of us in the West are more familiar with the dry portions of the country, it was interesting but a little jarring to discover there are places where it rains all the time. It definitely set the mood of the book! I followed the back-and-forth in time pretty well also, another issue I have with the audio format. Altogether it was an enjoyable couple of days listening, with a pretty satisfying ending. If more books are written about Aaron Falk, I will check them out, though likely as paperbacks or Kindle books first.

Just kept hoping

I loved the Dry- I just couldn't sink my teeth into this one and kept hoping for something to happen. Great job weaving back and forth. But the plot just wasn't enough. It's sad because the writing is good, narrator perfect but I hoped for more mystery and plot.

Excellent thriller, narration just okay

I really enjoyed Jane Harper's debut, The Dry (which I read), and found the second in the series just as strong. The detective, Aaron Falk, is an interesting and complex character. The writing is very good, the characters are strong and avoid cliche, and the plot is intriguing.

I wasn't thrilled with Stephen Shanahan's narration, and I would encourage the producers to look for someone else for the next book in the series. His reading has very little variety; his sentences tend to have the same cadence and inflection, to the extent that the meaning of the words doesn't come through well . . . the words and the inflection are often at odds. He tends to "bite off" his words and attack his sentences almost ferociously, so that he sounds irritated and sarcastic a lot of the time, and, again, it doesn't bring across the meaning of the text. It is nice to have the Australian accent, but if I had to choose between that and a better narrator, I'd take the narrator.

I did feel that the narration got considerably better in the last third of the book.

All of that said, the narration isn't terrible by any means, and the book is well worth a few irritations!

I very much look forward to what Jane Harper writes next!