Force of Nature

By Jane Harper

I really liked the sense of place. The hiking scenes were quite realistic. The mystery was pretty good, although you kind of didn’t care about any of the women! Aaron and Carmen made a good team.

Hardly any mystery, just some missing people. It was just okay. Not bad, but not very gripping. Weak ending.

Not nearly as good as Harper’s first book, The Dry. The split narrative was pretty hard for me. The she did a good job with ambience and intrigue. The dark and moody scenes were well done.

Not as good at The Dry. Kind of predictable. Interesting touch on cyberbullying.

I liked it. But it made me think: what constitutes a mystery? Not sure this qualifies.

The mystery was not very mysterious, but what really stood out for me were the parallels with Falk’s life and his relationship with his dad and the other family dynamics in the story. But the killer really could have been anyone.

I like Jane Harper. I like how she drew the characters being both psychologically as well as physically trapped. I also like how she portrayed the relationship between the sisters.

I liked that the detectives were investigating fraud and weren’t murder detectives. There was no way to actually figure out what happened as a reader. I liked the sense of being in the wilderness.

I tend to like more procedural mysteries than psychological probing; this was a good balance. I did like the switching points of view and the feeling of the place she described.

I don’t think I’ll finish it. Good start that hooked me, but then it just goes on and on…what is the actual mystery?