Fabulous book by Jane Harper!! Great thriller which kept me turning the pages well into the night. Great characters and plot. Highly recommend to others!!

Always a fan of Jane Harper and this one didn’t disappoint! I always feel a sense of childhood nostalgia with the settings of her books from both growing up in a small country town and from one of my many holidays and this one, a small beach town.. The small town friendships and long term alienation are all too familiar. The story line was solid and characters were warm and easy to relate to. Easy to read and hard to put down.

Loved this new one from Jane Harper. Just the right amount of suspense and beautiful descriptions of the rugged Australian coastline. I felt like these characters needed some more development - a lot of characters but only a couple were well developed. Still, this was an engaging read and I'll definitely seek out her next book.

Having read the dry, I had really high expectations and it didnt disappoint. It is a lot slower than the other books, I loved the fact that it is set in Australia. .The second half of the story really picked up and the atmosphere changed. Jane is a magnificent author who I cant really fault.

Whilst I didn’t mind this one, in my view it was a let-down following her last book. Fans will still enjoy and the setting was stunning, the focus on a parent with dementia so important, but for me the overall plot just lacked something. I found myself wanting to like it more than I did.

One of her best. Not as good as "The Lost Man' but nearly. If you love a literary suspense, if you love Austra;lian landscapes and Australian characters, you will enjoy this.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley with many thanks to the publishers. Despite really enjoying Jane Harper's previous books, it has languished on my kindle, unread, for many months. Not sure why, because when I finally opened it, it was finished less than 48 hours later.

I enjoyed reading this book, but a I'm trying to write this, inexplicably, all I can think of is complaints. The mystery is, well, fine. Not the most captivating, but interesting enough. The main protagonist (whose name I can't recall this morning. Make of that what you will) is yet another fairly mediocre white man. I don't really understand why Ms Harper persists with these characters! But the setting is glorious and that wins over everything. Ms Harper's ability in her novels to evoke the Australian landscape is superb and again triumphs here.

Despite the less than stellar words in the above paragraph, I did enjoy this book and will continue to read future novels. Don't let my ambivalence stop you from picking it up!

I listened to the audiobook and the narrator was fabulous once again. It’s beautifully written and so vivid you feel you are right there in the story. Unfortunately though I was never fully invested in this book and it fell a bit flat for me. The ending was also very abrupt. It’s still overall a good read but not one of my favourites. I’m very much eagerly awaiting her next book though as she’s one of my autobuy authors.

The Survivors by Jane Harper is one, if not THE one, 2020 release I was more excited about. Jane Harper has the wonderful gift of being able to transport you to remotes and inhospitable parts of Australia within the first pages of all her books and this, her third novel was not the exception.

This book takes place in a remote and small town in Tasmania, although not a popular choice in Aussie literature it was a perfect choice for JH and her writing style. While reading The Survivors, I could imagine the feeling of the Antarctic wind on my face and the sound of the massive waves of the ocean hitting the cliffs which, to be honest, scares the hell out of me!

I have seen mixed reviews of this book and I can understand the reasons why this one could be considered not as good as her previous two novels. In terms of writing this book is a 5 star, however, the actual mystery and the final twist were a let down for me. This is a non-spoiler review, so I won't say much but I just couldn't believe that was the answer to the mystery (it kind of does not make sense / doesn't 100% work).

This is not a spoiler..but there is this thing that happens twice in the book that I have a really hard time believing... I would love to hear your opinions about it. One of the main characters, Kieran, has a baby daughter and he decides to go for a swim in the ocean. The beach is deserted... but... there had been a "murder" a few days ago.... and instead of taking his daughter back to his house.. he LEAVES the sleeping baby at the beach, wrapped up in her little blanket and GOES SWIMMING LAPS in the ocean. Say what???? I don't have kids but I'm pretty sure you wouldn't do that...Am I wrong? - Let me know in the comments!

Another aspect that did not work for me was the number of characters that are part of this story. We have Ash, Sean, Liam, Kieran, Olivia, Mia, Toby, Finn, Bronte and Gabby, from one generation and probably there are other 10 who are the parents of these "kids". I really struggled to keep track of who was who. Finally, there were parts where we jumped back and forth between the present and the past, but it is not necessarily clear for the reader that the change took place.. maybe it is intentional but for me did not work.

So, it is with a heavy heart that I have to give this book 3.5 stars. It is still a good book, but not as good as I was expecting it to be.

Have you read it? What did you think of the ending?

--- Thanks to NetGalley and Pan MacMillan for providing me an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review ---

EXCERPT: She was lying on her side, lengthways along the beach with her back to the sea. Her arms were limp and her face was pressed against the sand. The careful highlights in her hair were dull and matted. Her baby-doll eyes were closed.

Kieran had a sudden flash of her, so different from this. Running through the spray after Audrey's hat, looking out at the sea and laughing in frustration.

ABOUT 'THE SURVIVORS': Kieran Elliott's life changed forever on the day a reckless mistake led to devastating consequences.

The guilt that still haunts him resurfaces during a visit with his young family to the small coastal community he once called home.

Kieran's parents are struggling in a town where fortunes are forged by the sea. Between them all is his absent brother, Finn.

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

MY THOUGHTS: Small town dramas - love them! Evelyn Bay - Tasmania, population 900, give or take. To the north is mainland Australia, invisible, but there. And far to the south, Antarctica. A rugged and wild landscape not dissimilar to the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand, from what I understand.

But home is home, and Kieran returns with his family to help his mother pack up the house and move his father, suffering from dementia, into care. And when you're home, you catch up with old friends. Old friends who know your history, your secrets. And there's plenty of those in Evelyn Bay.

The story moves at small town pace. Unhurriedly, but rife with gossip, innuendo and suspicion. The past comes back to confuse the investigation into the death of a summer visitor to the town, an artist who funds her stay by waitressing at the local bar/diner. There are no shortage of suspects. Liam, who also works at the diner, and who gave Bronte a lift home from work the night she was killed. Brian, Kieran's dad, who sometimes wanders at night, and did so that night in the vicinity of Bronte's home, and who was also last known person to see Gabby Birch who had died in the storm all those years ago. And others. I thought I had the killer pegged. I was wrong. Very wrong. About both girls. The ending is unexpected but I loved it. I loved the moral dilemmas the author created, and the delicate but realistic way she portrayed the survivors guilt.

This is a slow reveal, a bit like peeling away the layers of an onion, but far more pleasant. Harper paints portraits with her words, both of the dramatic scenery and the people. My heart ached for Verity, coping with the loss of a son in the tragedy of the storm, his death brought about by the actions of his younger brother, who has moved to Sydney and rarely returns home, and the rapid deterioration of her husband into the clutches of dementia. And for Olivia, older sister of Gabby, home to care for her mother after a failed suicide attempt and increasingly bizarre behaviour.

This is a satisfying read, more than satisfying. I enjoyed my first book by this author and have ordered her back titles to read. I like her style.

⭐⭐⭐⭐.4

#TheSurvivorsBook #NetGalley

THE AUTHOR: Jane Harper is the New York Times bestselling author of The Dry, Force of Nature, and The Lost Man. Jane previously worked as a print journalist in Australia and the UK and lives in Melbourne with her husband, daughter, and son.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Pan Macmillan Australia via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of The Survivors by Jane Harper for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com

This review and others are also published on Twitter, Amazon, Instagram and my webpage

I had quite high hopes for this as I have quite enjoyed everything Harper has written previously. Unfortunately it didn't entirely live up to my expectations. As per usual, Harper does a wonderful job in fleshing out her characters and leaves you second guessing everyone that is introduced into the narrative. Harper also continues her excellent trajectory in illustrating the environment and location The Survivors is based in, although I still find her books set in rural locations to be more urgent and enticing.

I definitely enjoyed the writing and the storyline but I must admit that I was slightly disappointed with the ending. Not so much in the culmination of uncovering the mystery, but more so the blunt and open-ended character arcs that we as readers are left with.

If you're a fan of Harper and her books, you'll definitely enjoy this one. Will it be your new favourite, maybe not but it's still quintessentially Harper and thoroughly entertaining.

A good story, which keeps you turning the pages, but not a great one.

Set in Tasmania, it tells the story of five friends, and how incidents in the past are impacting on their current lives and activities, including the investigation of the death of waitress from the local diner/bar.

The story is told in the present, with flashbacks interweaved giving background and further details as to why the characters are acting as they do in the present - this tool is quite effective.

However, unlike other books by Jane Harper, this one did not completely grab me.

Another classic Jane Harper book with twists and turns that no one saw coming. The anticipation was so worth it!

3.5 stars

I finished this a while ago but haven’t felt the motivation to review it. The reason is not because I don’t enjoy writing reviews, I do. I think I feel so underwhelmed by this new novel by Jane Harper, that perhaps I have been putting off saying what I really feel because I have enjoyed her other books very much.

It’s not that this was a bad book. It wasn’t. It was a classic Harper - her skill in setting the scene is faultless; the reader can very easily feel the sand between their toes and see the sun rise over the ocean and the little town where this mystery is set. It’s formulated perfectly within that template that she writes so well - the return of a character to a town who is seeking redemption from something they may or may not have done and the myriad of characters each with their own secrets.

This book, however, is pretty slow going and once the reveal comes in the final third, 3.5 stars

I finished this a while ago but haven’t felt the motivation to review it. The reason is not because I don’t enjoy writing reviews, I do. I think I feel so underwhelmed by this new novel by Jane Harper, that perhaps I have been putting off saying what I really feel because I have enjoyed her other books very much.

It’s not that this was a bad book. It wasn’t. It was a classic Harper - her skill in setting the scene is faultless; the reader can very easily feel the sand between their toes and see the sun rise over the ocean and the little town where this mystery is set. It’s formulated perfectly within that template that she writes so well - the return of a character to a town who is seeking redemption from something they may or may not have done and the myriad of characters each with their own secrets.

This book, however, is pretty slow going and once the reveal comes in the final third, the whole plot quickly wraps up, with a blow-by-blow account of who, what, where and why; an info dump of sorts so the book can end.

Did I guess the outcome? No. But what irked me was I’d invested a lot of time in these characters, so to have the whole thing resolved and packaged up so suddenly felt like I’d been short changed.

Another aspect of the book that I just don’t get why Harper included, something that has been brought up also by a number of others in their reviews, is the odd treatment of the baby daughter in the book, who is carted around with the protagonist (her father) on his many outings out and about. The scene where he leaves his 6 month old on her own on the sand while he swims in the ocean is mind boggling and disturbing. Who would do that and why would Harper include this when it had no relevance to the plot? Then there’s the scene where the baby is strapped to his chest while he descends down a rocky cliff. WTF? Again no-one would do this and having the child in this scene wasn’t relevant.

While this book is rather forgettable, I will definitely read whatever Harper releases. She has earned her place as one of Australia’s great mystery and crime writers for her brilliant novels The Dry and The Lost Man.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read this in exchange for my honest review.

Jane Harper, you absolutely done my head in with so many unanswered questions and building numerous unreliable characters to keep my guessing game on right throughout this book and I absolutely loved it!! This was definitely a read where I did not feel anything that I tried to predict would be right and guess what? It was not!! While it did start out a little slow in the beginning for me, once I had settled in, it ramped up and I was going nowhere nor putting this book down until I found out what had happened in the end.

Set in the small coastal town of Evelyn Bay, Tasmania where Kieran grew up, he has returned with his partner Mia and baby girl Audrey to assist Kieran’s mum to pack up the family home. Kieran’s dad has early-onset dementia and needs further care in a residential setting. Returning home stirs up a lot of emotions for Kieran who is carrying a lot of guilt over a tragedy that occurred 12 years earlier when he was just 18 years old. Small town tensions rise and past secrets surface when the body of art student Bronte is found dead on the beach the day after Kieran and his family arrive in town. Is there a connection between what happened to Bronte and what happened all those years ago? Is Evelyn Bay ready to know what happened to Bronte and furthermore what really happened on that fateful day all those years ago?!

The scene is set up skilfully by Harper in her descriptive and compelling style of writing and I could literally see myself in the surroundings, looking at the sculpture of The Survivors, looking at the trail leading to the caves, looking into the gaping cave entrance and listening to the roar of the waves crashing as the tide came in.

This is my first Jane Harper book and after hearing so much hype about her and her writing, I was not left disappointed. I am very much looking forward to reading more by her.

Thank you to Netgalley, Pan MacMillan Australia and Jane Harper for the digital ARC in return for my honest review.

Jane Harper is a master at creating a tense, atmospheric setting, and her latest book is no exception. Whilst she has previously taken us to remote outback locations, THE SURVIVORS is set in a small Tasmanian beach town, which is still reeling from the loss of three people in a massive storm ten years ago and has left lasting scars in the community. I loved the wild and beautiful setting, a rugged coast with hidden caves and rip tides and a small community where everyone knows each other’s business – it really made for the most divine setting!

Whilst THE SURVIVORS was perhaps not as gritty as Harper’s previous novels and took a little bit longer to grip me, I really enjoyed the slow unravelling of family secrets heavily burdened by past guilt in a community where the loss of lives has left lasting scars. Living in a small beachside community I could relate to a lot of the dynamics described here. And of course if you are looking for some great armchair travel to beautiful Tasmania, it doesn’t get much more atmospheric than this! Even though the mystery itself was not as thrilling as I had expected, and the ending a bit of an anti-climax for me, I still enjoyed the overall experience. Trying to pinpoint what exactly made this novel very different from Harper’s previous books made me reflect that the main character, Kieran, remained a somewhat remote character and one I found difficult to bond with. Not being a detective who was involved in the murder investigation kept him as well as the reader on the periphery of the crime committed at the start of the story, which may have accounted for the slower pace and the lack of gritty details I appreciated in Harper’s previous books. I recommend it to readers who enjoy a slower, broody mystery revolving around families, the burden of guilt and grief and overcoming past trauma.

Harper’s previous books have all been huge hits so I was super excited to pick up a copy of her new novel, The Survivors (thanks Netgalley and Pan Macmillan Australia).

Kieran has avoided returning to his hometown due to his involvement in the death of his brother and his brother’s friend during a storm when he was younger. During this same storm a young girl, Gabby, went missing. Now though, he returns to help his parents who are in the process of packing up their house and moving because of Kieran's father’s declining health due to dementia. And also now, just after Kieran arrives in town, another body washes up on the local beach, obviously murdered.

Harper has created an interesting cast of locals for Kiernan's hometown. I liked how they were all very realistic and she avoided the 'crazy log lady' type of quirky characters. (I've also got to mention how realistic the police acted and communicated with the other characters in this book. I've read a couple of books of late where the police and the public's interactions have been kind of ridiculous. Well, ridiculous for Australia anyway.)

Harper also did a great job of casting suspicion over every single character in the book. I'm sure I had my doubts about all of them at one time or another, including the local policeman, Kieran’s parents, and even his partner and mother of his child. And not only does Harper keep you guessing about the current murder, she makes you wonder about just how it, Gabby's disappearance, and Kieran’s incident during the storm are connected.

I find Harper’s style of writing extremely easy to read and I flew through the book in a couple of nights. She makes the story flow with a real ‘show not tell’ way that is really quite rare. She uses a lot of dialogue and yet the book feels very descriptive and it’s always easy to differentiate between the characters and get a sense of mood.

This is the third book I’ve read recently which has been set in Tasmania and, in my mind, Harper basically made this place setting another character. The fictional town of Evelyn Bay is a typical coastal small town of Australia where everyone knows everyone’s business, and yet everyone still manages to have secrets. The locals spend their evenings at the local pub/restaurant, sharing gossip and stirring up a general mistrust of visitors to the town.

Harper takes full advantage of the natural beauty and danger of the locale. Upon his return, Kieran is constantly drawn to the water, the beach, and the caves at the base of the cliff top walking track. To add a bit more drama, the ‘survivors’ is not only a valid description of the characters in the book but also a set of three statues/sculptures placed at the site of a local shipwreck. These sculptures are a focal point for the characters to establish how far the tide has come in when traversing the caves and their inclusion somehow gives the book a haunting gothic feel.

It’s a joy to read such a well written Aussie novel. Strongly recommend. One of my top 5 reads for the year. 5 out of 5

I have said it before and I will say it again, Jane is masterful in her descriptive writing of landscapes, this book is next level. I could smell the Tasmanian fresh air, taste the sea salt and feel the bitter cold of the waves crashing against the rugged cliff faces. I can see this book coming to life in a tv mini series…. Just saying!

Kieran Elliott is haunted and lives with the guilt of what happened that day. A split-second decision made as a teenager resulted in dire consequences. A violent storm rips through Evelyn Bay, killing Kierans’ older brother Finn and his best mate Toby. 14-year-old Gabby also went missing that day and has never been found. Living in a small knit community people were quick to pass judgement, the whispers, gossip and grudges Kieran left to build his life in Sydney.

Fast forward 12 years Kieran and his partner Mia return to Evelyn Bay to help his parents move as his fathers’ dementia has advanced, his mother needs support. It feels good to be home connecting with old friends, yet Kieran hasn’t dealt with the loss of his brother and still feels responsible.

Second day back, local girl Bronte is found drowned, her death indicates ‘someone’ may have drowned her. The police investigate, another shadow is cast over this small town as more information comes to light it appears this case may be connected to what happened 12 years ago.

Jane carefully intertwines the character connections, everyone knows everyone in this town, its full of secrets, jealously and resentment. I’m not going to give anything else away. The discovery of “The Survivors” what is means I really enjoyed reading about this. So be careful reading too many reviews this is one of my favourite sections in the book.

Jane Harper has returned with a thrilling new crime mystery, which in my opinion, is her best yet. I have enjoyed each of her releases as I love the way she writes, however, the outback is not my favourite setting, and two out of her previous three were set in the outback. She had already proven, with Force of Nature which was set in the forest, that she could bring any setting to life, and here she is again, turning her hand to a new setting, the wild Tasmanian coast, and it’s a dazzling tour de force.

The mystery within in this novel is twofold. A new crime blows the cobwebs off an old tragedy and as one is investigated, questions about the past come to the fore. I felt this really went a long way towards building that small town setting, where skeletons are not buried all that deep and memories are long. The wild coastal setting was brought to life so vividly, particularly the weather, the changing tides, and the way in which life was arranged around the seasons.

As always, Jane has crafted a cast of authentic and original characters. There’s a lot of baggage being carted around by many in this small town and I felt the weight of their individual histories, their burdens, their regrets, their failed hopes, and their secret longings. Often times fraught with emotion, tense and foreboding, Jane uses her characters in conjunction with her plot with masterful intent, unspooling the mystery, laying down new pieces to the puzzle, and stitching it all together with her trademark brilliance.

The title of the book has significance with regards to the setting, an element of the story that I particularly liked. Potential readers should note that this is a standalone novel and if you’re yet to try Jane Harper, this is an ideal one to start with.

Thanks is extended to Pan Macmillan Australia for providing me with a copy of The Survivors for review.

Jane Harper’s latest novel The Survivors switches focus from the Queensland outback of her previous novel to the island state of Tasmania. Here, on the windswept coast of a small local community (the fictional Evelyn Bay) a young woman in town for the summer is murdered, her body found washed up on the beach in the early hours of the morning.

The crime is a reminder of a previous tragedy in which a 14-year-old girl went missing on the night of a big storm 12 years earlier. That same night, two local men, Finn and Toby, also died when their boat overturned in stormy seas.

The timing of the murder is unfortunate because Finn’s brother Kieran is back in town. Kieran blames himself for his elder brother’s death all those years ago and the occurrence of yet another tragedy triggers painful memories for him. He’s arrived in Evelyn Bay from Sydney — with his long-term girlfriend and young baby daughter in tow — to help his mother pack up the family home so she can move her husband, who has early-onset dementia, into a nursing home in Hobart.

The Survivors is essentially a murder mystery focussed on two women who lost their lives more than a decade apart. It’s mainly centred on Kieran and his family, and a small cohort of childhood friends, now adults, who have remained living in the town. It’s a slow burner, the kind of story that unfolds slowly but surely, and is much about guilt, redemption and family loyalty, as it is about trying to solve a murder.

What I liked
The number of potential suspects
The Survivors isn’t a traditional police procedural or even a typical crime novel. It’s essentially a murder mystery that is “solved” by a small cast of characters who piece together clues discovered by the police and their own “investigation” (I use the term loosely). There are plenty of would-be culprits — the mainland genre author who has purchased the big house in town, Kieran’s father who wanders the local area at strange times of the night, the young kitchen hand who drove the victim home from work, and so on. Every one of them could, potentially, be the murderer — and the fun is trying to guess who it might be. The ending, I have to say, is satisfactory — and not the person I suspected at all.

The setting
In previous novels, Harper has faithfully captured a diversity of Australian settings, from a small rural community battling the ongoing effects of drought in The Dry to an outback cattle station that has to generate its own electricity it is so remote in The Lost Man.

In The Survivors, she captures what it is like to live in a small coastal community, some 900-strong, the kind of place that is super-busy with tourists in the summer and quiet and closed-in on itself when the season is over. It’s also the kind of place where everyone knows everyone else’s business (or thinks they do). She nails the gossip, innuendo and rumours that can fester when the facts aren’t truly known, and shows how this can spread like wildfire, especially via community online pages. She also nails what it is like to grow up in those places and to never truly escape them because even if you move away and only return on holiday, the locals think they “know” you and don’t think twice about casting judgement.

The dementia aspect
The depiction of dementia is handled sensitively and clearly shows the burdens placed on the primary caregiver — in this case, Kieran’s 64-year-old mother — and the family members who have to adjust to a new reality in which their loved one barely recognises them.

What I didn’t like
The dead woman trope
The Survivors is yet another crime novel where a dead woman is the central plot point. Harper doesn’t sensationalise the murder and makes reference to the fact that women must negotiate the world in a different way to men (never walking alone down dark streets, for example), but it still remains a story that relies on an old trope that I, personally, am incredibly sick of. It really is time to change the story.

The repetition
There’s a lot of repetition in this story, a lot of rehashing old ground, a lot of telling us that Kieran, for instance, has been wracked with guilt for more than a decade, and that the storm 12 years ago did more than wreck trees and buildings, it wrecked lives too. Lose half the repetition and this story would be not only leaner, but it would also be stronger, too.

The clichés
As much as Harper is great at capturing small-town life, it does seem that she only creates places solely populated by white people. While this story does feature a “half-Singaporean” (this is how Kieran describes his girlfriend), everyone else in this story is white. In fact, everyone in this novel feels like a stereotype: the guys are all sporty types, there’s a town beauty, a hard-working put-upon mother, a bumbling male police officer. Do I need to go on?

An entertaining read
No doubt you are going to see loads of reviews of this book in the coming weeks and months. And it will be nominated for awards and top the best-seller lists both here in Australia and the UK, where Harper has a good following.

But this is a fairly average crime novel. By all means, read it for the setting and the fun of guessing who committed the crime, but don’t expect to have your world set on fire. Sometimes, though, that’s enough, especially if you are just looking for a bit of temporary escapism. The Survivors is an entertaining read, no more, no less.