The Survivors

Another wonderful book by Jane Harper. Kieran and his partner and new baby head back to Evelyn Bay to help his mother and ailing father move. Once there memories from the night of the big storm 12 years ago come flooding back with unresolved emotions. A young woman is murdered while they are there and unexpected things turn up during the investigation into her death. It is a real page turner, the characters are all believable. What I particularly like about this author’s books is her ability to draw the place where the book is set. She really painted a picture of a small seaside resort, dependent on tourism for its wellbeing.

Jane Harper's fourth novel is a standalone mystery, set in a small beachside community in western Tasmania. As with her other books, the Australian landscape is a key element in the book. This time it's the sea and tides that play a significant role.

"The Survivors" that give the book its name refer to three sculptures erected at sea to commemorate a shipwreck many years earlier. But it also refers to the inhabitants of Evelyn Bay who were deeply affected by three deaths during a violent storm 12 years earlier. Kieran lost his brother Finn and Finn's best mate Toby in an accident that he still feels deeply responsible for. Gabby, a 14 year old local girl, also disappeared and her body has never been found.

Kieran has left the town. He has a new life in Sydney and he and his girlfriend Mia (who was Gabby's best friend) have a newborn daughter. He has returned to Evelyn Bay for the first time in many years to help his parents with an upcoming move due to his father's dementia. The second night that they are there, another local girl - Bronte - drowns in suspicious circumstances.

I didn't think this was Jane Harper's best book but it's still immensely readable. At times it gets bogged down in conversations as rumours spread through the town, but she's a master at revealing enough clues to keep you guessing without being able to work out the answer too early. This would make an excellent TV series and it has many of the characteristics that made Broadchurch so appealing. A small community where everyone knows everyone but there are also secrets and grudges bubbling below the surface. Suspicion falls in turn on numerous characters, among them a resident author, Toby's wayward son, Kieran's apparently confused father, Gabby's grieving mother. Lots of disparate threads that all get woven back into place. Even a second rate Jane Harper is better than most other crime novels.

Thank you to Net Galley and PanMacMillan Australia for the ARC.

I had read Jane Harper’s other books and really enjoyed them but I think this one is even better than The Dry, for which she is renowned. Yes, at times the dialogue got a bit tangled it’s own complexity but this is easily overlooked when you consider the sophistication of the plot. It was complex but the reader is led through it in such a way that you don’t dare read too fast... A very good example of how modern mystery/thrillers can also be strong literary offerings.

I had decided who did what and why reasonably early in the book, and because I am usually fairly good at guessing these kinds of things in books I spent part of the book feeling a bit disappointed. After all, I absolutely loved Jane Harper's previous books and expected to love this one too. But then came revelations that didn't tie in with my theories and the guessing game was on again. As it turned out, I was completely wrong in so many ways and nothing I had guessed came to pass or was what I thought it was. In my opinion it isn't quite as good as her previous books. I found the dialogue quite dry and I didn't engage with the characters as I usually do. But this was still a very good read and I recommend it,

Jane Harper burst onto the scene with her excellent The Dry and subsequently produced books that proved she is no one hit wonder.
The Survivors are sculptures set against caves in a small sea side town. Kieran Elliott returns with his girl friend and baby daughter t9 help his mother pack up the house. His father has dementia and life is getting hard for his mum. When a young girl’s body is found on the beach past ghosts resurface for Kieran. His brother and a friend drowned trying to save him 10 years ago when he became trapped in the caves by a ferocious storm. Their boat flipped and the two boys never had a chance. On the same day as the storm another young girl had gone missing and these incidents somehow become intertwined with the current death.
It’s a great story of family and friends and forgiveness and regrets. I thought maybe the ending was a wee bit weak but on the whole i love it.

An emotional murder mystery set in a secluded Tasmanian seaside town, The Survivors will leave you guessing until the last page.

12 Years after a freak storm hits Evelyn Bay and changes Kieran Elliot’s life forever he returns to his hometown with his partner Mia and baby Audrey in tow. Emotions run high as Kieran, Mia and the other townspeople are still flooded with unresolved emotions and unanswered questions from the lasting impacts of the storm.

On his first night back home Kieran reunites with his old friends Sean, Ash and Olivia and meets Olivia’s new housemate Bronte. When Bronte’s body washes up on the beach the following morning the entire town is once again plunged back into the guilt and grief that haunted them after the storm. In a small town where secrets both old and new lie just beneath the surface, the residents of Evelyn Bay are quick to point fingers, but are they missing something more sinister? Could this murder be linked to the unsolved dissapearance of Olivia’s 14 year old sister Gabby during the storm.

Keiran is determined to find out, and will uncover clues along the way that will have him questioning his memories of that fateful day and everything he’s known since.

My expectations for Jane Harper books are always high and this one did not disappoint.

Harpers writing style, where she weaves in small clues to create a fascinating complex story is amazing. Her ability to provide insight into the characters' pasts and their memories through thoughts and conversations leaves you with a feeling of well developed characters where you believe you know everything there is to them.

This is where Harper catches you, as when what you don't know about these characters comes to the surface you will be left shellshocked. She is truly an amazing author.

Once again she perfectly evokes the Australian landscape and anyone who has spent time in the coastal areas of Tasmania will immediately recognise the settings, if not use the attached photos as a reference.

Although this book might feel familiar (man returns to town where he suffered emotional trauma as a boy and is shunned by townsfolk) it has its own distinct plot and sub plots that will keep you captivated.

Amazingly crafted, intriguing and entertaining, i highly reccomend this novel to all.

Jane Harper sure knows how to write a prologue! She has an uncanny ability to instantly hook me in within the first few pages. The Survivors is yet further proof of her complete mastery of crime writing with a distinctly Australian voice.

In this story, we are transported to the coast of Tasmania. Kieran returns to his hometown with his partner and baby, but he and everyone around him are still so deeply affected by a tragedy that took place there twelve years earlier. When a body is found on the beach, old secrets threaten to come to the surface.

All of the characters here are so believable and well drawn, and I loved how their lives were all so inextricably woven together. It's a small town where everyone has been affected in some way by the town's communal tragedy and I loved the way that the author made me care about these characters. Jane Harper really writes relationships well, her descriptions of the setting are so vivid and the plot races along, I was turning pages well into the night.

After being absolutely floored by her debut novel The Dry, The Survivors is just further proof to me that Jane Harper is one of Australia's best writers. There are a lot of distinctly Australian crime writers out there at the moment, but no one does it quite like Harper.

I've read a few of Jane's other novels and enjoyed them all, but I think that The Survivors is my new favourite of hers.
Kieran and his girlfriend Mia, along with their baby girl Audrey, reside in Sydney, but they return to the Tasmanian town of Evelyn Bay to help Kieran's parents with an upcoming house move after his father is diagnosed with dementia.
Both Kieran and Mia grew up in Evelyn Bay, but twelve years ago, a massive storm swept through the town, and Kieran's brother Finn, along with his best friend Toby, both drowned.
Kieran has carried the guilt of that day with him all these years as he feels responsible that they were out on the water that day.
Another local teenager, Gabby, who was Mia's best friend at the time, disappeared on the same day and was never seen again.
Not long after the couple return to help with the move, a young woman named Bronte is found washed up on shore in suspicious circumstances.
As her death is investigated, it brings back a lot of memories from the past, and some long-kept secrets finally come to light.
I thought this was an excellent book, highly addictive, and really had me turning the pages. I was suspecting most of the characters at various stages in the book, but was way off!
I love the way Jane describes the coastal town, she has a way of making you feel as though you are there in the setting.
I would've loved for the story to have an epilogue, just to tie in everything and answer those few questions I still had in my mind.
I'd highly recommend this novel.

Fair warning: in the last eight months I’ve become obsessed with Jane Harper’s books and practically inhaled her first three books and then got very excited when I found out her fourth book was being released this year. (This was great, because I didn’t have to wait too long!) And… there may have been a lot of happy dancing around my apartment when I was approved for a review copy from Netgalley.

The Survivors is, like all of Harper’s previous books, a murder mystery set in a small Australian town. Set in the small coastal Tasmanian town of Beauty, Kieran Elliott has returned home with his wife and baby to help his parents move from his childhood home, all the while haunted by a terrible tragedy in his past. Still struggling with the guilt from his childhood, Kieran begins to question what he knows about the events that took place and the things he thought to be true when the body of young woman washes up on the beach.

Of all of Harper’s books, The Survivors most mirrors The Dry – in terms of story elements and plot. I don’t think that’s a bad thing, because there is a lot to love in The Dry and looking back on my reading experience, they were the same things I really liked in her newest release.

We follow the story through Kieran’s perspective; it’s his thoughts, experiences and inner-monologue that guides us through each event as he begins to piece together things that happened in his past and how they relate to what’s happening in his childhood town. A bit like Aaron Falk, Kieran is something of an outcast in his hometown, the tragedy from his childhood that impacted on his own family and others following him into adulthood. He’s uneasy there, and thus, when faced with the questions surrounding the death of the girl on the beach, driven to find out what happened.

Despite Kieran being the protagonist, in Harper’s books the biggest character is always the setting – the place where we find ourselves. Tasmania is a big a sharp detour from the harsh conditions of the Australian outback, but they’re no less perilous. Harper has recreated the coastal town, and the hazards of living there (particularly during storms), and as a reader you’re always cognisant that the town is as much a character as any of the people in the story.

The many characters surrounding Kieran are well-fleshed out, from his young family whom he has rebuilt his life with, to his parents – his father suffering from dementia and his mother caught up in her own grief over the past and the present – and all of the people in the town, be they friends, former friends or people who look on him with distrust. Each one is a fully-realised person within the narrative and as everyone’s secrets are revealed, it does become a guessing game as to who might have been responsible for this current mystery.

I was hooked from page one and I couldn’t put the book down, and I can’t wait for the release later in September so I can order a copy and reread it.

I received an ARC from Netgalley.

Jane Harper is a sensational writer, the way she can set up the atmosphere of her novel is what I love about her books the most, the descriptions of the places where her stories are set are so vivid you can almost taste it.

It was like that for The Dry, and The Lost Man with the descriptions of Outback Australia and now she takes us to a new place, remote, seaside Tasmania, making me feel the wind in my hair and taste the salt on my lips.

The desperation of this small Tasmanian town is felt through the words, and characters that flood her book. The modern day story was a typical run of the mill mystery, but the true depth of this novel was in the past story, and the character of Kieran as he comes back home to face both his past and his present.

As a fan of Jane Harper I drunk this in, staying up late into the night as she had me hooked up until the final page and in true Harper style ends the novel abruptly leaving you asking for more.

The Survivors is Jane Harper's fourth novel and it's yet another well realised, beautifully written literary thriller.

There are several things that I loved about this novel: the descriptions were incredible, it was very easy to picture the locations, the vibe of the place. The small seaside town of Evelyn Bay, Tasmania - a made-up location - was easy to imagine. The characterisations and the backstories were excellent, they added layer upon layer to the mystery, they took us on sidetracks, as the genre demands, but it was all smooth sailing as everything was plausible, nothing was amiss, I couldn't find any plot holes, always a bonus as far as I'm concerned.

For the plot, read the blurb.

With a fourth novel to her credit, Jane Harper has firmly established herself as one of the best writers of the mystery-thriller genre. Having read and enjoyed all her novels to date, it's fair to say that I'm a fan.

Kieran and his partner Mia have returned to his small coastal town to help his parents move, when the shocking muster of a young woman starts to dredge up long buried secrets.

This is such an awesome read. You get given just enough detail that you want to know more; then the next few chapters turn everything on its head
I really loved how guilty and grief was portrayed with such tract and deftness too.
Honestly though, I cannot recommend this book enough. Grab a copy, it’ll blow your socks off!

Jane Harper has made a success of delivering Australian crime novels with distinct sense of place. She explores both the beauty and dangers of that place and the community that adapts to it. In her multi award winning debut The Dry, that place was country Victoria and a landscape that was set to combust, in her 2019 award winner The Lost Man, the setting was outback Queensland and the threats were heat and distance. In The Survivors, Harper once again changes location. Her latest book is set in a small coastal community in Tasmania, still traumatised by the death and destruction of a massive storm many years before.
Kieran has returned to the small town of Evelyn Bay with his wife Mia and their new baby to help his ageing parents prepare to move to Hobart. Kieran’s mother is moving his father into care due to his advancing dementia and they are packing up the house. Kieran himself is a survivor of the massive storm of twelve years before that took the lives of his brother and his brother’s business partner, both of whom dies when coming to rescue him. Kieran still struggles with the grief and blames himself for their deaths. Kieran connects with his three old friends who still live in town but before long they are all caught up in the murder of Bronte, a traveller who has been working in town as a waitress. As the investigation of that murder goes on, connections back to the events of the great storm and its aftermath start to emerge.
Harper showed in The Lost Man that a crime novel does not need to be built around the main investigators of a crime. As in that book, Kieran is not a detective but he is interested in finding out what happened and does a little bit of his own digging. And this makes the murder mystery secondary to Harper’s exploration of the community of Evelyn Bay, how it ticks and how it responds to tragedy. Again, similar to The Lost Man, the unwritten rules around how people are supposed to treat each other and what happens when they are either adhered to or broken for personal reasons underpin all of this action.
All of that said, however, The Survivors is still a great mystery story, with plenty of suspects and red herrings. Using Kieran’s lay-investigator point of view allows readers to put themselves in the position of trying to solve the murder before the police can, using the clues that Kieran gathers. And while there are obviously secrets to be uncovered, this does not feel like a clichéd town full of wrongdoers. And once again, Harper manages to deliver this with a really organic sense of place – the town, the beach, the caves, the famous shipwreck marked out by an eerie partly submerged monument and the ocean around – not only its beauty but the way in which it shapes the people who live there.
In The Survivors Jane Harper shows how to get Australian rural crime fiction (or any crime fiction) right. Once again she immerses readers in the middle of a regional community and uses the crime genre tropes to explore what makes that community function. In particular how the members of the community interacts and responds to the landscape in which it sits, how it shapes them and how the people respond to the types of tragedy that are always possible when living in that landscape. While the ending is a little abrupt, following as it does some explanatory exposition, the solution to all of the mysteries, tied as they are to trauma and guilt, is satisfying.

In her new novel Jane Harper has taken us away from the hot dry interior or wild rugged ranges of her previous books to a small coastal town on the southern coast of Tasmania. Evelyn Bay is the type of seaside town fondly remembered by many Australians for family summer holidays of endless hot, sunny days playing on a sandy beach beneath a perfectly blue sky. A town swamped by holidaymakers in summer that breathes a sigh of relief as autumn rolls in and the locals hunker down to wait out the off season.

Kieran and Mia have returned to Evelyn Bay, where they both grew up, to help Kieran's mother pack up the family house and move his father into a nursing home as his dementia worsens. To Kieran, nothing much seems to have changed in the town, but he can't help thinking back to the powerful storm twelves years ago that changed his life for ever as well as that of his family and friends. The day after they arrive Bronte, a young student working in the local bistro for the summer is found dead on the beach outside her home, raking up memories for the town of another young girl who disappeared without trace during that wild storm twelve years before.

As well as immersing us in atmospheric landscapes like that of Evelyn Bay with it's caves and statue called the Survivors on the cliffs overlooking a famous shipwreck, Jane Harper is so good at painting the relationships and frictions in small towns. The town has never allowed Kieran to forget the events that occurred during the storm and he still carries survivor's guilt over his role in the tragedy. But others in the town have hidden secrets about that day and as Detectives from Hobart start to investigate Bronte's death, the tension of the town rises and those secrets start to surface. There are many layers to the story with the local online community hub quickly becomes full of rumors and theories about who the killer might me. Quite a few red herrings are present in the unfolding of this tale and my theory on what happened was completely wrong as I discovered in the suspense filled ending.

I really enjoyed this new novel by Jane Harper. It's a contemporary drama with mystery elements throughout, which I found fascinating. The plot was quite interesting and I really loved the characters.

Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a copy of this E-book to review via Netgalley.

She's done it again.   Jane Harper has fast become one of my favourite Australian authors.    Her fourth novel,  <b>The Survivors</b>, possibly rivalled her amazing debut novel The Dry - at least in my opinion.    I raved about that one and feel similarly enthusiastic about this one.     I found The Survivors to be tremendously addictive.   With her realistic characters and authentic setting Jane Harper has a way of  drawing her readers in.     The plots she comes up with are exceptionally good and even when I think I've figured out whodunnit, I invariably have not.    She sneakily threw in some red herrings so there were numerous possible culprits, but alas all my hunches were incorrect.  

Kieran and Mia have returned with their newborn baby to the small coastal town in Tasmanian where they grew up.    Twelve years earlier there had been a major storm  and they had each lost someone close to them.   Kieran particularly carries the burden of survivors guilt and his grief, though managed, remains just below the surface all those years down the track.   He feels responsible for his brothers death and can't help feeling his parents don't quite hide the fact they too blame him.    Certainly there are others in this community who openly blame him, so being home comes with mixed emotions.

On their first night back in the town there's a murder which sends shock waves through the whole community.    As the police begin their investigation insinuations are made,  rumours are spread, emotions are inflamed, and twelve year old wounds are re-opened.

The story blends the two major events in the towns recent history making readers question whether some elements could be related.   The prologue set the tone and Harper cleverly tricked me into believing I knew what was happening.     Towards the very end of the book, in the denouement, she set me straight with quite an ahhaa moment. 

Sincere thanks to Jane Harper for continuing to deliver on her already high standards, and hopefully she's hard at work writing novel number five.    Thanks too to Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for the opportunity of reading this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review which it was my absolute pleasure to provide.

4.5 stars on Goodreads.

Wow!! I can totally see the ABC buying the rights to this book and making a mini series out of it.... Well I hope that's how this goes because I loved this!
This is the second book I've read by Jane Harper (first The Dry) and now Im officially a fan!!

4.5 Stars
I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Survivors by Jane Harper, it was an addictive read.

The story location was set in Tasmania in an atmospheric coastal setting. The book portrays the tragic story of Kieran Elliott and how his life changed during a major storm twelve years ago, he still carries the guilt and it haunts him to this day.

Kieran has returned to his hometown along with this wife and three month old baby to help his mother and his ailing father who is suffering from dementia to move house. This is Kieran’s first time back in twelve years to Evelyn Bay and simultaneously there is a murder which puts the small community on edge.

As the police begin their investigations into the murder, emotions are running hot and old wounds are opened as suspicions fall on some of our characters.

This is a wonderfully written murder mystery about family, friendships and lies. The story weaves through Kieran’s past and how it relates to the present, the characterisations are both strong and believable. This was a page turner for me and a read you can’t pass up!


I wish to thank NetGalley & Pan McMillan Australia for an advanced copy to read in exchange for an honest review

The Survivors is the fourth novel by award-winning Australian author, Jane Harper. When Keiran Elliott returns to his small Tasmanian hometown of Evelyn Bay to help his parents pack up their house, not everyone is pleased to see him. While everybody knows what happened during the big storm, twelve years earlier, not all regard him with sympathy; blame radiates from certain eyes.

Mere hours after he and Mia and their baby arrive, though, a young woman is dead on the beach. The town is shocked at the loss of this sweet young woman: a temporary summer waitress and art student, she was well-liked. It soon becomes apparent that there are some parallels with the disappearance of a young girl during that fateful storm, with some of the same bystanders present in the town. The Evelyn Bay Online Community Hub is a hotbed of rumour and comment.

Over the next few days, as police from Hobart arrive to investigate, Keiran is not the only one whose thoughts go back to that awful time when his own brother and his best friend’s brother lost their lives. As well as the stress of his wandering, dementia-affected father and his frazzled mother, Keiran is being coerced by a friend into something he’s not quite comfortable with.

Harper easily evokes her setting: for anyone who has spent a summer in an Australian coastal town, this will feel familiar. The dialogue is exactly what one hears in such a place, and the characters are multi-faceted and believably flawed. Once again, Harper produces a brilliantly-plotted piece of Australian crime fiction, with red herrings and diversions that will keep the pages turning and the reader guessing right up to the final pages.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Macmillan Australia

Like all of Jane Harper's book the description and feel of this book is actually quite superb You are drawn into the world of the characters and actually feel as if you are standing beside them as they fight their way through the dramas that are affecting them. This is a well crafted mystery that totally draws you into the small town of Evelyn Bay, Tasmania and i just love it when books are set in my own country There are some many nuances in th story that it takes on a twisted path as you try top solve what is really happening in this town with oh so many secrets Jane Harper is fast becoming a go to read for me as I have loved all four of her books.

Well Jane Harper knows how to write a crime book that hooks you right in from the very beginning. I had high expectations of The Survivors and happy to say that it lived up to them all. I lost track of Ike whilst reading this book, completely immersed in the pages and what was happening* in Evelyn Bay. It was twisty, clever and full of atmosphere. Absolutely loved it.

Welcome to Evelyn Bay on the Tasmanian coast.. Kieran grew up here but left for a life in Sydney. Now he returns to help his mother with his ailing father. It is tough to return to a place where everyone knows everybody and everything about you. 12 years ago there was a devastating storm that took the life of his brother and his now girlfriends best friend. And now there is a another key on the beach. Ian there a connection to the storm? Fingers start pointing, blame is thrown around and emotions run high.

It is a fantastic story of friendship. family, secrets and the past I really couldn’t get enough.

Thank you Macmillan Australia for my advanced copy of this book to read.

Wow Jane Harper has done it again, drew me in and kept me guessing right to the end...

With the guilt still haunting him Kieran returns to his home town, a small community on the Tasmanian coast years after a reckless mistake led to devastating consequences and changed his life forever.

With his Father’s declining health, Kieran is home to help his Mother pack up and prepare for a move to Hobart where his Father can be properly cared for.

But 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 surface.

I enjoyed this book and found it hard to put it down. As I read I collected clues and attempted to guess what had happen, why it had happened and who did it. I would think back to parts of the book and snippets to see if there was anything that would give it away. It definitely kept me guessing until the end!

I really could picture the town, I grew up in a small coastal Tasmanian town and Jane Harper certainly caught the small town vibe perfectly, it could have almost have been set where I grew up!

I give this 4.5 stars!

I’m a huge Jane Harper fan and had a little fangirl moment when I got access to The Survivors early. For all my Jane Harper lovers this certainly did not disappoint.

Kieran has spent his life consumed with gilt surrounding the death of his brother. His mother blames him for Finn’s death and they have never been the same. Which is probably why he packed up and moved to Sydney.

He returns to Tassie to help his parents pack their house up with his partner and daughter. His fathers mental state has considerably deteriorated and Kieran wasn’t prepared for how bad it really was. Catching up with school friends it seems like nothing has changed in this close knit town.

Until a body washes up on the shore. Everyone is shocked and overwhelmed by the news. The town is on edge and the police search desperately for answers. Gabby went missing years ago and no one ever found out how or why. Someone’s uncovered secrets that were intended to stay buried. But secrets never stay hidden forever.

4.5★s

Kieran Elliot, Mia and their baby daughter Audrey had returned to their hometown of Evelyn Bay in Tasmania. They were only there for a short while as Kieran’s father Brian had dementia and his mother was struggling. They were going to help them move to new housing. But their return stirred up memories of what had happened twelve years previously, when three people had lost their lives in a ferocious storm, changing a lot of lives forever.

Kieran and Mia hadn’t been home for long when a young woman lost her life on the beach. She was a casual worker for the Surf and Turf and when her body was found and police arrived from Hobart to assist, there were more questions, which led to even further questions. Would the answers be found as to who took Bronte’s life, and what had happened all those years ago?

The Survivors by Aussie author Jane Harper is a slow burning psychological thriller which I enjoyed. I found the relationship between Kieran and Mia to be close and the love for their daughter was obvious. There were plenty of suspects along the way, with some well-kept secrets, bitterness and blame, plus loads of guilt which was heavy on shoulders. I can happily recommend The Survivors to fans of the genre.

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my digital ARC to read in exchange for an honest review.

Kieran Elliott and his wife return home to help his mother move his ailing father into a nursing home. Their return is not exactly a homecoming with welcome mats rolled out or celebratory fanfare. Kieran has few fond recent memories of his home town on the west coast of Tasmania, having left the area after the death of his brother Finn and another man in a freak storm some years prior, their deaths attributable to Kieran. The townspeople have long memories and are largely unforgiving. During the storm a local girl also disappeared, thought to have drowned, although her body was never recovered.

When the body of Bronte, a young summer worker is found and it's determined a murder, the townspeople begin to look at each other suspiciously, pointing the fingers amongst their number. Are the deaths connected? Who amongst them is a murderer? Or is there more than one?

Kieran, his wife, his father who is connected to both young women, the son of the man who died along with Finn, her housemate, and a strange author are all potential suspects in Bronte's murder.

All previous Jane Harper books - The Dry, The Lost Man and Force of Nature, have a strong sense of Australian set scenes. The Survivors is no exception. Life in a coastal Tasmanian town and it's struggles in the off season are accurately depicted and the treacherous and merciless nature of the coast, balanced by it's appeal sets the scene for this book. This includes complex familial relationships within a suspense, crime/mystery thriller with an incredible sense of foreboding about it. There were so many possibilities within this book that made you wonder until the very end.

Congratulations to Jane Harper on The Survivor's being released on 22 September. Thank you to Macmillan Australia for an electronic advance copy of this book. This was one of my most anticipated reads of 2020 and if it's any recommendation, I'll be spending my hard earned on a physical copy to add to my Jane Harper collection.

‘It’s just ...’ Mia thought for a moment. ‘When someone dies, it’s pretty easy to only remember the good things, don’t you think?’

Finally, I get my hands on a Jane Harper book. This author has quite the reputation in Australia and has secured her place as one of our country’s top crime fiction novelists. So, my expectations were high going into this read and I do believe it lives up to all the hype.

The Survivors is not only a murder mystery, but a strong, emotionally driven tale about families and grief. A solid cast of characters are realistically portrayed in this small Tasmanian town with Jane’s sense of place holding much appeal. On this occasion, in a small seaside town, she presents a real who-dun-it.

‘Who did this?’ Bronte’s mother’s words cut through the air. She waited. No-one made a sound. Her gaze continued its slow crawl. Every single person was staring back, but Kieran saw more than one drop their eyes as the woman turned their way.’

Jane cleverly incorporates past and present memories/flashbacks - woven within rather than chapter separated. There are quite a few characters in the line up to keep track of, but in turn, that allows for a solid lineup of suspects. Once you get these characters in order - both past and present - you are set to move the puzzle pieces around to come up with a short list of suspects. Jane is very clever at dropping the subtle hints and clues that get her readers wondering if that was a pertinent piece of information. Slowly these pieces start to connect together with character traits and activities coming together.

I would like to say however, that this story is more than just your classic murder mystery. There are small town dynamics, family fallouts and past grievances - all adding up to present a well rounded story. Jane’s writing draws you into all this, with emotionally charged, character driven stories that are whole and complex. There are interwoven loyalties and past conflicts that add another layer to an already emotionally charged tale. It makes for compelling reading.

I can now firmly agree with the majority that Jane Harper has firmly established herself as one of the best writers of the mystery-thriller genre in Australia.

‘The Survivors?’ ‘Yeah.’ She tilted her head as she scrutinised the three figures. Kieran waited, watching the salt water wash against the sculpture. ‘Are they supposed to be happy or sad?’ Pendlebury said suddenly. ‘I mean, is it a celebration of the people who made it, or a memorial to the ones who didn’t?’



This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

I have read and devoured two of Jane Harper's previous novels and I'm pleased to announce that this one followed flawlessly in their footsteps.

When Kieran was a teenager, he made a reckless decision that led to a tragic incident. Returning with his wife and newborn to the small Tasmanian coastal town years later, secrets resurface when a woman's body washes up on the beach. Is the town ready to confront what really happened on that fateful day? And what is the connection between the incident that happened years ago and the death of the young woman?

Once again, Jane Harper has delivered. The Survivors is a tense and atmospherical tale with nature playing a key role, as it usual with all Harper's novels. This time, it's the ocean which is both an escape and a burden.

The plot was thick and multi-layered with tension gradually building right up until the last 10%. The characters were diverse and well-developed, with each playing a pivotal role in the story. The writing style, as always, was immersive, descriptive, and compelling. Jane Harper is a master when it comes to setting the scene. I could picture every gaping cave, hear the roar of the waves, taste the salt in the air, and feel the town closing in on itself. This is traditional storytelling at it's finest. I loved every nook and cranny of the novel and will be recommending to all my thrill-seekers.

I just love everything that Jane Harper writes and 'The Survivors' was yet another thrilling read that I struggled to put down! The best part of all of Jane's novels is her incredible descriptive landscapes that she creates and this was no exception - I could picture myself right there in the small coastal Tasmanian town! Jane's characters and their backstories were all wonderfully written and I felt that they all were so relatable which really had me invested in their friendships and family dynamics. There were so many twists and turns that I couldn't turn the pages fast enough and when I got to the end I totally did not see that coming which is always a plus in my world! Another brilliant crime novel written by a great Australian author that you need to add to your TBR list!

Having read The Dry, Force of Nature and The Lost Man I eagerly looked forward to reading The Survivors! I was not disappointed as Jane Harper has written another captivating novel.

This time the location was totally different - away from hot, dry and remote lands of central Australia - we are transported to a small coastal town of Tasmania called Evelyn Bay which is generally cold and windy. Once again Jane Harper demonstrates her skill of bring a location to life with wonderfully vivid images of the beach, sea and colder climate.

While the town is a tourist summer attraction it also has the appeal of having a ship wreck which attracts international divers at the end of the peak season. We meet many of the locals but there are a few like Bronte who came to work at the local hotel during the peak season. Kieran, his girl friend Mia and 2 month old baby Audrey return to Evelyn Bay to help his parents move. And so the plot thickens..

The title The Survivors has a dual reference - it is a sculpture which refers to the ship wreck though it isn’t clear whether this is for those who didn’t survive or those who did; but there are also survivors in the town when 12 years previously a very large storm hit the town, while most survived 2 young men drowned when their boat capsized and a young teenager girl disappeared, assumed drowned as her body was never found and those who survived had their own different struggles with what had happened. This all adds to the tension when a body is found on the beach. The past tensions and secrets all surface bit by bit adding twist upon twist!

I was totally captivated by The Survivors. The storyline was complex but still appealing. The characters were believable, varied and the story emerged through their different perspectives with an unexpected ending.

Highly recommended read.

Thank you to Netgalley and publisher Pan Macmillan Australia for a ebook copy to read and review.

*4 Stars*

ARC kindly received via NetGalley and Pan MacMillan Australia, in exchange for an honest review.

This was my first book by this author, but it won't be my last. It took me a little bit to get into this, but once I sat down and focussed properly, I was pretty hooked.

This book has a lot of layers to it. Theres this terrible accident and mystery that happened in the past to the people in this small town, and our main characters, and then something terrible happens in the current day which brings it all back. The whole book is set in the present, but the past continues to be brought up and adds to the mystery.

The whole time you know something isn't quite right. There are secrets that need to come out. I just couldn't work out how it all linked to the current tragedy. As the whole thing slowly gets revealed, I found myself desperate to find out what had happened - not only now, but all those years ago as well.

I had a few ideas of who might have done what, but I was totally and completely wrong. In the end, we get the whole story, and it was not at all what I expected. The only thing I wasn't too keen on, was the fact that the book ends a bit to abruptly for me. I would've like an epilogue or something that gave a little bit more closure to the story and all its characters.

Kept me hanging to find out what the truth was, and I definitely want to read more by this author. I do recommend.

I devoured this in a day and a half, and it only took me that long because I had to work!

There is just something magical about Harper’s writing that grabs me every time. I thought the town and its community felt very real and authentic. I fell easily into the world of the book, and loved meeting the cast of characters – which was big enough for the place to feel full, but there weren’t so many characters that it was hard to keep track.

I loved how the story unfolded in the present, but at the same time we piece together the past. The way the events from the past impact the lives of the characters now was really interesting, and I liked the look at parent/child relationships.

In terms of the plot – this one kept me guessing all the way through. Something I really liked was that I felt like there was kind of a sense of humour to ‘whodunnit’ side of things - at one point I felt told off by a character for following a more obvious red herring.

This was another absolute winner for me – lots of thumbs up and all the recommendations, especially to people who already know they love Harper’s writing!

Having thoroughly enjoyed her earlier work, I have been looking forward to getting my hands on a copy of Jane Harper's latest book, The Survivors for quite some time.
Readers have come to associate Harper with complex character-based mysteries set in strongly evocative and quintessentially Australian settings. In The Survivors, the action takes place in a (fictional) small coastal town in Tasmania.
Kieran Elliott, his wife Mia and baby daughter Audrey have travelled to their home town, to assist his mother to pack up the family home prior to sale. Kieran's father is suffering from advancing dementia and this may be the last opportunity they have to spend time with old friends in Evelyn Bay, as it's not a place Kieran would otherwise choose to visit. He's haunted by events that occurred during a wild storm twelve years earlier, when his brother and another man were killed at sea and a local girl went missing.
The morning after Kieran and Mia's arrival in town, an art student who'd been living and working in Evelyn Bay over summer is found dead, apparently forcibly drowned, at the town beach. Kieran, Mia, his parents and their friends are all drawn into the police investigation, having met the victim and spent time on or near the beach the previous evening.
Could there be a connection between this recent violent death and the events of twelve years ago? The atmosphere in the normally friendly town becomes immediately charged, with suspicions, rumours and long-held resentments quickly rising to the surface.
Readers of Harper's previous novels will notice a certain correlation of themes with her earlier work - this is the third of her four books to feature a central character who is (somewhat unfairly) treated as a pariah in a small community. Like both The Dry (2016) and The Lost Man (2018), The Survivors is also built upon the concept that past decisions, actions or traumatic events, left unresolved, can poison close relationships and send unanticipated reverberations years into the future - old sins cast long shadows. And, as in all her books, her characters come off second best when they pit their wits against the widely varying but universally unforgiving Australian climate.
Harper also explores themes of parent-child relationships, grief, anger and guilt. As always, her characters are three-dimensional and their interrelationships complex and evolving. The narrative is well-paced, languid at first, reflecting the pace of the small-town coastal setting, then gathering pace as both the police and Kieran hone in on the truth. Harper skilfully uses red herrings and misdirection to leave the reader guessing, right up to the dramatic conclusion. The setting of the fictional Evelyn Bay is well-imagined by the author, and brought to my mind several settlements around Tasmania's coastline, including Sister's Beach, Boat Harbour, Adventure Bay and Eaglehawk Neck. I was interested to read that the author had spent some time in the latter area, researching cold-water diving for the book.
The Survivors is another strong addition by Jane Harper to the wonderful Australian crime genre. Highly recommended.
My thanks to Jane Harper, Pan Macmillan Australia and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this title in advance of its publication on 22 September 2020.

The last book of Jane Harper's, The Lost Man was a 5 read for me, as was her first book The Dry, I haven't read Force of Nature, but I'm going to guess it'll be up there in the ratings. Her newest novel certainly didn't disappoint, in fact, I think this is my favourite yet. If I didn't get so tired in the evening and work didn't get in the way, I think I'd have ploughed through this novel in one sitting.

I don't read a lot of the mystery/crime/thriller genre, but this is one author whose books will be on my go-to list.

Set in Tasmania, as so many books have been this year, the setting is a small town on the coast, this was a departure from the stark, dry outback.

This novel had me guessing until nearly the very end who had done it and why, and I didn't guess either right. Jane Harper is very good at delivering red-herrings, with twists and turns coming at you from every angle.

It starts with a crime the night we meet our characters, but it weaves in an accident and an unsolved crime from 12 years before. There are plenty of guilty seeming characters, though a motive is never really established, you still believe they could possibly be guilty.

As with all small towns, there's plenty of gossip and secrets that come out of the woodwork when something terrible happens and fingers are pointed in every direction, which says small towns haven't always got each other's backs.

This was a great read with an ending I wasn't expecting.

Thanks to NetGalley and PanMacMillan for a digital copy in return for an honest review.

So, I think I may have a new favourite Jane Harper novel.

The Survivors follows Kieran and his family as he returns to his coastal hometown, still haunted by the disastrous storm that occured there twelve years ago. When a body is found on the local beach, old secrets and mysteries from the day of the storm threaten to emerge.

Harper offer a change of scenery in The Survivors, swapping the oppressive outback heat to the ruthless and unforgiving ocean. Harper's descriptions of the small coastal town were so vivid and realistic, and as usual, I was transported to the setting she had crafted.
I found the pace of The Survivors slower than her other works and it didn't have the same tension or suspense, however I actually liked this change of pace. While there's still a mystery at the core of the story, I enjoyed the way Harper took the time to develop her characters and the community, without relying on action or drama to drive the story forward. I also found the resolution of the book more realistic and rational than in some of her other works.
In saying this, I did find my interest drifted a little in the middle of the book as the story slowed, but I was well and truly reeled back in by the last 100 pages - to the point where I was up at 6 this morning squeezing in the last few chapters before work.

It feels a bit unnecessary recommending a Jane Harper novel given her books are so iconic in Australia. But if you're a Jane Harper fan, you won't be disappointed. And if you're not yet acquainted with her books, read this and then ALL of her backlist.
Thank you to @netgalley and @macmillanaus for this review copy.

The Survivors is Jane Harper’s much anticipated fourth novel, a stand alone, slow burning mystery set on Tasmania’s coast.

Kieran Elliot, his girlfriend, Mia, and their infant daughter, have returned to Evelyn Bay to help his parents pack up their family home. It’s an uncomfortable homecoming for Kieran who still blames himself for the death of his older brother Finn, and Finn’s best mate, in a tragic accident during a violent storm. The same storm during which a fourteen year old girl disappeared, and was never found.
When a young woman’s body is discovered on the beach the day after they arrive, it seems the sea has claimed yet another victim, but investigators soon determine she was murdered, and as the search for her killer begins, the secrets of the past begin to unravel.

While the present day mystery in The Survivors revolves around the murdered girl, an art student/waitress with only a tangential link to Kieran, it’s her unwitting connection to the events twelve years previously amid the storm that marks her as the catalyst of this story. Unfolding from Kieran’s perspective, the story moves between the present and memories of the past. Well-considered red herrings distract as the plot takes unexpected twists, slowly revealing tightly kept secrets. But while I was intrigued by the story, and really had no idea who would be found responsible for the murder, I felt there was a distinct lack of tension in the novel, not helped by the conservative pacing, leading to what was an anticlimactic conclusion.

Harper’s characterisation of Kieran is compelling though, with a nuanced portrayal of a man burdened with grief and guilt. The supporting characters are sufficiently fleshed out to suit their role in the story, though few feel like active participants. I thought the dynamics of a small community under stress were well illustrated, and uniquely communicated through the town’s online forum.

The story is undeniably atmospheric, with Harper masterfully conjuring a brooding seaside town during the off-season, perched above deserted cliff-side beaches and dark, echoey caves slowly filling with cold, creeping waves. The sea becomes a pitiless thing, claiming the innocent and guilty alike.

The Survivors is perhaps not as thrilling a mystery as I had expected, but it is involving, evocative and affecting.

Another fantastic novel from Jane Harper.
Set in a small coastal town in Tasmania, Kieran his partner Mia and baby daughter return to their home town to help Kieran’s Mum pack up their family home, in preparation to moving and putting his Dad into care. But the murder of a young woman unwittingly evokes memories of a fatal boating accident that killed two young men, one of them Kieran’s brother, during a horrendous storm 10 years ago and the disappearance of a young girl.
Set in the present with small flash backs around the time of the storm, Jane Harper sets the scenes of time and place brilliantly. The family and small town dynamics are presented so well and you just feel for Kieran and the guilt he has carried around of his brother’s accident for all those years.
With the two incidents being explored in the novel, they run together seamlessly to a heart stopping and satisfying conclusion.
Highly recommended and thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy to read.

Once again, Jane Harper, has created another mesmerising novel with ‘The Survivors’. Against the backdrop of the seaside town of Evelyn Bay, coastal Tasmania, the death of a young woman, has the locals mystified. For Kieran Elliot, it transports him back to his teenage years twelve years ago, when tragedy struck his family and a young girl went missing.
Kieran has recently returned with his girlfriend Mia and their young baby, to help Kieran’s mother pack up the family home and move his father into a nursing home, due to his progressing dementia. As the police start to investigate, the tension builds and long held secrets are gradually revealed.
From the first page, this story had me captivated, especially as past and present events begin to intertwine. The characters are so lifelike, carrying past hurts that manage to come to the surface after many long years. Harper manages to bring all the bitterness and sadness of this small community to the forefront. It is through Kieran, that these feelings are brought to light.
I must admit to finding myself, playing this story back over in my mind, since the dramatic ending.
I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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 ---

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.