Force of Nature: A Novel

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1250105633 ISBN 13: 9781250105639

Publisher: Flatiron Books, 2018

Five women go on a hike. Only four return. Jane Harper, the New York Times bestselling author of The Dry, asks: How well do you really know the people you work with?

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

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

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

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

Select praise for The Dry:
"One of the most stunning debuts I've ever read. Every word is near perfect. Read it!"
―David Baldacci, #1 New York Times bestselling author

“A breathless page-turner ... Ms. Harper has made her own major mark.”
―The New York Times

Review:

An Amazon Best Book of February 2018: In Force of Nature, Agent Aaron Falk (who we met in The Dry) is back to solve a mystery in the unforgiving Australian wilderness. Falk and his new partner, Agent Carmen Cooper, are called in to investigate the disappearance of a woman named Alice Russell, who went missing in the woods during a required company bonding exercise with five female co-workers. The narrative alternates between the events leading up to Alice’s disappearance and the search for her, dead or alive, and we eventually learn that Alice Russell was not a stranger to the detectives. She had been informing on some very shady business practices before her disappearance, and arrests were looming. Force of Nature is not as stark and electric a read as The Dry, but Harper has broadened the scope of her newest mystery to include not only subtle red herrings and twists, but complex family drama that kept me guessing all the way to its unexpected conclusion. —Seira Wilson, Amazon Book Review

About the Author:

Jane Harper worked as a print journalist for 13 years before writing her first novel, The Dry, a #1 international bestseller. Originally from the UK, Jane lives in Melbourne. Force of Nature is her second novel.