Force of Nature (Aaron Falk, #2) in Around the World in 80 Books

Apr 02, 2020 Colleen Chi-Girl rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: women-centered, thrillers, crime-mysteries, audiobooks, 2020, australia-n-zealand

Love the narrator, Stephen Shanahan, and his Aussie accent. Jane Harper is a talented thriller writer. I didn’t enjoy this one because I couldn’t stand the women. Couldn’t relate to any of them and didn’t care about them. Could it be because of the CV and moving ? Maybe but I loved The Dry.

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Apr 20, 2018 Nadine in NY Jones rated it liked it

Shelves: mystery, detective-mystery, r2018-in-2018

This was compelling, engaging, riveting, and I stayed up too late to finish it, but it was ultimately unsatisfying. Harper knows how to tell a story and set a scene, and she set a nicely creepy scene with this one, it got into my dreams. But there was none of the nuance and complex layering that I appreciated so much in her first book. Red herrings were flopping about everywhere (and I did not guess the solution), but the mystery was fairly straight forward once revealed. I was a little disappoi This was compelling, engaging, riveting, and I stayed up too late to finish it, but it was ultimately unsatisfying. Harper knows how to tell a story and set a scene, and she set a nicely creepy scene with this one, it got into my dreams. But there was none of the nuance and complex layering that I appreciated so much in her first book. Red herrings were flopping about everywhere (and I did not guess the solution), but the mystery was fairly straight forward once revealed. I was a little disappointed in the ending.

I got the sense that Harper has no idea exactly what the "BaileyTennants" company does, nor what their employees would be like. The women in this story did not seem like actual professional women with successful careers. They were all catty and superficial and obsessed with appearances. I pretty much hated all of them.

This was a "good" mystery, I enjoyed reading it, I never wanted to put it down (and the short chapters really feed into the "just one more chapter" syndrome). But that's all it was, "good."

A few particular things about Harper's writing buggged me, things I didnt notice in The Dry.
1. Her descriptions of fat people. We are constantly told how Jill lumbers down the stairs, the fallen log creaks under Beth's weight, Jill has heavy legs, Beth has thick thighs, Jill is out of breath. I'm pretty fat, and out of shape, too, but I'd like to think I don't lumber along, I can make my way ok on a trail. These descriptions happen often enough that I started to get offended. Okay already! Jill and Beth are fat! We get it. ((view spoiler)2. Harper has an annoying habit of referring to men by last name and women by first name. The police partners Aaron Falk and Carmen Cooper are always "Falk" and "Carmen," and the brother and sister, Daniel and Jill Bailey, are sometimes "Bailey" and "Jill." If Agent Falk is "Falk" then Agent Cooper had damn well better be "Cooper." And when two people have the same last name, such as siblings, it's best to use their first names, much as sisters Beth and Bree McKenzie were always "Beth" and "Bree." Admittedly, sometimes Daniel Bailey was "Daniel," but Aaron Falk was always "Falk." ...more

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Feb 17, 2018 Pam rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: crime-fiction, 2018-books-read, australia

AUTHOR Harper, Jane
TITLE: Force of Nature
DATE READ 02/17/2018
RATING 5/A
GENRE/ PUB DATE/PUBLISHER / # OF Crime/Fiction/2018/little brown/377 pgs
SERIES/STAND-ALONE #2 Aaron Falk/police officer focusing on financial crimes
FIRST LINES: "Don't panic." Federal Agent Aaron Falk, who until that moment had had no plans to do so, closed the book he'd been reading. He swapped his mobile phone to his good hand and sat up straighter in bed.

CHARACTERS Aaron Falk and Carmen Cooper police officers; Women hiker ...more

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Feb 06, 2020 Julie Griffin rated it it was amazing

Second in the Aaron Falk mystery series. Falk, a financial affairs police detective, is awakened by his partner, who calls him out to a large national forest, the hunting grounds of An infamous serial killer now in jail. Their contact at an accounting company, being investigated for money laundering, has disappeared during a company team building weekend. Falk received a phone call in the early morning which barely comes through, with the words "hurt her." Has the company found out she was gathe ...more

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Feb 28, 2018 Sarah rated it liked it

Shelves: whodunnit, kindle

Kind of a blah thriller with not many thrills, and a very disappointing ending. I’ll probably continue with the series though, because i like the main character.

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Aug 13, 2018 Barondestructo rated it it was ok

I quite enjoyed The Dry, the first book in Harper's Aaron Falk series, so I was quite surprised by my largely negative takeaway of this one. An interesting premise: five women set out on a corporate wilderness retreat, get lost, but only four return. One is missing, possibly dead. The narrative shifts back and forth in time, between the present-day investigation and search, and the recent past events of the wilderness trek that may have cost one woman her life. We explore backstories and secrets ...more

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Sep 07, 2018 Andy Plonka rated it really liked it

Shelves: src

Falk goes looking for a woman who was in a group of five women hiking in a remote area. Four women returned , Alice did not. Since Alice is a seasoned hiker, Falk suspects foul play, but as he begins to look further it appears that Alice's teenage daughter and her friends may also be involved in the mystery.I wish the setting had played a bigger part than it did. I know little about the wilds of Australia. ...more

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Mar 05, 2018 Sera rated it really liked it

Shelves: audio, library, mystery

3.5 stars rounded up to 4

Another good read by Harper. This time she writes about Falk investigating a group of men and women who go on a corporate retreat, become lost and then one of the women goes missing. Falk and his backstory are more interesting to me than the mystery was, but overall, a nice follow-up to Harper's first book in the series, The Dry. ...more

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Feb 03, 2018 Beverly rated it really liked it

Shelves: mystery, cross-cultural

This was a 3.5 read for me.
Thoughts coming shortly

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Mar 17, 2019 Ann rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2019-atw-80, 2019-aty-52

Page turner of a psychological thriller. I liked how it showcased the beauty and danger in the Giralang ranges.

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Nov 03, 2019 Julie rated it really liked it

Ooh, loved it! 5 women go into the Australian bush on an adventure retreat, only 4 make it out. Great premise, right? And the story follows through. Aaron Falk is such and intriguing and complex character and the mystery didn’t disappoint!

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