I have really enjoyed Jane Harper's other crime novels but this one felt like a bit of a slog. I didn't really connect with any of the characters and I wasn't terribly invested in the murder - to be honest, if I hadn't been given the copy to review I probably wouldn't have finished it. What Harper does consistently well, though, is create a vivid and filmic location and that was certainly the case here. Just OK overall,

My first Jane Harper novel and it certainly won’t be my last. Well developed characters, interesting plot and great writing. I had to tear myself away from this one and found myself itching to return.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the early copy.

This is a good book, which left me guessing until the end. The main character who is called Kieran, along with his partner Mia and his daughter Audrey, return to his childhood home town and while there, a body is discovered on the beach. The whole community are questioned by the police and many hidden secrets come out from years ago. The book is suspenseful and it feels as if you are right there in the community with the people concerned. I enjoyed the descriptions of the environment and the people, which made the story feel like real life.

Many thanks to the author, publisher and Net Galley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I'm a great fan of Jane Harper, particularly 'The Dry'.

Unfortunately I read this not long after I had read 'The Wedding Party' and caves, old injuries and people behaving badly were strangely similar.

As a result I felt the suspense just wasn't there and I failed to identify and empathise with the characters. They felt rather flat and one dimensional, this wasn't helped by the dialogue which at times was rather clunky.

This was an average to good murder mystery. It's just that Jane Harper has set the bar so high before. I will look forward to her next novel. Perhaps her publisher will give her a little more time to write it!

Loved this one! So easy to read and lots of twists and turns along the way. Definitely a quick read and one I recommend.

Excellent descriptions of Tasmania. Really atmospheric book with clever storylines that kept you guessing until the end.

Kieran, his partner Mia and daughter, Audrey, return to Tasmania where he grew up, where his parents live and where his childhood friends are. While in his hometown, a body is washed up and discovered on the beach. This leads to suspicion and questions in the local community which brings up buried secrets that seek to destroy this tight knit community. Secrets that seem to connect to a tragic accident that occurred during a fierce storm 12 years ago which led to devastating consequences including the death of Kieran’s brother, Finn.

𝘼 𝙨𝙪𝙣𝙠𝙚𝙣 𝙬𝙧𝙚𝙘𝙠, 𝙖 𝙢𝙞𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙜𝙞𝙧𝙡 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙦𝙪𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙣𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙬𝙖𝙨𝙝𝙚𝙙 𝙖𝙬𝙖𝙮...

I love the slow burn of this book which creates such great atmosphere and tension from beginning to end. Harper provides an immersive experience of island living surrounded by a community that knows everything that is going on, and that any hidden secrets will be soon be discovered one way or another.

Harper writes in a style that makes the events that happened in the storm 12 years ago and the recent murder of Bronte less terrifying but more mysterious and intriguing, shrouded in secret, like the Nautilus Blue shipwreck and the silent witnesses of The Survivors sculptures standing out at sea by the entrance of the caves.

In a way the story creeps up on the reader, casting doubt and questions on who the murderer may be, making it so unpredictable. I tried really hard to be detective here and totally failed 😂 But I love how Harper keeps the reader guessing until the very end!

As other readers have noted, the ending seemed to end abruptly (so much happened in last few chapters) that perhaps this could have been built out a little more in line with the rest of the story.

Fantastic crime thriller! Highly recommend!

Kieran grew up in Evelyn Bay. He left as a teen after an a tragic event where people died, including his brother. Now many years later he has returned with his partner & their new baby to help his mother pack up as she moves, needing somewhere where she can get help coping with his father's dementia. Both Kieran & Maya come from Evelyn Bay & have some friends there still, although others still blame him for the deaths. When a girl working in the Bay is found dead on the beach there are lots of questions about events years ago are asked.

I really liked how the author created the setting. I felt I really knew Evelyn Bay- although Tasmania is a long way from Shetland! The characters were interesting & I was kept guessing about whodunnit & what happened in the past. Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book.

Slow build with an enjoyable storyline. Enjoyed the character development and the joining together of the many strands

Jane Harper has written a book full of intrigue. Set in a small coastal town in Tasmania full of secrets. This book is a real page turner as the tension builds.
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book.

Having read and enjoyed all Jane Harper's other novels, I was looking forward to this one.

Kieran Elliot returns home years after a terrible storm, in which his brother dies. The guilt he feels has never gone away, and his return triggers all the feelings that have lingered inside him. He has always felt that his brother's death was his fault. It's a small coastal town, where everyone knows everyone else, and not everyone harbours positive feelings towards him.
A murder investigation occurs when a girl's body is found on the beach, which inevitably stirs up the past and sees secrets rise to the surface. Another young girl went missing when his brother died, an obvious parallel. The truth and mystery will out....
It might be ridiculous, but I was used to the arid, harsh settings of her previous story lines, especially The Dry and The Lost Man, which worked very well, and I preferred them. There was something sparse about the setting which appealed to me more. I enjoyed this book, but not as much as the others.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for my copy of this book in return for an honest review.

I have read all of Jane’s other books so I was excited to get a copy of her latest one.
I enjoyed the story - stories of families always interest me.
There were lots of twists and red herrings which I enjoyed. Just when I thought I knew what had happened the story took a turn and I had to guess again.
Again as in her other books I can imagine the setting and what it is like to live there.
I would recommend this book.

I read The Dry by Jane Harper first, it was brilliant! So I had high hopes for The Survivors and sadly I was a little bit disappointed.

There are a LOT of characters and they have complicated relationships within the community and with each other. This can be difficult to keep track of in places.

There is a plenty happening, a town filled with history and secrets, a family coming to terms with a change in circumstances and then a dead body is found on the beach...

The characters are likeable and I was invested in their stories. It went off a bit on a tangent in the middle with a lot of extra info trying to throw you off the scent and then you are left hanging a little bit at the end. No closure and no feeing of finality.

Still, a well thought out plot and I will definitely pick up another Jane Harper in the future.

I’ve really liked Jane Harper’s previous books, and The Survivors was no exception. Set in a Tasmanian coastal town, Evelyn Bay, like all her books it has a powerful sense of place. The town - or at least some of its inhabitants - have never fully recovered from the devastating storm twelve years earlier, when two young men died and a teenage girl went missing. No-one who experienced that time came through it unscathed, but some are more affected than others. Meanwhile the wreckage, from a century earlier, of the SS Mary Minerva lies deep beneath the water, its dead commemorated by an iron sculpture of three life-size figures looking out to sea, called The Survivors.

Kieran, girlfriend Mia and baby Audrey have returned from Sydney to help Kieran's parents - his mother Verity is struggling with dad Brian's early onset dementia. It's not an easy return for Kieran, one of the people most inextricably linked with the events of the storm. And when a young woman, an art student there to work for the summer, is found dead on the beach, the past is again stirred up.

As rumour and suspicion spreads, no-one wants to believe one of their own could be responsible. Jane Harper writes really well about small-town dynamics, and about the lasting effects of loss, guilt and grief. I also thought Brian's dementia was very accurately and sensitively portrayed.

I did find myself struggling on occasion to keep the characters and their relationships to each other straight in my mind - Kieran and Mia were OK, but Ash, Sean, Liam, Julian, Finn etc took time to become fully differentiated and I had to keep reminding myself what the family connections (brother, uncle etc) were.

An evocatively written story which will stay in my mind... perhaps particularly the landscape of the sea, the beach and the caves.

Powerful community drama showing how the past will ultimately never remain in the past and will continue to haunt well into the future. Family loyalty, guilt, grief and a shared past all interlink to develop a moving and acutely-told story.

Another excellent slow-burn by Jane Harper. Enjoyed the haunting, atmospheric setting of a small coastal town riddled with tragedy and filled with residents all hiding their own secrets and suffering from their own guilt. The main character was relatable and likable and I found myself rooting for him and his new little family the entire time. I couldn't put this one down and the twisty turns and red herrings kept me flipping through the pages of this whodunnit. My only disappointment was that it felt a tad anti-climatic at the end however was grateful for a happy ending for our protagonist. I am a Jane Harper fan for life!

Jane Harper has done it again! She has conjured up another amazing psychological thriller that kept me gripped to the end.

I have read and loved all her books and I think The Survivors is one of her best. She is so adept at small town dynamics.

The Survivors is told through Keiran's eyes and I enjoyed this style of writing, getting to know him and his thoughts but not of the townspeople, so this kept me guessing as to what they were really thinking and what they actually knew.

A story of secrets of long ago, writing that really draws you in and doesn't let go until every last secret is revealed, shocks and surprises, all excellently written with such depth. I can't wait to see what Jane Harper does next!

I found this Jane Harper tome to be more difficult to attach to than her others so far...it gives a very gentle, sometimes imperceptible, rise in tension throughout the book...and that is my main problem....it is just too gentle for myself. If you like a slow burner, this maybe for you. Her ability to describe scenes so that you could imagine yourself being there is remarkable though, and this is still a good work. Many thanks to netgalley.co.uk and the publishers for the chance to read and comment on this ARC. 3.5/5.

The Survivors is good, but not quite in the same league as The Last Man, which I thought was quite outstanding.

This time, Jane Harper takes us to the other end of the continent – to the shores of Tasmania – but in many ways the structure is similar to The Last Man; a small community is disrupted by a death and the resulting upheaval and investigation brings some old feuds, tragedies and secrets to the surface. The protagonist, Kieran, is damaged by guilt and grief over an incident twelve years ago for which he blames himself and both this and another tragedy at the time become involved in the current investigation.

Harper is a very fine writer and she does much of this very well. The central section was excellent and had me completely hooked. Her character analysis is very good – I especially liked the heartbroken mother who retreats into a rigid placidity and self-help phrases. However, I thought that the opening was something of a slog and the denouement a little pat and sudden. The ending particularly seemed to have some of the contrivance which is common in mysteries and I think Jane Harper is better than that. Her sense of place is again well done, but not as brilliantly evocative as the killing conditions in The Last Man.

This is certainly a rewarding read. It’s not Harper’s best but still very recommendable.

(My thanks to Little, Brown for an ARC via NetGalley.)

This is a tricky one to review for me, because I think I went in with WAY too high expectations, and it fell kind of flat. I've absolutely loved Jane Harper's books in the past, but this one just felt a bit off, and I didn't really engage with the mystery/writing as much as I have with her other novels. I also felt like there was too much baby, not enough mystery in this one.

I'm glad I've read it, but I just hope her next novel will be back up to the usual standard.