Another fantastic thriller from Jane Harper, author of The Dry and The Lost Man. Instead of the Outback, The Survivors is set in Tasmania which gives a different feel to the book. It is still an isolated, small tight knit community, which is a setting Jane Harper has used to great effect before, and the protagonist is someone who has left after an awful tragedy but has now returned, again a similar set up to her previous books. The book feels different in many ways though, there is isn’t the tense, tinderbox feel that her other books had. The Survivors is a slower paced novel and is as much a study of the main characters and how they have changed and developed over the years, as it is a thriller. Soon after Keiran returns with his wife and child to help his parents pack up their house, a summer worker is murdered on the beach. Her death drags up memories of when his brother died in a terrible storm 10 years ago, and a local girl went missing. As the police investigate, Keiran begins to realise that he may know more than he remembers of that tragic day, and how it links to the murder. This is cleverly written novel, it keeps you guessing and the ending is ultimately unexpected yet satisfying.
Thank you #netgalley and #CBGBooks for allowing me to review this ARC

Jane Harper has done it again! She has been elevated to "auto-buy" status for me. This was quite different to her previous 3 novels, yet still as gripping.

A slow-burning (but not boring) mystery that had the cogs turning for me the whole time. A corker of an ending which is always such a relief when you've been invested in an excellent book to find the end matches expectations.

I had no clue where the story was heading, 1 red herring in particular had me leaning in a completely different direction. Towards the end the twists and turns came fast and it slotted so well together without any head-scratching or disbelief.

There felt like a lot of characters, with a lot of underlying angst, to keep track of but it was clear who was who throughout and their role in the resort. It has felt like a long time between Jane's 3rd and 4th novels and my only hope is I don't have to wait so long for book number 5!

My many thanks to Little Brown Book Group UK via Netgalley for allowing me to read this advanced copy which I have reviewed honestly.

He story was well told but I didn’t get caught up in any tension. I liked the characters and thought the plot was well thought out. I did guess the culprit fairly early on so maybe a bit predictable.

Whilst I enjoyed reading The Survivors by Jane Harper, I didn’t think it was as good as her earlier books. The storyline and the characters were excellent but there just seemed to be just something missing. Maybe some of the male characters were not as clearly defined and it could be having read Jane Harper’s other books, this one didn’t reach the very high standard of her earlier books.
Maybe other readers would disagree and enjoy the book and the story, that would be fine.
Recommended

This was my first book by Jane Harper and I can happily say that I would read more from her. The writing was beautifully atmospheric and transported you to the serene sea side town of Evelyn Bay in Tasmania.

The Survivors is a story of tragedy, loss and grief. What appears to be a picture perfect and tranquil seaside escape is in fact a small community that have been shaken by tragedy over the previous years. From shipwrecks to tragic drowning, the people of Evelyn Bay know loss better than would appear.

This thriller is slow paced and very character driven. Harper creates a fantastic atmosphere that completely immerses the reader. We can so vividly picture ourselves walking along the beach, barefoot in the sand. The wind through our hair and that scent of saltiness that lingers in the air. The idea of The Survivors is amazing and I can imagine how breath taking and impressive they would look in real life. Surrounded by water and constantly a reminder of loss and life that comes with a tragedy. The writing is so beautifully descriptive and is definitely the winning factor for me in this book.

The characters are the heart of this book. Each of them have their own story and all have a distinct role to play in unravelling a new mystery and tragedy that has struck this small community. From Ash's strong and outspoken personality, to Verity's maternal protectiveness, to Kieran's struggle to come to terms with his past, they all come through so strongly and you get to know them on a deep level as the story develops.

So, overall the feedback is great but the reason why I knocked it down a star is because the mystery/plot didn't grip me. I didn't feel like I was on the edge of my seat and that's what I really enjoy about a thriller. I guess I'm more of a fan of a fast paced, heart racing story that has twists and turns throughout. That saying, I didn't guess the end, which is always a good sign! I did feel like the end came and went very quickly though, it would have been nice if it was a little longer and we potentially saw some of the aftermath.

Big thank you to NetGalley for letting me read this pre publication. I will definitely be reading more from Harper!

I was left a little underwhelmed by this one.

The Survivors introduces us to Kieran Elliott who has returned to his hometown with his wife and baby to visit his parents. On returning, he can’t escape the memories of his childhood and his brother, Finn. And then a body turns up on the beach.

I’ve heard such great things about Jane Harper and as this was my first time reading her work, I really wanted to like her latest release. And although it’s evident that she’s a great writer (the descriptions of the coastal village are particularly atmospheric) I found it lacking the key ingredient needed in a mystery crime novel – tension. Instead, I had a pretty good idea of who the guilty party was from the beginning and while there were moments of intrigue, I found myself losing interest. The main saving grace was the scene with the grand reveal which I found to be the most engaging moment in the entire book.

Overall, it’s an easy read but I’ll be asking the Harper experts for advice on which of her novels to read next so as to get the full impact of her writing.

The Survivors will be released by Little, Brown on Thursday, 21st January, 2021. My thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the advance review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Beginning with 'The Dry' and 'Force of Nature', I was sucked into a crime/thriller set in an Australia few people really understand. The next novel, 'The Lost Man' continued this trend, without our lead from the first two novels, but set again in a part of Australia that does not feel utilised enough. Now, with 'The Survivors', Jane Harper does it again - an great thriller set, this time, in Tasmania. This is a dark tale, with analogies of the sea and a storm present at the heart of the novel, which led me to savor every moment. The use of a small community, suffering through tragedies and trying to work out with them the cause of the latest makes for compelling reading.

For me, I haven't read a novel by Jane Harper that I haven't enjoyed so far - 'The Survivors' is up there with one of my favourites. Give this a go, I don't believe you'll be disappointed.

The Survivors was my second Jane Harper read and it did not disappoint.

The story takes place in a small coastal town in Tasmania. Kieran and his wife and baby daughter have just returned home from Sydney to help his parents pack up and move his dementia-ridden father to a nursing home in Hobart. When a body is found on the beach shortly after Kieran’s arrival, questions and mistrust amongst the tightly knit community arise, but the discovery also brings up memories of a tragedy dating back over a decade — a tragedy for which Kieran still holds himself responsible and which shook the small town to its core.

Jane Harper sure knows how to build tension to a point where it becomes unbearable. And her descriptions of the landscape make the coastal landscape almost tangible. I could see, feel and taste the salty air, the gusts in the air and the sand between my toes. The atmosphere she creates is heavy with unspoken secrets and made the book so very compelling to plough through. A story of guilt, memory, loyalty and family relationships, this one ticks most boxes.

I know Harper's books have been described as ‘outback noir’ and I love that. Yes, they are crime stories but they have a cerebral quality to it that sets them apart from your ‘bog standard’ crime story.

Needless to say, I very very much enjoyed it and plan to read the rest of her backlist now pronto! With thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown for the early release copy.

Thank you to Netgalley for my arc of this book!
I read The Lost Man agessss ago and loved it so much so knew I had to get this!
I absolutely loved this! Told from Kieran's point of view, coming back home to where he grew up, with his partner Mia and baby Audrey.
I loved Kieran and Mia from the start and had everything crossed that nothing would happen to them! (No spoilers so can't say if that happened or not!)
This book had me gripped, its not your usual dark thriller, but more an exploration of a history tied to the town and to the murder of a new resident.
Its a slow burner but keeps you wanting more and the description of where they lived was so vivid, I could picture The Marina, the Surf and Turf and the Survivors!
If you loved any Jane Harper book then this is another of hers you will love and if you haven't read any of them then you need to add this to your list!

Jane Harper writes complex, intelligent, nicely nuanced crime fiction with buckets of atmosphere. While I don't think The Survivors packed quite the same emotional punch as The Lost Man, it's head and shoulders ahead of a lot of the crime fiction pack. In The Survivors, Kieran returns with his girlfriend and baby to the oceanside home of his youth, there to help his mother pack up the childhood home. It's difficult enough going back to the place where a pivotal tragedy took place, but then a young woman is found dead...and the past reenters the present.

I really enjoyed this, it was responsible for a bit of sleep deprivation while I just read "a few more pages" - very atmospheric.

The Survivors by Jane Harper
This is the first novel I’ve read by Jane Harper. A very intriguing thriller given a believable depth due to the skilful depiction of the relationships between the characters: friends, families, offspring and marriages. The suppressed memories and feelings, especially of guilt, featured throughout.
Jane Harper has a true grip of the issues of dementia and the effects on the family. I really felt for Kieran’s mother, her frustrations, anger, caring and love.
Loved Kieran and Mia’s daughter Audrey who featured throughout though I wouldn’t be leaving her on a beach whilst I swam.
All this and in the background sizzling the murders of two young girls. Just when you think you’ve identified the murderer of one then it all changes as you walk through Evelyn Bay. Quite a number of twists and a thoroughly enjoyable read.

I’ve read all Jane Harper’s books and I think this may be the best. A change of scene to an Australian coastal town works well. A great sense of place, convincing characters and a clever complex plot combine to produce another excellent book. I received this book from NetGalley and the publishers in return for an honest review.

📚BOOK REVIEW📚⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
#thesurvivors by @janeharperauthor @littlebrownbookgroup_uk @netgalley

The first thing that is clear after reading this book, this author certainly knows how to write a crime thriller!

This is my 2nd read by the author, the other being The Dry, and it has just underlined for me what a great storyteller she is. The way she writes is amazing; it just draws you in, keeps your attention easily and feels so warm and welcoming that the plot could almost become irrelevant.

The locations were so atmospheric and descriptive that you almost felt you were there with the characters walking down the beach or in the caves, with the sun bearing down on you.

I found the characters interesting and relatable; the plot was played out excellently with the use of backstories to add layer and layer to the mystery. I didn’t guess the ending and found it to have satisfying conclusion.

Although I never lost interest in the book, I did find the middle part very long and I was just starting to get itchy for a development or clue to be found to move the story forward. Only a minor thing in what was a really excellent read!

Will definitely be catching up on the rest of this authors books!

➡️for synopsis

This one is an #arcread so thanks to author #janeharper #littlebrownbookgroup and #netgalley for allowing me to read this one early!

-Emily @the_book_girls_1 (Instagram)

Review published on page 11/01/2021

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review. It is set to be published in January 2021.

"The Survivors" by Jane Harper was a bit of a disappointment for me.
The blurb is great, the premise very interesting, but then... The story takes forever to get started: the first 50 pages or so are nothing more than conversations, background and info dump. Even afterwards, the pacing doesn't improve much.
The characters spend way more time talking to each other about each other than actually doing things, and it feels like the first 5 chapters are the far too detailed account of an interminable high school reunion where everybody's catching up with literally everybody else, and I as a reader couldn't have cared less about most of it. Way too much backstory for my taste, and besides, most of it was completely irrelevant to either the main plot of the novel or the subplot about what happened twelve years earlier.
There's a huge cast of characters, all of them one-dimensional and with no distinct voice, so I didn't manage to get emotionally invested in their dramas, big and small.
There's also a blatant overuse of flashbacks in this novel. I don't mind reading stories containing flashbacks, I actually enjoy that, but you can have too much of a good thing to the point that it becomes bad. Most of the flashbacks in this novel are not even that important, they don't show us something fundamental to the plot: they're just trivial flashbacks, giving us insight into the characters' temperament, their personal background or relationship with each other. All those things could have been shown in the narration in many other ways, without needing to resort to one thousand flashbacks. That looks like lazy writing to me.
Besides, all the different flashbacks go back and forth not only between two timelines but also skip a few days ahead and a few days back along the older timeline (twelve years before the events narrated in the novel), and that's confusing. Especially when the author switches from the main timeline to twelve years ago to a few days before twelve years ago back to the main timeline with no warning or clear demarcation. Some of the flashbacks in the novel have their own chapter, but many more are just inserted seamlessly in the text, not even separated by a blank space or signalled by italics. That's annoying.
The ending was quite disappointing as well: the identity of the person responsible for the girl's death is painfully obvious way before it's finally revealed, and the final scene is totally anti-climactic.
As a side note, I think the issues about sexual harassment and the general insecurity related to being a woman (such as "do not walk home alone after dark on unlit streets" or "don't get out of the house in the night") were very poorly handled in this book. I'm perfectly aware of these problems, and I agree that those are some serious issues, but the way they were presented in the narration was just awkward and unrealistic.
Also, what kind of policeman would just give random civilians inside info about an ongoing murder investigation? I don't buy that, my suspension of incredulity doesn't stretch that much.
Overall, this was the first book by Jane Harper I read, and it will probably be the last.

It's no secret that I'm a massive fan of Jane Harper, and I had to get my hands on The Survivors as soon as I saw it was up for request from NetGalley! The Survivors holds up to Harper's previous books. It's not quite in the same league as The Lost Man, which is my all time favourite of hers, but I loved it just as much, if not more, than The Dry.

The Survivors has elements that I don't normally look for in a thriller, but Jane Harper manages to pull them off so wonderfully that I can't not mention them. The Survivors is atmospheric. Harper always does an incredible job with her settings that really make you feel as though you're there with the characters. In this one, I felt like I was in the stormy town in Tasmania and that the ocean was creeping in.

The Survivors also has relatable characters, who have lots of complex relationships and small town drama. I always enjoy this in Harper's books, and it was especially great here. Her characters are always outsiders, normally coming back to their home towns, and here I really felt for Kieran, the main guy.

I can't wait to marathon all of Jane Harper's books again soon, and I really look forward to seeing what she comes out with next as, along with Ruth Ware, I think she's one of the strongest mystery/thriller writers out there today.

I have read all of Jane Harper's books and given them five stars. Unfortunately, The Survivors was disappointing. As always the writing is superb but the pacing was incredibly slow. It lacks the tension of her previous books. Thank you NetGalley for my advance copy.

would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this slow burning book

but what a book....

12 years ago a storm battered the coast line...two people died and the people left behind never recovered from the tragedy

now kieran and his little family comes home to help pack up his parents home as his dad is suffering from dementia and is being admitted to a secure unit...

and now another body is found on the shoreline ....

well i never expected that....a slow burner of a book but one that still keeps you gripped and reading to find out the truth...characters are well established and likeable...and the storyline flowed nicely

my first book by this author and hopefully it wont be my last

Kieran and girlfriend Mia have returned to Evelyn Bay, Tasmania, to help his parents pack up their house. His father Brian has dementia and his mother Verity can no longer cope. But returning is hard for Kieran. Twelve years ago, a terrible storm took the lives of two men, one being Finn, Kieran's brother. And Kieran blames himself, for they had gone out on their boat to try to rescue him.

But when a young student, Bronte, is found drowned on the shore, it is to reveal a series of truths that change everything. Layer after layer of untruths are uncovered, and the tension becomes palpable, with almost everyone in the small community, having reason to worry, or suspect others.

In the final pages the whole truth is finally revealed. An intricate plot that is slow to build, but not in a bad way. The descriptive writing helps to transport the reader fully into this world, and it's a thriller that keeps you guessing all the way through.

It’s been twelve years since that one day which changed Kieran’s life. Now, with his wife Mia and their three-month-old daughter Audrey, they come back to Evelyn Bay to visit his parents. His father’s dementia has been deteriorating more quickly recently and thus they are moving house and sorting out stuff. Only shortly after they have arrived do they also meet their old friends: Olivia and Ash, now a couple, then also victims of that fierce storm which not only took Kieran’s brother’s life but also Olivia’s sister. And they meet Sean and his nephew Liam who lost his father and who still holds Kieran responsible for that. When the young waitress Bronte is found murdered on the beach, the memories of that unforgettable day resurface and all the emotions, too. Will twelve years after the disaster, which brought so much suffering and pain, the same happen again to that small community?

I liked Janes Harper’s novels “The Dry” and “Lost Man” since she is brilliant at catching the atmosphere and transferring this in her novels. “The Survivors”, too, has a special ambiance which defines the novel. The small circle of characters who all share the memories of that disastrous day and who all, in their own way, still can feel the pain that is connected to the storm and its outcome. Thus, the murder case at hand quickly becomes much less interesting than the question if people are hiding something, if the narrative of the events has to be re-written.

At first, I was misled by the title which I thought referred to the people who had survived the aforementioned storm, however, it is something completely different yet decisive for the plot. Even though the investigation on Bronte’s murderer seems not really to advance, the novel gets increasingly thrilling with more aspects of the storm day being evoked. Many characters act highly suspiciously which I totally adored since it made me spin one theory after another about the events. In the end, Harper provides a credible solution and no questions remains unanswered.

It is the landscape and the people formed by it who move at their own pace and who make “The Survivors” a wonderful read. It is a novel about how you can survive when others have died and especially how you can live with the guilt of being a survivor. For some however, being alive does not mean having survived, it is a daily fight against death. For me, the strongest novel by the author so far.

jane harper continues not to disappoint me. i've loved all of her books in the past so i was thrilled when netgalley very kindly sent me her latest. like her last one, this doesn't follow a standard police investigation, instead it centres around a man returning to his beach community home town when a girl is found dead on the beach.

it examines the past and responsibility and duty and family. i really loved the way various relationships were handled and that small town feel is captured so brilliantly. i find books set in australia really interesting and this one was no exception. the setting is so present and the way the weather and the landscape was described made me feel like i was there

i really loved the way past and present storylines were woven together and i was always thinking about the book whenever i wasn't reading, which is always a good sign.