Kieran and his young family have returned to his hometown to visit his struggling parents, and to see old friends left behind. But when a body is found on the beach, questions are raised about a tragedy that took the life of Kieran's brother years before.

Jane Harper writes fantastic character studies set in atmospheric Australian locales, and The Survivors is no different. Like the Outback in The Lost Man, the sea itself is crucial to the lives and attitudes of the characters, and to the mystery at hand. Excellent, compelling, slow-burn listening.

I loved Jane Harper’s 2019 novel The Lost Man, so I knew I wanted to try out some of her previous books that others had also raved about. In a small town in Australia, Aaron Falk has returned for the funeral of his best friend, Luke, and Luke’s wife and son. It appears that it was a murder-suicide, but Aaron has a hard time believing that’s true. As he investigates, secrets both past and present come to light.

This was a gripping mystery, and Harper uses the Australian landscape and culture of the farms and small towns to full advantage. My only complaint was a little trouble keeping the various characters straight on audio, but the narrator was excellent if you’re able to listen carefully.

Two brothers meet at the line of their properties in the Australian outback, with their third brother dead at their feet. They grieve his loss and investigate what could have happened--but there are few suspects on the isolated outback, and secrets that people want to keep hidden.

While a mystery is at the center of this story, it's really a character examination, filled with family dynamics. This is one of those novels where the setting--the forbidding outback--has a life of its own. It was fascinating how Harper managed to make such an expansive setting feel so suffocating. As unappealing as life in the outback would be to me, this book piqued my interest in life there and in Harper's other stories set there. I look forward to reading more of her books.