I was one of approximately three people in Australia who loathed Harley’s much lauded first novel The Dry. I approached this one with some hesitation, especially when I read the blurb on the front cover “LOST, COLD, DESPERATE…. DANGER RUNS DEEP”. How can danger run deep? Is danger a creek?? Anyway, this novel is better than The Dry. You do have to wonder though whether a group of women who walk around complaining of thirst in the bush despite incessant rainfall deserve to be rescued. They have canvas from their tents in their bags and it rains in the night but rather than collecting water in the canvas they put their water bottles out in the rain in the pathetic hope they will fill up. And guess what guess what – the water bottles topple over in the night! So the women are thirsty AGAIN. There’s a load of classic thriller themes here – the malignancy of the bush, an unknown watcher, the dark history of a serial killer overlapping with the present, the lingering effects of schoolyard bullying, money laundering, cyber bullying, how far people go to protect their children, the rivalry between sisters etc etc etc – it’s almost as if Harper is filling a theme quota. There’s so many issues that none of them really engage the reader. And Harper’s main character, Aaron Falk, is as boring as ever. If you want to read a better thriller/survival story, try The Mountain Story by Lori Lansens or The River at Night by Erica Ferencik. Force of Nature is OK but Harper is trying too hard.
