As I have a little time off from work I have really been powering through the books recently and for that reason, also really pumping out the book reviews. I have a Good Reads (Social Media for book lovers) Challenge of 20 books for the year and I am already past a quarter of that challenge and the first month of the year hasn’t even finished! Luckily for me, a couple of my closest friends are also book lovers so I have been able to borrow most of these books, and I am thinking about signing up to a second hand book subscription service so I am able to minimise the financial and environmental impact of my reading.
The latest book that I have powered through is the second instalment in the Aaron Falkes books by Jane Harper. I read the first book quite recently, so the story was still fresh in my mind before reading the sequel. Reading both close together is not necessary at all though, it just provides more character development for the cop Falkes. I think that was what was missing from Force of Nature too, because it was very disconnected from his backstory, it was a very tenuous link as to why he was involved in and investigating the crime in the first place. Don’t get me wrong, a link is made, and the story is good, with all the twists and turns I am starting to expect from Jane Harper, but the link between the narrating and main character Falkes with the victims and suspects isn’t really there like it was in The Dry.
The setting of the Australian country continues to provide the perfect backdrop for this crime fiction story, albeit it a very different type of landscape. The contrast between the dry outback described in Harper’s last novel as compared with the lush and overbearing forest in this story is dramatic. One thing that is rather annoying at the end of the book as well is that we never get an answer to one of the key questions throughout the book. I am unsure whether Harper couldn’t find a way to wrap it up, or whether there will be a follow-up in another book. If it is a follow-up book it will be a move into a different type of crime fiction, with a lot more focus on the finance I would assume.
This absence of finality for part of the storyline doesn’t take away from the story though. It was still a great read, I devoured the book in only a couple of days. The ending was unpredictable, and full of exploration of the relationships in dysfunctional families. The writing captured me, and was good at sucking you in so you wanted more.
Overall, I give Force of Nature 7/10.
A Turtle Stranger 