Book Review- The Survivors

Title: The Survivors
Author: Jane Harper
Publisher: Little, Brown Book
Published: 21st January 2021
Genre: Thriller, Mystery
TWs: Drowning, Death, Suicide, Death of a child,

Rating: 4/5 stars

The compelling new novel from Jane Harper, the New York Times bestselling author of The Dry.

Kieran Elliott’s life changed forever on the day a reckless mistake led to devastating consequences.

The guilt that still haunts him resurfaces during a visit with his young family to the small coastal town he once called home.

Kieran’s parents are struggling in a community which is bound, for better or worse, to the sea, that is both a lifeline and a threat. Between them all is his absent brother, Finn.

When a body is discovered on the beach, long-held secrets threaten to emerge. A sunken wreck, a missing girl, and questions that have never washed away… -StoryGraph

Buy The Survivors from Waterstones here

Thank you to Little, Brown Book Group for sending me a physical proof of The Survivors for review in advance of the publication date!

I love Jane Harper’s books! I have read her previous three, and I just knew I was going to love this one too. They are clever and tense and its always impossible to help caring for the characters in the novels! I am happy to write that this book was no different!

This is a very moving thriller novel, the back story that we spend a lot of the novel exploring is a sad story that provides a lot of background information on the characters and why the act the way they do. This being said I have put the Trigger Warnings in the details of the book, so anyone is pre-warned going in.

The murder mystery at the centre is that of a woman found dead on the beach, not far from where she was staying. The circle of suspects is quite large, and the setting of a close knit coastal community makes the novel feel all the more oppressive, as Jane Harper is so good at doing!

In contrast to her last novels which have been set in the dry and oppressively hot deserts of Australia, this was set at the coast. Harper’s descriptions of the cliffs, and the waves were as irresistible as her description of sandy deserts, her descriptive writing style is brilliant!

The whodunnit aspect of this novel was also well handled, there were a nice few twists and turns and revelations during the novel which kept me on my toes as I read, and the final reveal was a surprise too!

Overall I really enjoyed this novel and would highly recommend! Do you like Aussie crime novels like Scrublands or page turning crime novels like Dark Pines or The Long Call you might like The Survivors!

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