Jane Harper

Author

Jane Harper is an Australian author of literary crime fiction whose novels, set against the vast and unforgiving landscapes of rural Australia, have made her one of the most acclaimed crime writers in the world. Her books combine the tension and plotting of a thriller with the atmospheric depth of literary fiction, and the Australian... landscape is as much a character as any of her protagonists. Born in Manchester, England in 1980, Harper moved to Australia as a child, returned to the UK as a teenager, and then emigrated permanently to Australia in her twenties. She worked as a journalist, including for the Herald Sun in Melbourne, before turning to fiction. The Dry (2017) was her debut — a thriller set in a drought-stricken farming community in rural Victoria, where federal police agent Aaron Falk returns to his hometown for the funeral of a childhood friend who apparently killed his wife and child before taking his own life. The novel was a sensation — it won the CWA Gold Dagger, the British Book Award for Crime and Thriller of the Year, and numerous Australian awards, sold millions of copies worldwide, and was adapted into a film starring Eric Bana. Force of Nature (2017), The Lost Man (2019), and The Survivors (2020) followed, each set in a different Australian landscape — the bush, the outback, the coast — and each using the landscape to amplify the isolation, tension, and emotional stakes of the story. Exiles (2022) continued the Aaron Falk series. Harper writes with a journalist's precision and a novelist's emotional depth. Her plots are tight, her characters are complex, and her evocation of the Australian landscape is extraordinary. The audiobook editions of Harper's novels are outstanding, with narrators capturing both the tension of her plotting and the heat and silence of the Australian landscape. Her books and audiobooks are essential for crime fiction fans who love atmospheric settings, intelligent plotting, and writing that stays with you long after the final page. Read more Show less