The Survivors

Critics Review

• This atmospheric thriller stealthily peels back layers of silence that cover the unspeakable secrets of a tightly knit community

  Daily Mail

• It’s a murder mystery, but also a chronicle of youth, grief and growing up

  Richard Madeley, Richard and Judy book club

• A new book from Harper is always an event. Starting with The Dry (2016), she has built an international reputation on a series of crime novels set in remote communities in Australia, a genre that has become known as rural noir. For her fourth novel, Harper has turned her attention to a different kind of isolation; a small town battered by the elements on the coast of Tasmania…It is the kind of set-up that Harper handles expertly

  Sunday Times Best Crime Novels for January 2021

• Lulling and startling in turn, The Survivors immerses you from the first line in the secret lives of the population of Evelyn Bay. You won’t put this novel down until you’ve uncovered every last skeleton in the closet. I loved it

  Louise Candlish

• Multi-layered, atmospheric and brilliantly written

  Sun

• Australian crime author, Jane Harper, has become an automatic must-read writer for me and her fourth novel, The Survivors, is full of her trademark twists and turns and clever, atmospheric writing

  Sarra Manning, The Best Books to Read this January, Red

• Australian author Harper’s debut, The Dry, won a host of awards when it came out in 2017. Her latest, set in a small Tasmanian coastal town, is the same mix of brooding atmosphere and clever plotting

  Good Housekeeping, This month's 10 books to read right now!

• Full of those secrets within small communities that she writes so well. Set in a coastal town in Tasmania, this tale is full of atmosphere and intrigue

  Prima

• Brilliant…I read this in one sitting and can’t impress upon you enough how well written and engaging it is

  Woman's Way

• The mistress of Australian noir returns with an emotional story about secrets beneath the surface of apparently respectable small towns…Both a mystery and a subtle examination of character. Once again Harper demonstrates how good she is at portraying the fear and menace that lurk in ordinary lives

  Daily Mail

• Harper takes on board corrosive issues of guilt, memory and responsibility to mesmerising effect

  Financial Times Best Summer Reads 2021

• The Australian novelist Jane Harper is known for her excellent outback noir novels, in which the harsh, sun-baked
  expanses of the landscape play as much a part as her protagonists. Her latest, The Survivors, moves the action to the coast of Tasmania, and shows that Harper doesn’t need sun and sand to write a compelling, terrifying thriller…Harper goes from strength to strength

  Observer, Thrillers of the Month

• Jane Harper’s superb new novel The Survivors exhibits all the qualities that make her such a compelling writer: a preoccupation with the clumsy, anxious joys and sorrows of adolescence and the awkward, haunted relationships of old friends who have nothing left in common but the past; an ability to unfold with steady, deliberate, unshowy brilliance a slow-burning family drama that reaches a devastating climax; a deft facility for artful character and plot misdirection; above all, a gift for setting, in this case the cliffside, the beach, the treacherous series of caves, the deserted town itself, all in thrall to the beauty and power and menace of the ocean. Sure-footed, technically impeccable plotting and storytelling ensure the mystery holds until the final pages, when Harper’s compassionate eye imbues the novel with a satisfying degree of moral nuance

  Irish Times

• A gripping read from Jane Harper, the best-selling author of The Dry

  Hello

• Another brilliant read from the best-selling author

  New!

• Fundamental to the success of her previous novels such as The Dry has been Jane Harper’s subtle mastery of a sense of place, in particular rural Australia…Harper’s writing is as unobtrusively effective as ever in setting the scene

  The Times

• The new crime novel from the Australian author dubbed “the queen of outback noir” by The Sunday Times

  The Best Books of 2021 from The Times and the Sunday Times

• A dark, Tasmania-set tale of long-ago disaster, barely buried guilt and possible murder

  iNews, 75 Best Books for 2021

• Without doubt one of the finest crime writers at work today, a new Jane Harper novel is the highlight of my reading year. She has this knack of painting such beautiful scenes, only to thread them with such menace, such sheer atmospheric terror. Phenomenal

  Chris Whitaker, author of We Begin At The End

• No one does small town secrets better than Jane Harper. Gripping, moving and absolutely compelling, The Survivors is another triumph

  Jane Casey, author of Sunday Times bestseller Cruel Acts

• Like in her previous books, the setting is so strong that it’s almost a character in itself. For fans like me, a new Harper book is a treat and this is another cracking read

  Good Reading

• Once again, as in all her crime novels beginning with The Dry, Australian crime writer Jane Harper creates an impressive landscape that serves to illustrate how the experience of place inevitably shapes the lives of those who live there . . . The Survivors is a subtle, quiet book about guilt, grief and growing up. You may find it hard to leave it behind

  Sydney Morning Herald

• A latest slice of outback noir from Jane ‘The Dry’ Harper, the queen of Australian crime, in which a man is forced to reckon with the secrets of his past when a body washes up on the beach

  Metro, Top Eight Gripping New Novels in 2021

• ‘Jane Harper returns with another brilliant read. Harper is a compelling writer, her plotting and storytelling will keep you gripped. You will be transported to the coastal town where the community is bound to the ocean, with all its beauty and menace, for better or worse’

  Dumfries & Galloway Life

• Secrets, guilt and a sunken wreck. More from the Australian bestselling author

  The Times, Books to Look Out For in 2021