Reading: THE SURVIVORS - Jane Harper

Prose (Story): Kieran Elliot has returned home to Evelyn Bay, on the Tasmanian coast, with girlfriend Mia and baby Audrey in tow, to help his mother Verity after it's been decided that Kieran's dad Brian - diagnosed with dementia some years back - is to be put into a convalescent home. Kieran wants his parents closer to him, in Sydney, but comes to help in the transition closer to home ... even as the memories of a horrible accident twelve years earlier, during a storm, still has him losing sleep from guilt and pain. On that day, Kieran had become stranded out by the caves during the worst of the storm, and in trying to save him Kieran's brother Finn - along with Finn's friend Toby - died when the stormy sea capsized their boat. From his brother's death to the now-chilly relationship with his mother to his dad's descent into mental illness, Kieran feels responsible - and when, soon after his arrival in town, a young server at a local restaurant/bar, in town only for the season, is found strangled to death on the beach, the crime in the normally-peaceful Evelyn Bay opens up old wounds and new investigations that may or may not tie into the unsolved disappearance of a teenaged girl twelve years ago, during that same storm ... as well as answer what really may have happened the day Kieran found himself stranded in the ravaging waves; the day Finn died.  

Don's (Review): I was introduced to Jane Harper with The Lost Man, her standalone mystery release last year that blew the very head off my shoulders, going on to become my favorite read of 2019. A genuine masterpiece. Though I knew I had her two previous titles to read, I was amped upon hearing about The Survivors, and did my best to get my hands on a copy even though it's not released in the States until February 2021. Here, we follow a guilt-ravaged Kieran as he comes back home to help his parents, reuniting at the same time with the core gang of friends he knew back then - including Sean, brother of Toby who died on the same boat as Kieran's brother Finn, and Olivia, whose little sister Gabby was the girl disappeared in the wake of the record-breaking storm twelve years ago, only her backpack washing up on the beach days later. When Olivia's co-worker is found strangled, the police can't help finding some common threads between her murder and Gabby's disappearance, and as we read on Kieran himself tries to cope with his recurring memories and guilt of that awful day - while at the same time, following clues and facts that don't quite fit together in his own quest for answers, even if they're answer he might not want to know. Another masterful mystery from Harper, with a tense ending following revelations both surprising and sad in order to get there. While not quite The Lost Man - I felt the book could have been edited down just a bit more, tightening up the suspense and condensing some scenes that went on a bit - The Survivors still solidifies Jane Harper as a master of her craft. I'd read a dissertation on the benefits of dryer lint, were she to write it. 4.5/5 stars