Stormy Mystery Swirls in Jane Harper's THE SURVIVORS

Set in the beach village of Evelyn Bay on the Australian island of Tasmania, The Survivors by Jane Harper is a tangled murder mystery that twists between the past and the present. 

The novel is narrated through the main character of Kieran Elliott, a local resident whose life is haunted by a tragic family incident from when he was a teenager. When the body of a young woman is recently found on the beach one morning, it sets off a police investigation that dredges up dark memories from Kieran's past.

Twelve years earlier, a massive storm hit the village, resulting in the boating death of Kieran's older brother, Finn. A young girl named Gabby Birch also disappeared in the same storm and no trace of her was ever found.

Now, in the present day, links begin to emerge between the body on the beach and the earlier case of Gabby Birch. As new facts come to light, Kieran is forced to question all his previous assumptions about the day of the great storm and what really happened then. The current murder case brings him to new suspicions about local residents. Someone he thought he knew may be a killer.

The Survivors is a brooding mystery that uncoils piece by piece as each new layer of false truth is peeled away. The novel is an addictive read that fans of author Jane Harper should enjoy.

 

V2 by Robert Harris a Superb Wartime Thriller

Set in 1944 in the later days of World War Two, V2  by Robert Harris chronicles the destructive attacks on London by the V2 rocket program of Nazi Germany. Launched from secret bases in occupied Holland, the V2 rockets flew over the English Channel carrying heavy explosive warheads that would wreck havoc daily on the British capital city. 

The novel follows the stories of two main characters. Rudi Graf is a top German engineer involved in the V2 launches, even as he has to hide his growing disgust with the the brutal Nazi political regime. Kay Caton-Walsh is an intelligence officer with an elite RAF unit, whose job is to locate the V2 launch bases so Allied planes can bomb them.

V2 is an outstanding wartime thriller, written and researched in superb fashion. The opening chapters describing the launch and flight of a V2 rocket until its impact in London are quite thrilling. 

This novel is most highly recommended. For those who haven't read this author before, Robert Harris has written a number of gripping political and historic thrillers including The Ghostwriter, Munich, Fatherland, and Enigma. 

ONE BY ONE a Chilling Murder Mystery

 One By One by Ruth Ware is a gripping murder puzzle with the classic Agatha Christie set-up of a group of clashing characters trapped together in an isolated setting, and one of them is a killer.

The setting is a vacation chalet high up in the snowy French Alps. Eight team members from a popular social media app company are at the chalet for a retreat. Tensions flare over a surprise offer to sell the company's app property. Some people there will make a lot of money from the offer. Some will instead just lose their jobs.

When a sudden avalanche slams into the chalet, everyone is trapped inside, cut off from outside help. Then the deaths begin to occur, one by one.

The plot unfolds in alternating first person chapters as seen from the viewpoints of two main characters: Erin, a hostess employed at the chalet, and Liz, a low level personal assistant with the company. As the two women narrate their thoughts, pieces of the murder puzzle slowly come together.

Careful readers may begin to pick up tell-tale clues and spot the killer before the he/she is unmasked. One complaint with the plot is the withholding of key information by the author, and some readers may feel misled on that account.

Nonetheless, One By One is an addictive read with a nail biting climax and Ruth Ware fans should be well entertained by the book.