The Survivors

This is Jane Harper's 4th mystery and it was one I started in one day and finished late at night. The title refers to a memorial statue to the survivors of an old shipwreck off the coast of Tasmania, but the reader will also realize soon enough that it refers to those who survived a much more recent trauma when a freak storm killed two young men in the small coastal tourist town of Evelyn Bay. On that same day, a 14-year old girl disappeared and was never seen again, although her backpack turned up on the beach several days later. Many in town hold Kieran responsible for the deaths of his brother and his best friend's brother on the boat that ostensibly came to rescue him from a dangerous perch above some caves that were only accessible during low tide. Kieran has failed to realize the severity of the storm that was approaching and got caught while he was trying to get back above the water line. Traumatized by guilt, Kieran moved away to Sydney where he graduated from university as a physiotherapist, parnered with a woman 4 years his junior, Mia, who was also from Evelyn Bay, and they now have a 3 month old daughter.  Kieran and Mia have returned to Evelyn Bay to help Kieran's mother, Verity, move her husband into a memory care unit and herself into a smaller house. Kieran's dad, Brian, has developed severe dementia and his occasional wanderings have made him a person of interest in a murder that occurs shortly after Kieran and Mia arrive in town. The other person of interest in the murder is Liam, the son of the other man who died in the failed rescue attempt. But as the police investigate the contemporary murder, questions about the earlier disappearance of 14-year-old Gabby also are renewed and the town begins to turn on itself. Mia was Gabby's best friend; Brian was the last person known to have seen Gabby alive; and Olivia, Gabby's older sister, has never revealed her involvement in the tragic deaths 12 years ago. When a police investigator from the nearest large town arrives to help with the investigation, new facts emerge that will totally change the narrative of what happened that fateful day.

Kirkus says Harper is a "master at creating atmospheric settings" and has created a "layered and nuanced mystery." Publishers Weekly says Harper creates a "distinctively Aussie array of stoic characters who are weathered, and in some cases warped, by their uncompromising environment" and "expertly weaves past guilts with present grief." The New York Times says "Evelyn Bay, utterly dependent on the sea, is a character of its own. As always, Harper skillfully evokes the landscape as she weaves a complicated, elegant web, full of long-buried secrets ready to come to light."