Category Archives: Flatiron Books

January 27, 2019 · 11:57 pm

Review: The Lost Man by Jane Harper

Title: The Lost Man by Jane Harper
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery, Suspense
Length: 352 pages
Book Rating: B+

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley

Summary:

Two brothers meet in the remote Australian outback when the third brother is found dead, in this stunning new standalone novel from New York Times bestseller Jane Harper

Two brothers meet at the remote fence line separating their cattle ranches in the lonely outback. In an isolated belt of Queensland, they are each other’s nearest neighbor, their homes four hours’ drive apart.

The third brother lies dead at their feet.

Something caused Cam, the middle child who had been in charge of the family homestead, to die alone in the middle of nowhere.

So the eldest brother returns with his younger sibling to the family property and those left behind. But the fragile balance of the ranch is threatened. Amidst the grief, suspicion starts to take hold, and the eldest brother begins to wonder if more than one among them is at risk of crumbling as the weight of isolation bears down on them all.

Dark, suspenseful, and deeply atmospheric, The Lost Man is the highly anticipated next book from the bestselling and award-winning Jane Harper, author of The Dry and Force of Nature.

Review:

The Lost Man by Jane Harper is a captivating, character-driven mystery set in the Australian Outback.

Nathan Bright, middle brother Cameron “Cam” and youngest brother Bub are co-owners of the family cattle station, Burley Downs. Nathan spends little time with the family since he is running cattle on his own property. However, when repairs are needed, everyone pulls together due to their isolated location. When Cam fails to show up to work on a project with Bub, fear quickly strikes and a helicopter is called in to search for the missing man.  Cam’s body is soon found at the grave of a stockman who perished over century ago.

Despite the police ruling that Cam’s death is an unfortunate mishap due to the harsh conditions and soaring temperatures, Nathan is driven to look into the circumstances of his brother’s death. Too many inconsistencies in Cam’s behavior in the weeks leading up to his death coupled with the fact his brother’s fully stocked vehicle is miles from where his body is discovered  rouse Nathan’s suspicions. Why was Cam nowhere near the repeater he was supposed to repair with Bub? More importantly, why Cam would walk nine kilometers to the stockman’s grave without taking supplies with him?  Are Nathan’s concerns there is more to Cam’s death than meets the eye accurate?

Nathan has been long estranged from his family and he rarely spends time in their company. Devastated by his divorce ten years earlier, he spent a good number of years in a protracted custody fight with his ex-wife. Nathan lives a very isolated, solitary life that is only broken by visits with his sixteen year old son, Xander.  In the aftermath of Cam’s death, Nathan stays at Burley Downs with his mother, Liz, Bub, honorary uncle Harry and Cam’s wife, Ilse, and their young daughters, Sophie and Lo. Amid tense undercurrents and complicated  histories, Nathan learns disturbing information about Cam and to some extent, Bub. As the days pass leading up to Cam’s funeral, Nathan reflects back on his childhood and few of those memories are happy.

Unable to let go of his feeling there is more to his brother’s death, Nathan and Xander continue digging into his Cam’s activities. Nathan is confused by the discovery that someone from Cam’s long ago past has been calling. He is also uncovering very disturbing details about his brother’s interactions with Ilse and their daughters. Nathan is also starting to question how his brother’s relationship with Ilse started all those years ago. A very troubling picture of Cam is beginning to emerge but does any of this newly discovered information have anything to do with Cam’s death?

With dark undertones, The Lost Man is a riveting mystery that is multi-layered and engaging.  Nathan is a wonderful character whose life has beaten him down and he is barely holding on. The Bright family has a complex history that is full of dark secrets that are clearly influencing the events playing out in the present.  Jane Harper once again masterfully brings the harsh and remote setting vibrantly to life.   The novel comes to an absolutely stunning conclusion as Nathan finally learns the heartbreaking and shocking truth about Cam’s death. I absolutely loved and highly recommend this phenomenal mystery to fans of the genre.

2 Comments

Filed under Contemporary, Flatiron Books, Jane Harper, Mystery, Rated B+, Review, Suspense, The Lost Man

February 28, 2018 · 11:55 pm

Review: Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney

Title: Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Genre: Contemporary, Suspense
Length: 272 pages
Book Rating: B+

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley

Summary:

My name is Amber Reynolds. There are three things you should know about me:
1. I’m in a coma.
2. My husband doesn’t love me anymore.
3. Sometimes I lie.

Amber wakes up in a hospital. She can’t move. She can’t speak. She can’t open her eyes. She can hear everyone around her, but they have no idea. Amber doesn’t remember what happened, but she has a suspicion her husband had something to do with it. Alternating between her paralyzed present, the week before her accident, and a series of childhood diaries from twenty years ago, this brilliant psychological thriller asks: Is something really a lie if you believe it’s the truth?

Review:

Weaving back and forth between the present, the recent past and diary entries from 1991, Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney is a twist-turny, suspenseful novel that is absolutely riveting.

Amber Reynolds is in a coma yet she is aware of what is occurring around her. What she is unclear about is the sequence of events that led up to the coma. As memories begin to come back to her, she is afraid of her husband, Paul, uneasy about her sister Claire’s presence and terrified of the stranger who keeps showing up in her hospital room. Unable to make sense of these confusing facts, Amber continues to try to remember what happened to her and who is responsible for the accident that left her in a coma.

In the present, Amber tries to piece together the wispy memories and her discordant emotions in an attempt to figure out how she ended up in a coma.  A variety of events taking place around her don’t jibe with the facts she remembers so she is extremely puzzled about various happenings.  Her marriage to Paul is a bit strained so is that the reason she is afraid he had something to do with the accident? Claire and Paul do not like one another, so why are they spending so much time together in her hospital room? And even more troubling, why are they actually getting along? But most important, who is the stranger who keeps showing up in her room? Why is Amber so frightened by what he is saying and doing while he is with her?

In the week leading up to the accident, Amber is on the cusp of losing her job at a local radio station. Her relationship with co-worker and popular radio host Madeline Frost is fraught with tension. Luckily for Amber, her good friend Jo helps her devise a plan to tarnish Madeline’s reputation in order to prevent the disagreeable radio personality from making the threat of job loss a reality.

Already stressed over her job situation, Amber also notices a few inconsistencies with Paul that her make her very suspicious that he might not love her anymore. She is also rather troubled by a few discoveries that make her question whether or not Claire is up to something nefarious but Amber is uncertain whether or not her sister would do something to deliberately hurt her.

The diary entries are written from an eleven year old girl’s point of view. The young girl’s family moved around quite a bit but they recently located to help her grandmother who recently passed away. Her home life is quite unhappy due to her parents’ constant arguing and their excessive drinking. A bright spot in her situation is her recent friendship with a classmate but there are disturbing elements to their friendship that will definitely give readers pause.

Sometimes I Lie is an absolutely spellbinding and suspense-laden mystery that raises many intriguing questions. Is Amber a reliable narrator? As she lies in a coma, can she trust her memories? Can she trust Paul? Have Paul and Claire resolved their longstanding differences and if so, why? Who is the stranger who keeps visiting her and is she right to fear for her safety? As Alice Feeney brings this novel to a jaw-dropping and stunning conclusion, readers will be left wondering whether or not they can trust anyone in this twist-filled page-turner.

Comments Off on Review: Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney

Filed under Alice Feeney, Contemporary, Flatiron Books, Rated B+, Review, Sometimes I Lie, Suspense

February 4, 2018 · 11:57 pm

Review: Force of Nature by Jane Harper

Title: Force of Nature by Jane Harper
Aaron Falk Series Book Two
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery
Length: 329 pages
Book Rating: B+

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley

Summary:

Five women go on a hike. Only four return. Jane Harper, the New York Times bestselling author of The Dry, asks: How well do you really know the people you work with?

When five colleagues are forced to go on a corporate retreat in the wilderness, they reluctantly pick up their backpacks and start walking down the muddy path.

But one of the women doesn’t come out of the woods. And each of her companions tells a slightly different story about what happened.

Federal Police Agent Aaron Falk has a keen interest in the whereabouts of the missing hiker. In an investigation that takes him deep into isolated forest, Falk discovers secrets lurking in the mountains, and a tangled web of personal and professional friendship, suspicion, and betrayal among the hikers. But did that lead to murder?

Review:

Force of Nature is a perplexing mystery about a woman who disappears during a corporate team-building exercise in the Australian bushland.  This second installment in the Aaron Falk series is a sharp contrast to the first novel, The Dry, but this newest release from Jane Harper is equally compelling.

Jill and Daniel Bailey, siblings and co-owners of the BaileyTennants Accounting firm, are among the group of employees who are on a team-building adventure in the Giralong Ranges. At the end of the retreat, all of the men safely return, but one of the women, Alice Russell, is missing after their group becomes lost during the hike. The police have a rather garbled account of what occurred between Alice, her assistant, Breanna “Bree” McKenzie, Bree’s sister Beth, Lauren Shaw and Jill.

Federal Police Agents Aaron Falk and his partner Carmen Cooper become involved in the search for Alice because she is surreptitiously providing evidence in a case they are building against BaileyTennants. The morning of her disappearance, Alice left a voice message on Aaron’s phone, but due to poor cell reception he could only make out a small portion of what she said. With horrendous rain and the rugged terrain hindering their search, fears quickly grow that their quest to find Alice might end in tragedy.

Jill is the chairwoman of the company and she is reluctantly part of the excursion at the behest of Daniel.  She is horribly out of shape and not a fan of their wilderness endeavor. Both Alice and Lauren have experience with hiking but their longstanding, somewhat dark history often pits them against one another as they try to decide how to proceed after they go off track. Beth and Bree might be sisters but their once close relationship fractured after Beth’s life wildly deviated from her sister’s successful climb up the corporate ladder.  All of the women’s complex relationships come into play as they fight for survival during their horrific experience in the bushland.

Aaron and Carmen are only a very small part of the ongoing investigation into BaileyTennants’ business practices and they can only guess what charges will be eventually be brought against the company. What they do know is the inquiry is at a crucial juncture and they are in desperate need of the documents that Alice was about to turn over to them. Unsure of whether or not her disappearance has anything to do with their investigation, Carmen and Aaron arrive at Giralong Ranges hoping the other members of the retreat can provide answers for what went wrong during the hike. However, they quickly deduce that the women might not be as forthcoming as they could be, but what exactly are they hiding from the investigators?

The first puzzling bit of information that Aaron and Carmen learn is Daniel was unexpectedly detained before he, Jill and their employees were to depart for Giralong Ranges.  They also discover that Daniel sought out Alice the first night of the hike after the women made camp. No one knows what they discussed but all of the women admit Alice was not quite herself the next morning. They quickly glean the women’s tempers flared at different times throughout the second day and after the women are hopelessly lost, Alice further antagonized the party with her highhanded, know it all attitude. Although the women eventually find shelter, they continue to bicker and disagree about whether or not they should wait for a rescue team to find them or continue trying to find their back to the rendezvous point.

Written from alternating points of view, Force of Nature is an intricately plotted mystery that is quite riveting. Unexpected rivalries, jealousy, unanticipated rifts and shocking resentment all contribute to what happen to the women during their attempts to find their way the designated meeting point.  Aaron and Carmen might not be officially assigned to the search, but Aaron is instrumental in putting together the pieces of what happened to Alice.  One of Jane Harper’s strengths as an author is her ability to bring the setting vibrantly to life and the location and weather conditions are vital elements of the unfolding story. This newest addition to the Aaron Falk series is a complex and multi-dimensional mystery that fans of the genre are going to LOVE.

Comments Off on Review: Force of Nature by Jane Harper

Filed under Aaron Falk Series, Contemporary, Flatiron Books, Force of Nature, Jane Harper, Mystery, Rated B+, Review