by Deborah Rogers –
We journeyed off to Tasmania this month for a mystery set in a small coastal community. Jane Harper has had international success with her series of outback thrillers that started with 2016’s The Dry, we read her 2021 standalone novel The Survivors. Her protagonist is Kieran Elliot. He’s back in his hometown to deal with some family issues (his father’s dementia and supporting his mother to move house), bringing his wife and infant daughter with him. The return home isn’t just about dealing with present day problems though – it’s been 13 years since a storm caused a tragic accident that cost Kieran’s brother and another young man their lives, and Kieran is still living with that trauma.
The ocean and the beach are integral to the novel, both in the plot but also to create the feeling of isolation and living on the edge of the world. A small community is a good setting for a mystery as the characters all know each other, and each other’s histories. This book has all the usual elements of town secrets, hidden lives, outsiders and red herrings thrown in here and there to keep the reader away from uncovering “whodunnit.”
We haven’t read many thrillers or mysteries as a club, but some of our members do read them regularly. The verdict on The Survivors was a bit lukewarm. It was hard to connect with the characters who never seemed fully formed, and whose motivations seemed superficial. Where Harper succeeded was with creating a sense of a place weighted down with grief. The “Survivors” of the title is a sculpture on the coast that commemorates a past shipwreck, but the whole community feels like it’s just barely surviving, due to the consequences of the storm, and then the present-day death that brings it all back to them.
One reader commented that they had enjoyed that it was a regular person piecing together the clues and uncovering the mystery instead of a policeman or private detective. Another observed that this would make a good TV series. Many commented that they had read Harper’s other books and enjoyed them more than this one.
Our next meeting takes place on Tuesday, June 13 at 6:30 p.m. at the Sidney/North Saanich Library. We’ll be discussing The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams. Please join us! Stay up to date with all things Book Club by signing up for our newsletter: www.seasidemagazine.ca/book-club.
