Force of Nature by Jane Harper

Author: Jane Harper
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Date of publication: February 2018

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?

Force of Nature is the second book featuring agent Aaron Falk.  We first met him in The Dry.  I enjoyed that book, so I was looking forward to reading this one.  This time around, five women go into the woods for a corporate team building weekend and only four come back out.  The missing woman, Alice is involved in a case that Falk is working on.  

I actually liked this one a bit more than the first one.  The story is told through flashbacks and the present just like the first book.  I found the pacing smoother and faster here.  I was engaged the entire time and definitely didn't call the ending. I'm not going to give anything away so I won't talk plot too much.  With a lot of suspects, I was kept guessing. We learn a bit more about Falk in this one.  I still really like him as a character.  I didn't feel like you really needed to read the first book to get a sense of his character and motivations.  References are made to the happenings in the first book, but this is an easy stand alone. I highly recommend this one as well as The Dry.  I look forward to following Falk on his next case.