I was looking forward to this since I’ve previously loved The Dry and The Lost Man. I’ve also read Force of Nature but didn’t think that was a patch on the other two. I had high expectations and the book didn’t meet them, probably due to problems with my expectations…

The small town Tasmanian seaside setting wasn’t as wild as those two great previous books but there was nothing wrong with it, it just wasn’t another character in the tale in quite the same way. It didn’t capture my imagination but I don’t think that was the problem in itself. There seemed to be a lot of red herrings in the beginning of the book, every other character seemed to be being set up as a villain rather than simply a flawed human like most of us are. It was a book I could have put down and left without being bothered about finding out the conclusion of the mystery. And in the end I thought the resolution was on the weak side. The murder made sense (more or less anyhow) but the explanation mostly consisted of them telling how it happened, which might also make sense but doesn’t make for especially good fiction.

I’ll keep reading Jane Harper’s books I’m sure as I think she’ll write another gem, but this wasn’t it.