Jane Harper (born 1980) is a British–Australian author known for her

crime novels Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, ...

'' The Dry'', ''Force of Nature'' and ''The Lost Man'', all set in rural Australia.

Early life

Born in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

in the UK, Harper moved to Australia with her family when she was eight. There, she lived in the outer

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

suburb of

Boronia ''Boronia'' is a genus of about 160 species of flowering plants in the citrus family Rutaceae. Most are endemic to Australia with a few species in New Caledonia, which were previously placed in the genus ''Boronella''. They occur in all Austral ...

, and eventually acquired Australian citizenship. As a teen, Harper returned to the UK with her family and resided in

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

. Later, she attended the

University of Kent , motto_lang = , mottoeng = Literal translation: 'Whom to serve is to reign'(Book of Common Prayer translation: 'whose service is perfect freedom')Graham Martin, ''From Vision to Reality: the Making of the University of Kent at Canterbury'' ...

and studied English. After spending time working on her career, she moved back to Australia.

Career

After graduating with a degree in English and history, Harper gained an entry-level journalism qualification. She got her first job as a trainee at the ''

Darlington & Stockton Times The ''Darlington & Stockton Times'' is a British, regional, weekly, paid for, newspaper covering the Richmond - Darlington - Stokesley - Thirsk - Leyburn area. It is published in Darlington by Newsquest Media Group Ltd, a subsidiary of Gannet ...

'' in County Durham. Later she was a senior news journalist for the '' Hull Daily Mail''. In 2008 she returned to Australia to take up a reporting job at the ''

Geelong Advertiser The ''Geelong Advertiser'' is a daily newspaper circulating in Geelong, Victoria, Australia, the Bellarine Peninsula, and surrounding areas. First published on 21 November 1840, the ''Geelong Advertiser'' is the oldest newspaper title in Victor ...

'', then in 2011 became a journalist for the '' Herald Sun'' in Melbourne. Harper worked as a print journalist for 13 years before writing her first novel, ''The Dry'', which was published in 2016.

''The Dry''

'' The Dry'', Harper's first novel, is a thriller set in a fictional town five hours west of

. A Federal Agent, Aaron Falk, returns to his old hometown to attend the funeral of his childhood best friend, Luke. Falk teams up with a local detective and tries to uncover the truth behind Luke's sudden mysterious death, only to find more questions than answers.

''Force of Nature''

Harper's second thriller is set in the thickly forested mountains north-east of

, again featuring Federal Agent Aaron Falk. A group from a Melbourne tech company go on a retreat in the mountains, where Alice Russell, one of the women in the group, disappears while navigating the Mirror Falls trail. Falk has been investigating the company for financial irregularities, and the woman was his secret informer.

''The Lost Man''

Harper's third murder mystery is set in south-west Queensland on a large cattle station. The police find nothing in Cameron Bright's death from

dehydration In physiology, dehydration is a lack of total body water, with an accompanying disruption of metabolic processes. It occurs when free water loss exceeds free water intake, usually due to exercise, disease, or high environmental temperature. Mil ...

to suggest foul play, and the investigation is carried out informally by the dead man's elder brother Nathan.

''The Survivors''

In Harper's fourth murder mystery, the death of a young woman in a Tasmanian coastal town unearths questions around events during a storm 12 years earlier, when two men drowned and a girl disappeared.

''Exiles''

Visiting friends in South Australian wine country, Aaron Falk finds himself drawn into the investigation of the disappearance of a woman a year ago at the local food and wine festival, and the hit-and-run death of a man a few years before.

Awards and recognition

In 2014, ''

Big Issue ''The Big Issue'' is a street newspaper founded by John Bird and Gordon Roddick in September 1991 and published in four continents. ''The Big Issue'' is one of the UK's leading social businesses and exists to offer homeless people, or individ ...

'' published one of Harper's short stories. Soon after, in the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards in 2015, Harper won an award for an unpublished manuscript (''The Dry''). In 2017, Harper won the Gold ABIA for Book of the Year and the

Davitt Award The Davitt Awards are literary awards which are presented annually by the Sisters in Crime Australia association. The awards are named in honour of Ellen Davitt (1812–1879) who wrote Australia's first mystery novel, ''Force and Fraud'' in 186 ...

for ''The Dry'', and the

Gold Dagger The Gold Dagger is an award given annually by the Crime Writers' Association of the United Kingdom since 1960 for the best crime novel of the year. From 1955 to 1959, the organization named their top honor as the Crossed Red Herring Award. From ...

awarded by the Crime Writers' Association of the United Kingdom for the best crime novel of the year. Harper became a New York Times bestselling author for ''The Dry''.

Reese Witherspoon Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon (born March 22, 1976) is an American actress and producer. The recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and two Golden Globe Awards, she ...

bought the rights to ''The Dry'' to turn it into a movie, which was released in January 2021. ''The Lost Man'' was shortlisted for the 2020

Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award The Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award is one of the UK's top crime-fiction awards, sponsored by Theakston's Old Peculier. It is awarded annually at Harrogate Harrogate ( ) is a spa town and the administrative centre of ...

, and won the Barry Award for Best Mystery/Crime Novel in 2020. ''The Survivors'' was shortlisted for the general fiction book of the year at the 2021

Australian Book Industry Awards The Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) are publishers' and literary awards held by the Australian Publishers Association annually in Sydney "to celebrate the achievements of authors and publishers in bringing Australian books to readers". ...

. It was also shortlisted for the 2021

Colin Roderick Award The Colin Roderick Award is presented annually by the Foundation for Australian Literary Studies at Queensland's James Cook University for "the best book published in Australia which deals with any aspect of Australian life". It was first presente ...

Bibliography

Aaron Falk novels * * * Standalone novels * *

References

External links

Author's website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harper, Jane 1980 births 21st-century Australian novelists 21st-century Australian short story writers 21st-century Australian women writers Alumni of the University of Kent Australian crime fiction writers Australian women novelists Barry Award winners British emigrants to Australia Living people People with acquired Australian citizenship Women crime writers Writers from Manchester Writers from Victoria (Australia)