The best kind of novels are both character-driven and plot-driven, not one or the other. That’s what we get with FORCE OF NATURE. This is a mystery in which we learn a tiny bit more and a tiny bit more as the story is told from various characters’ points of view. FORCE OF NATURE is a literary thriller.

Although FORCE OF NATURE isn’t quite as thrilling as THE DRY, Jane Harper’s first mystery/thriller, it does continue with Aaron Falk, the Australian federal agent who is also a main character in THE DRY. Plus, FORCE OF NATURE, while maybe not just as, is still an unputdownable book.

This story involves a missing-person case in which a woman, Alice, has disappeared from her employer-sponsored hiking/camping trip. Although the federal government would not ordinarily bother with a case at this level, Alice has secretly been providing documents to Falk that he needed for his investigation of her employer. He is concerned that her disappearance had something to do with this.

The more we learn about each character and what she did during their hiking/camping trip, the closer we come to an answer. But it is so convoluted, you will only come close.