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Jane Harper Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Author Biography  | Interview  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

Jane Harper

Jane Harper

Jane Harper Biography

Jane Harper is the New York Times bestselling author of The Dry; and Force of Nature (both featuring Detective Aaron Falk); and two stand-alone novels: The Lost Man and The Survivors. The Exiles, the third volume in the Aaron Falk series, will publish in January 2023.

Jane previously worked as a print journalist in Australia and the UK and lives in Melbourne with her husband, daughter, and son.

Jane Harper's website

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Interview

An interview with Jane Harper about her debut novel, The Dry set in Australia's Outback.

Was the setting for The Dry inspired by any particular place?

The fictional town of Kiewarra features heavily in the novel, and is a drought-stricken community in regional Victoria, Australia, five hours from Melbourne. The town itself is an amalgamation of many rural communities I visited while working as a journalist in Australia and the UK. While none of those places were anywhere near as dysfunctional as Kiewarra, they helped me get a sense of what it is like for people so reliant on things they cannot control, such as the land and the weather. I was also interested in those communities where people have known each other, for better or worse, for most of their lives.

What was the road to publication for The Dry?

I applied for the Curtis Brown Creative 12-week online novel writing course in late 2014, and as part of the application process submitted a synopsis and 3000-word extract. I came up with an idea for a murder-mystery set in regional Victoria, that eventually became The Dry. The course started in October 2014, and I completed a first draft during the 12 weeks. I knew of the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript and set myself the goal of entering, primarily as an artificial deadline ...

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Books by this Author

Books by Jane Harper at BookBrowse
Exiles jacket The Survivors jacket The Lost Man jacket Force of Nature jacket
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Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Jane Harper but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose read-alikes

  • Author Image Not Available

    Jean-Luc Bannalec

    Jean-Luc Bannalec is a pseudonym. The author divides his time between Germany and coastal Brittany, France. Death in Brittany, the first case for Commissaire Dupin, was published in German in March 2012 and sold 600,000 ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    The Dry

    Try:
    Death in Brittany
    by Jean-Luc Bannalec

  • Ann Cleeves

    Ann Cleeves

    Ann Cleeves is the author of over thirty critically acclaimed novels, and in 2017 was awarded the highest accolade in crime writing, the CWA Diamond Dagger. She is the creator of popular detectives Vera Stanhope and Jimmy ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    The Dry

    Try:
    The Long Call
    by Ann Cleeves

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