Pandemic Audio: "Force of Nature: by Jane Harper

 Pandemic Audio: Force of Nature by Jane Harper, 2018, downloaded from Wisconsin Digital Library.

I finished this in 2020 and never entered notes. I'm writing this in July, 2021 and backdating to December, 2020.

This novel and Harper's previous novels always have a great sense of place. All of the geography - weather, terrain, water, local customs, local behavior - work for me. This had me wishing I could go on a backpacking trip. 

Corporate retreat in the Australian forest ends up with a small group going missing. One woman is found dead, murdered with a head bash (as I recall). The cops get involved early because one of the missing women was an informant regarding a financial crime within the corporation. One of the cops is dude from Harper's THE DRY. Extra spice is added because two of the women are battling sisters with one an achiever and the other a boozer. There are also: 

• Personal angers dating to school-age. 
• Multiple family dramas and tensions
• Beginners lost in the cold and wet forest without proper gear or food. 
• Memories of a serial killer who stalked the area.
• Race against time to locate the missing hikers with bad weather coming in.

We bebop back and forth from the cop to a couple of the missing women. The cops have to be very circumspect because they received a weird and partial voicemail from the informant. They are worried for her safety because she may have been found out. But, they have to not tip there hats on why they are really there.

My memory of this book is being on a trip to Cable, WI in July, 2020 for the MTB team's adventure ride at Namakagon. I think that was the trip where the humidity was super high and our campsite had no showers. Boy #1 and I did a ride for a couple hours on Saturday and were soaked in sweat with no easy way to clean off. I thought of going into the state campsite's swimming lake but I would have smelled like lake water. 

We also drove up to Ashland, WI since we were right there. We walked around a bit but the crowd's were slight because of the pandemic. We checked out some stores and a grocery store. I bought a super cheap mug at the public library. After getting coffee at the Black Cat Coffehouse I dropped the damn library mug and it shattered. We also bought a new axe at the hardware store. There is a artesian well right shore of Lake Superior. We made lunch at the lakeside, bought things at Solstice Outdoors, and filled some water bottles at the spring.

Comments:

1. And, I remember this, there was a small farmer's market by the coffee joint and an older lady in a short skirt bent over at the waist and showed everything I did not want to know.

2. I always spell artisanal and not artesian.