Jane Harper

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jane Harper (born 1980) is a British/Australian author known for her crime novels The Dry, Force of Nature and The Lost Man.[1]

Early life[]

Born in Manchester in the UK, Harper moved to Australia with her family when she was eight. There, she lived in the outer Melbourne suburb of Boronia, and eventually acquired Australian citizenship. As a teen, Harper returned to the UK with her family and resided in Hampshire. Later, she attended the University of Kent and studied English. After spending time working on her career, she moved back to Australia.[2]

Career[]

After graduating with a degree in English and history, Harper went on to gain an entry level journalism qualification. She got her first job at the Darlington & Stockton Times as a trainee in County Durham.[3] Later in her journalism career, she earned the title as a senior news journalist for the Hull Daily Mail.[4] In 2008 she returned to Australia to take up a reporting job at the Geelong Advertiser in Victoria, then 2011 became a journalist for the Herald Sun in Melbourne.[5][6] 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 Melbourne.[7] 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.[8]

Force of Nature[]

Harper's second thriller is set in the thickly forested mountains north-east of Melbourne, again featuring Federal Agent Aaron Falk. A group from a Melbourne company go on a retreat in the mountains, where one of the women disappears. Falk has been investigating the company for financial irregularities, and the woman was his secret informer.[9][10]

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 to suggest foul play, and the investigation is carried out informally by the dead man's elder brother Nathan.[11]

The Survivors[]

In Harper's fourth murder mystery the murder of a young woman in a Tasmanian coastal town turns out to be connected to the events during a storm 12 years earlier, when two men drowned and a girl disappeared.[12]

Awards and recognition[]

In 2014, Big Issue published one of Harper's short stories.[13] Soon after, in the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards in 2015, Harper won an award for an unpublished manuscript (The Dry).[14] In 2017, Harper won the Gold ABIA for Book of the Year and the Davitt Award for The Dry,[15] and the Gold Dagger awarded by the Crime Writers' Association of the United Kingdom for the best crime novel of the year.[16] Harper became a New York Times bestselling author for The Dry.[17] Reese Witherspoon bought the rights to The Dry to turn it into a movie, which was released in January 2021.[18]

The Lost Man was shortlisted for the 2020 Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award,[19] and won the Barry Award for Best Mystery/Crime Novel in 2020.[20]

The Survivors was shortlisted for the general fiction book of the year at the 2021 Australian Book Industry Awards.[21] It was also shortlisted for the 2021 Colin Roderick Award.[22]

Bibliography[]

  • The Dry, Sydney, New South Wales Macmillan, Pan Macmillan Australia (published 2016), 31 May 2016, ISBN 978-1-74354-999-5
  • Force of Nature, Pan Macmillan Australia, 2017, ISBN 978-1-74354-909-4
  • The Lost Man, Pan Macmillan Australia (published October 2018), 23 October 2018, ISBN 978-1-74354-910-0
  • The Survivors, Pan Macmillan Australia, September 2020, ISBN 9781760783945[23]

References[]

  1. ^ Maslin, Janet. "'The Dry,' a Page-Turner of a Mystery Set in a Parched Australia". The New York Times. Retrieved 19 November 2017.
  2. ^ Harper, Jane. "About Jane Harper". janeharper.com. Jane Harper. Retrieved 19 November 2017.
  3. ^ Harper, Jane. "About Jane Harper". janeharper.com. Jane Harper. Retrieved 19 November 2017.
  4. ^ Romei, Stephen (21 March 2017). "Jane Harper's The Dry wins Indie book of year, Reese Witherspoon gets film rights". The Australian. The Australian. Retrieved 19 November 2017.
  5. ^ Harper, Jane (29 May 2015). "Herald Sun journalist Jane Harper wins 2015 Victorian Premier's Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript with The Dry". Herald Sun. Herald Sun. Retrieved 20 November 2017.
  6. ^ Romei, Stephen (March 21, 2017). "Jane Harper's The Dry wins Indie book of year, Reese Witherspoon gets film rights". The Australian. The Australian. Retrieved 19 November 2017.
  7. ^ "The Dry: Book Summary". Book Browse: Your Guide to Exceptional Books. BookBrowse LLC. Retrieved 20 November 2017.
  8. ^ "(7)The Dry by Jane Harper". Charlotte's Web of Books. Charlotte's Web of Books. Retrieved 20 November 2017.
  9. ^ Lees, Alasdair (14 February 2018). "A deftly assembled and cleverly paced novel". The Independent. Retrieved 31 December 2018.
  10. ^ "Book Review". Kirkus Reviews. Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  11. ^ Turnbull, Sue. "The Lost Man review: Jane Harper's third novel seals her spot as one of the best". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 29 December 2018.
  12. ^ Turnbull, Sue (22 September 2020). "Jane Harper finds the perfect place for grief, guilt and secrets". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 18 October 2020.
  13. ^ "Jane Harper". The Wheeler Centre: Books Writing Ideas. Wheeler Centre. Retrieved 10 November 2017.
  14. ^ "Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2015". The Wheeler Centre: Books Writing Ideas. Wheeler Centre. Retrieved 20 November 2017.
  15. ^ "The 17th Annual Australian Book Industry Awards Winners Announced". Australian Book Industry Awards. Abiawards. Retrieved 9 November 2017.
  16. ^ "The Dagger Awards winners archive". CWA. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
  17. ^ Maslin, Janet. "'The Dry,' a Page-Turner of a Mystery Set in a Parched Australia". The New York Times. Retrieved 19 November 2017.
  18. ^ Staff Writer. "Screen Australia backs projects from Bruna Papandrea and Reese Witherspoon". if.com.au. Retrieved 20 November 2017.
  19. ^ "Harper, McKinty shortlisted for Theakston Old Peculier crime award". Books+Publishing. 2020-06-15. Retrieved 2020-07-27.
  20. ^ "Barry Awards (Crime Fiction) – 2020". Nightstand Book Reviews. Retrieved 12 May 2021.
  21. ^ "ABIA 2021 shortlists announced". Books+Publishing. 2021-04-12. Retrieved 2021-04-12.
  22. ^ "Woman and fiction dominate the 2021 Colin Roderick Literary Award Shortlist". James Cook University. 2021-08-02. Retrieved 2021-08-04.
  23. ^ "The Survivors". Pan Macmillan Australia. Retrieved 18 May 2020.

External links[]

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