About The Survivors
The compelling new novel from Jane Harper, the New York Times bestselling author of The Dry.
Kieran Elliott’s life changed forever on the day a reckless mistake led to devastating consequences.
The guilt that still haunts him resurfaces during a visit with his young family to the small coastal community he once called home.
Kieran’s parents are struggling in a town where fortunes are forged by the sea. Between them all is his absent brother, Finn.
When a body is discovered on the beach, long-held secrets threaten to emerge. A sunken wreck, a missing girl, and questions that have never washed away …
Contents
About The Survivors
Title Page
Contents
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Acknowledgements
About Jane Harper
Also by Jane Harper
Copyright
For Charlotte and Ted
Prologue
She could – almost – have been one of The Survivors.
Standing there, outlined by the weak light, her back turned and the salt water lapping at her feet. Then she moved. Just a small shift in weight and the in-out of breath, but enough to break the illusion before it was fully formed.
She was still looking away, focused on something he couldn’t make out in the dark. Somewhere, a wave broke and the sea surged, fresh and cold against his own legs as it fizzed white around her bare calves. He watched as she reached down with her free hand and gathered her skirt hem above her knees. The air was filled with a fine haze and her t-shirt clung to her back and her waist.
The sea swelled again, and this time the drag of the undertow was strong enough that he took a step towards her. She didn’t notice. Her face was tilted down, the silver chain of her necklace glinting against her collarbone as she leaned forward to examine something in the water. She dropped her skirt hem as the tide rushed out again, and lifted a hand to sweep aside her ponytail that had fallen over one shoulder. It was heavy from the sea spray. A single strand of hair had caught in the corner of her mouth and she brushed it free, her fingertips running across her lips. A tightness spread across his chest and shoulders.
If you’re going to do it –
The thought whispered beneath the rush of a wave. The undertow pulled again. He fought it, briefly, then took another step.
She heard him now, or sensed him at least. Some disruption in the natural rhythm flowing around her.
If you’re going to do it –
She looked up. He sucked in a breath of salt-soaked air.
Do it now.
Chapter 1
Kieran hoped the numbness would set in soon. The ocean’s icy burn usually mellowed into something more neutral, but as the minutes ticked by he still felt cold. He braced himself as a fresh wave broke against his skin.
The water wasn’t even too bad, he told himself. Not at the tail end of summer with the afternoon sun doing its best to take the edge off. Definitely goosebumps rather than hypothermia. Kieran knew he had personally described water far colder than this as ‘nice’. Only ever here in Tasmania, though, where sea temperatures surrounding the small island state were relative.
Sydney – the voice in Kieran’s head sounded suspiciously like his brother’s – has made you soft.
Maybe. But the real problem was that instead of slicing out through the blue with breath expanding in his chest and the water roaring past his ears and nothing but hundreds of kilometres of rolling sea separating him from the next nearest landmass, he was standing perfectly still, waist-deep, three metres from the beach.
His daughter lay milk-drunk against his bare chest, cocooned in a dry towel, a tiny sunhat shielding her eyes as she dozed. At three months old, Audrey was growing heavy now. He shifted her weight and, ignoring the mild ache in his shoulders and the cold against his legs, looked out at the horizon and let her sleep on.
Audrey was not the only one out for the count. On the beach, Kieran could see his girlfriend lying flat on her back, fully clothed, one arm flung over her eyes and her mouth slack. Mia’s head was resting on a rolled-up towel with her hair splayed out in a long, dark fan against the sand. She could sleep anywhere these days, as could he.
There was almost no-one else around. A teenage couple he hadn’t recognised had wandered by earlier, hand in hand and barefoot, and further along the sand a young woman had been beachcombing at the shoreline since they’d arrived. At the height of summer holidaymakers outnumbered Evelyn Bay’s nine-hundred-strong population by two to one, but now they had mostly gone, their real lives calling them back to the mainland and beyond.
‘Hey!’
A familiar voice made Kieran turn. The man was emerging from one of the small side paths that connected a row of weathered beach houses to the sand. He was grinning as he hoisted a battered backpack higher on his shoulder. At his feet loped a large dog of undetermined breed, whose size and shaggy gold-brown hair made him look disconcertingly similar to his owner.
Kieran waded out of the water and met Ash McDonald on the sand, turning so Ash could see the baby on his chest.
‘Bloody hell.’ Ash used a callused finger to pull back a corner of the towel and leaned his unshaven face in to look at Audrey.
‘Well, she’s too pretty to be yours, mate, but congratulations all the same.’ He straightened and winked at Mia, who had roused herself now, brushing the sand from her skirt as she walked over to join them. ‘Just kidding. She’s beautiful.’
‘Thanks, Ash.’ Mia smothered a yawn as he kissed
