Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I read this book after joining a book club whose membership had enjoyed the first effort of Jane Harper, "Dry." Except for never-ending passages describing rain, mist and cold, this book rarely connects nature with the reader. Rarely has so much been said about physical surroundings with such a lack of vivid language. So it is with the characters--mostly flat, aimless, unhappy women, who are stuck on a corporate outing run by the most inept and unprofessional "wilderness adventure" company on the planet. As a police procedural, it fails since it's abundantly clear that the featured detective team has no jurisdiction, no authority, and a limited interest in the case. They are fraud investigators, and the reader is continuously prompted of their need to find business records of a suspect business. One wonders if author was so bored from one chapter to another that SHE needed reminding why the events mattered. The detective team is barely one-dimensional until the end of the book. Before then, they appear trapped in car or lodge, in endless rain, saying nothing of interest. Even the story's climax was muddled and boring. I wanted this book to "get good." But I knew my reading experience was going sour when, about halfway though, I hoped that all the characters would be found, driven by the police team to the Australian outback and eaten by dingoes.