I literally never wrote a word unless I was paid for it,' she told The Book Show's Claire Nichols at Sydney Writers' Festival in 2018. 'You hear some writers say, 'Since I was a little kid, I was writing short stories, I was always scribbling away' – I never did it.

While Harper had always wanted to write a novel, she put her dream on hold for 10 years while she pursued a career in print journalism. The Dry has sold more than 1 million copies worldwide. While she intends to write a sixth novel – 'an Australian mystery similar to the tone and feel of the other books' – Harper is ready to take a break. While Harper is grateful for her success, she admits, 'I do look back, and I'm not sure I'd want to do that again.' It's something of an understatement coming from a writer who not only published five books in the last six years but also found time to have two children: Charlotte, born in 2016, and Ted, born in 2019. 'It's been a busy few years,' Harper recently told ABC RN's The Book Show. His creator, too, has been considering the question of work-life balance. It's not giving too much away to reveal that Falk spends much of Exiles - the final instalment of Harper's Falk trilogy - mulling over these questions. Or should he give it all up for a life among the grapevines, in a small-town community reminiscent of his childhood home? In Exiles, bestselling author Jane Harper's latest novel, detective Aaron Falk (first introduced to readers in 2016's The Dry) travels to South Australia's wine country where he engages in a little post-COVID reflection over a glass or two of red.ĭoes he want to continue living in the city, where he works long hours poring over spreadsheets in his role investigating financial crime for the Australian Federal Police (AFP), with little time for a social life or anything else?

The force of nature jane harper