Crime novelist.
Born in Manchester in the UK, Jane Harper moved to Australia with her family when she was eight years old. After eight years in Victoria (at which time they obtained Australian citizenship), the family returned to the UK, and Harper was educated at the University of Kent in Canterbury (English and History).
After graduation, Harper worked as a journalist, first on the Darlington & Stockton Times and then on the Hull Daily Mail. She continued journalism after her return to Australia in 2008, working for the Geelong Advertiser and the Melbourne-based Herald Sun.
Harper's first novel, The Dry, was published in 2016, after winning the Victorian Premier's Award for an unpublished manuscript the year before. It continued its winning streak, winning the Indie Award for debut fiction, two Australian Book Industry Awards (for general fiction book of the year and the overarching book of the year award), and, unusually for an Australian novel, the Gold Dagger from the Crime Writers' Association (UK). It was also published almost immediately into British and American territories, and, as of 2018, translated into fifteen languages.
Harper has subsequently published a sequel, with a third book featuring the same detective due in 2018.