A small town hides big secrets in The Dry, an atmospheric, page-turning debut mystery by award-winning author Jane Harper.After getting a note demanding his presence, Federal Agent Aaron Falk arrives in his hometown for the first time in decades to attend the funeral of his best friend, Luke. Twenty years ago when Falk was accused of murder, Luke was his alibi. Falk and his father fled under a … father fled under a cloud of suspicion, saved from prosecution only because of Luke s steadfast claim that the boys had been together at the time of the crime. But now more than one person knows they didn t tell the truth back then, and Luke is dead.
Amid the worst drought in a century, Falk and the local detective question what really happened to Luke. As Falk reluctantly investigates to see if there s more to Luke s death than there seems to be, long-buried mysteries resurface, as do the lies that have haunted them. And Falk will find that small towns have always hidden big secrets.
”more
Great suspenseful mystery set in the Australian outback
This is Harper’s first book and she is great with characters, subtle clues, and an unexpected ending.
3-dimensional characters in unusual, almost impossible situations that are nevertheless deeply realistic & sympathetic
I like the story and the way it was written. Although there were several times I couldn’t help wondering about the competency of the medical examiners and the investigators of the two crimes. How did they miss the things they missed and not solve all of this sooner? Anyway, the book is just okay.
The book has really interesting characters, and a storyline that makes you keep reading! It also makes the Australian country side come alive.
First time reading this author and it was well worth the time. She is an excellent story teller! It was hard for me to put the back down I just wanted to keep reading!
The setting is Australia outback. I loved the characters and the mysterious deaths that are the main story. I will read Jane Harper’s new book! Loved this one.
Beautiful and descriptive writing plus great story line.
Read this while cruising across the South Pacific to Noumea, Mystery Island, and Mare Island and back again. Lovely cruise, I highly recommend Royal Caribbean, especially if you’re a young family with kids – plenty for everyone to do.
On to the book. Good story, not quite as crime-related as I was expecting. I don’t understand exactly why Falk was a federal police investigator specialising in financial crimes. No part of his investigation into his friend’s death had anything to do with his work, so why make it a feature of his character? Every time he was introduced to someone they mentioned what type of police investigator he was, yet he never used his financial skills for any actual investigating. Was a bit disappointed and confused to not see Falk poring over financial documents looking for evidence or a motive.
I was even more disappointed to find two editing errors. One on page 7
‘”Anything ending with a few zeros that’s not where it should be.”‘
The tenses don’t match. Because ‘zeros’ is plural, ‘it’ should be too as they are both referring to the same thing. Therefore the sentence needs to be modified to ‘…zeros that aren’t where they should be.’
Then on page 247
‘…she said, pulling of her ear guards.’
That should be ‘off’ and why does she call them ‘ear guards’? ‘Earmuffs’ is the popular and commonly used term, there’s even a Wikipedia page on them. If you type ‘ear guards’ into Google you get results about padding for the ears of MMA fighters.
Will probably read the sequel, but probably wouldn’t buy it (have heard that it’s not quite as good as this one).
THE DRY is among the best, if not the best debut novel I’ve ever read. Jane Harper brings to life the small town of Kiewarra, an Australian farming town in the midst of a catastrophic drought, with deft skill, coloring the landscape with complex, well-fleshed out characters. Among them is Aaron Falk, perhaps a new favorite detective.
Falk returns to Kiewarra at the urging of a childhood friend’s father when his son is implicated in the murder-suicide of himself, his wife, and their young son. The friend, Luke, and Aaron have a complicated past that includes the years’ old mysterious death of young Ellie Deacon for which the two provided false alibis for one another. Luke’s father wants to know if it’s possible Luke didn’t only kill his wife and son out of desperation, but if he might have killed before. Falk, however, has been historically implicated by a scrap of paper found in Ellie’s room with his name on it. What did happen to Ellie Deacon and does it have anything to do with the Hadler family’s death?
I’m in love with mysteries that include childhood transgressions and THE DRY reminds me so much in ways of Megan Miranda’s ALL THE MISSING GIRLS, which was my absolute favorite read of last year. The similarities are limited to strong, gripping prose and pacing and the combining of “now” and “then.” I’m confident if you like either of these books you’ll enjoy the other. I couldn’t put either of them down.
THE DRY features a stunning cover and breakneck, twisty pacing. These aren’t cheap twists, either. The details are carefully revealed so as not to ever make the solution to the mystery obvious. The cast of characters rings so true because while I know next to nothing about Australia, the farming community depicted could easily be any farming community stateside facing similar hard times. The setting plays as important a role in the mystery as the diverse and utterly unique cast of characters. Two mysteries are neatly solved in THE DRY, but there’s an open-ended thread left loose with Gretchen, 1/4th of the Luke, Ellie, Aaron circle of friends that makes me wonder if there won’t be more of her to come. I’m not sure she and Aaron are finished with one another yet.
Bravo, Jane Harper! Well done. I can’t wait for FORCE OF NATURE, the next in the Aaron Falk series.
Easy read that was very compelling, although the pace was a little slow between suspects. This book had multiple layers of mystery that kept you engaged to the very last page.
I could not put this book down.
This was a very well-written thriller. The main character and setting kept me absorbed till the very end. I look forward to picking up Jane Harper’s new book, Force of Nature.
Awesome book..