The Dry

I hadn’t even finished the prologue before I knew this was going to be incredible. I was instantly awed by the writing. A debut that blows so many out of the water.

Great depiction of people in Australia dur harrowing time and a mystery. Good characters. I would read this again.

In the drought-stricken small town of Kiewarra, five hours out of Melbourne, Australia, the Hadler family is discovered horrifically slaughtered. Only the 13-month-old infant daughter is found alive. Crying.
It looks like the father, Luke, killed his wife, Karen, and his son, Billy. Then committed suicide.
Looks like…

Australian Federal Police investigator Aaron Falk comes home for the funeral. He hasn’t been back to Kiewarra in 20 years. Luke Hadler was his childhood friend.

Something doesn’t sit right with Aaron and he is soon involved in an off-the-books investigation with the local police sergeant.
What they discover and the secrets that they’ll unearth will be shocking. To say the least.

Aaron is involved in a dark secret from the town’s past as well.

The first line of this story places the bait in front of you. By the end of the first page the hook is set and you’re being reeled-in by the fast-paced, tight-as-a-drum plot brimming with suspense and “breathing” characters.
The sense of place is so good you can feel the dry heat come off the pages.

A terrific crime fiction debut.

The small farming town of Kiewarra in Victoria is aching with thirst. After two years without rain, livestock is dying and businesses are failing. The author’s powers of description make it feel like the whole novel is set in a tinder box.
The main character, Aaron Falk, is an out-of-town cop who usually investigates city frauds. He grew up in Kiewarra but left under a cloud twenty years earlier. He only returns for school friend Luke Hadler’s funeral. Hadler shot his wife and child before turning the gun on himself. When Falk begins to dispute this version of events, the townsfolk have a second reason to hate him. As he delves deeper into the circumstances of the Hadlers’ deaths, his own safety is increasingly threatened and events from the past take on new significance.
A bestseller worthy of the title. Highly recommended. And best of all I guessed what had happened early on and enjoyed spotting the clues in the narrative. Love it when that happens.

I love a good mystery. This was a good one, with great characters. Something happened in the past and seems to be linked to a horrible murder in the present time in southern Australia. I loved the setting and the unpredictability in the story events.

A brilliant read, so true to life in Australia.

I honestly couldn’t get past like the first 5 pages of this book the narrator was killing me I just couldn’t handle it

Atmospheric, authentic, pacy, this book blew my mind!

I thought it was well written. The characters were well developed, realistic and interesting. I’ve never been to Australia but the author’s description of the Dry conditions and constant threat of brush fires was believeable, what I imagined it to be like. Living in the northeast, I’ve often complained about cold snowy winters and hot humid summers.Reading about the arid conditions in that part of Australia made me promise myself to never complain again. Depressing at times, often sad, I found myself sighing deeply and often. I read the book three evenings in a row until I was finished. and I was surprised by the ending. So, I give it 5 stars.

I have been lucky enough to read some very good books of late, and this is now one of them.
An incredibly well-written thriller. Jane Harper did an astonishing job at making me personally feel like I was an extra in the story. I could feel the dryness in the back of my throat from the town’s two-year spell without rain, the heat of the burning sun, the extreme tension amongst the small township, and the mourning of a recent double murder and suicide. To add to all that is the hatred of an unforgotten alleged suicide of a young girl brought fresh to the minds of locals by the arrival of Aaron Falk, a former member of the town, now a federal agent in Melbourne.

Falk has come back to Kiewarra to pay his respects to the family of his childhood friend Luke Hadler, who is assumed to have lost his mind and taken a shotgun to his wife and son, then himself, leaving behind only the baby. When he is asked to look into the deaths by Luke’s father, he is at first hesitant, with no intention of hanging around. Out of respect, he visits the farm to take a look around only to find newly appointed officer Raco, who himself has suspicions that the investigation may have been concluded in haste.
When the pair come to the conclusion that there are a couple of discrepancies over the why and how they team up to investigate off the record.

We then come across an assortment of characters, some with secrets to hide that hold clues not only to the recent murder of the Hadler family but the possible murder of Ellie, a young girl whose death brought the town to its knees years earlier and ended with suspect, Aaron, and his father practically being run out of town.

Jane Harper places the reader right in the heart of the story. More clues begin to emerge, first throwing doubt that Luke could have committed such an atrocious act, then leading you to believe it’s possible he did. All the red herrings are there to make you miss the subtle clues that will take you to the truth. It’s an outstanding piece of writing leading us to a suspenseful standoff.

A couple of days ago I had an inkling as to who might be responsible for the murders. At the time, the only thing I could not see was the motive and reasoning. All eventually becomes clear and I was pleased to be absolutely spot on.

I highly recommend this novel. As I stated at the top of the review, It is a superb read, and don’t be surprised if this doesn’t turn up on your television screens at some point in the future.

Brilliant job, Jane. I look forward to your next novel.