Jane Harper shifts direction with her third novel, less crime novel, more a character driven mystery and family drama. What has not changed is her ability to write an utterly gripping story set in the intensely searing heat of the Australian outback, and the depiction of small town life with its claustrophobia, marked with its unforgiving and judgmental attitudes. Two brothers, Nathan and Bub meet at the legendary stockman's headstone, in the middle of nowhere where the body of their brother, Cameron is found. Why is his vehicle with its necessary supplies found parked amidst rocks some distance away? Nathan is with his son, Xander, who normally lives in Brisbane with his ex-wife, Jacqui, now remarried.

Nathan has missed most of his son's growing up years after bitter and acrimonious custody battles. He runs his own farm, but his status as town pariah for many years has resulted in him living alone, barely seeing anyone, struggling and drowning in a quagmire of financial debt. He has hardly been in touch with his family, whose family farm was run by Cameron. Christmas is coming, Cameron's funeral has to be planned as the police have decided his death merits no investigation, given that Cameron had been troubled for a while, likely committing suicide. Nathan and Xander stay at the family home, with his grieving mother, Uncle Harry, Bub, and Ilse, Cameron's wife, and their two daughters, Lo and Sophie. Nathan, helped by Xander, wants to get to the bottom of Cameron's death, and finds there are secrets and so much he was unaware of. He finds himself sifting through the past, dysfunctional family history, mental health issues and abuse in its many varied forms.

I loved this novel from Harper even more than her others, I think she is developing into an even better writer. She is an expert when it comes to conveying the outback, the deadly scorching heat, the dust storms, the remoteness, how the heat and isolation takes it toll on its inhabitants and its unspoken rules such as you must help anyone in trouble. It has a beauty and a hold on those who know no other home as we can see with Nathan's inner connection with it that outsiders just do not get. Harper's characterisation has you investing in her compelling storytelling and her coverage of the dynamics of family life. Nathan understands the principles underlying the Bright family, don't tell anyone, not even each other and the single ingrained truth, he was on his own. The vastness of the outback and lack of close neighbours means family issues fail to be addressed from external agencies. This is a brilliantly entertaining read revolving around a family drama. I cannot wait to see where Jane Harper goes next as I eagerly anticipate her next book. Many thanks to Little, Brown for an ARC.

The man lay still in the centre of a dusty grave under a monstrous sky...

Cameron Bright is found dead in a place where searing heat ensures no one can survive long in the open, chasing the only shade for miles around, the headstone of a long-dead stockman. How he came to be there, by accident or design, is a mystery.

His brother Nathan, long ostracised by the local people for an incident many years earlier and living an isolated existence punctuated only by the visits of his teenage son, finds himself back in the family home - with his mother, brother, and Cameron’s wife and children - in the wake of Cameron’s death. As the mystery of Cameron’s life and death gradually unravels, secrets and hidden truths emerge.

Jane Harper excels, of course, at depicting the vast, dusty expanses and desolate beauty of the Australian Outback, where to stray off the road spells almost certain death. It’s hard to imagine a more skilled chronicler of that wide open landscape and the people who inhabit it. The Lost Man is wonderfully written, rich in atmosphere and a very satisfying read.

Having read and enjoyed Harper’s previous novels, I was looking forward to seeing what The Lost Man would be like. And while it’s a good read, it didn’t initially grab me. I found it slow to start but eventually I ended up becoming absorbed in the story. Harper has a very descriptive style of writing, and it’s showcased perfectly in The Lost Man. While the story was ok, I think the prose is what carried it. On the whole, I enjoyed it, but less than the Aaron Falk books. It’s vastly different from them, but still an enjoyable read.

I loved Jane Harper's previous books, and always appreciated her literary side also coming along her skill of creating a very compelling crime plot. I would call her books one of the most 'literary' crime thrillers out there.
This book I would say was one the 'literary' side came out the most. I can't call this only a thriller, it was also a family saga, written very skilfully.
It was very atmospheric reflecting the unforgiving rural environment in Australia. I wish I knew it better to appreciate it more, but I'm sure her Australian fans did so :)
The beginning was a bit complicated, slow and hard to get in, but after a while the mystery picked up and I loved it. It's not a heart pounding, simple crime novel. It's definitely a slow burning mystery that involves characterisation and family relationships.
I'd recommend this book of course if you're a fan of Jane Harper or not. It's brilliant.

Beautifully written, with descriptions that are so good I could imagine myself in the outback. This story is about domestic abuse and how it affects a family. It's sad and haunting and sympathetically written.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

The Lost Man is Harper’s third novel and adopts a different approach to the last two - not focused on Aaron Falk this time, and nor is it told in a mixture of flashback and present day. I adit early in the book to missing both Falk and the narrative approach - there are initially too many meaningful references to things that have happened in the past, without explaining what they are for the purposes of building tension - necessary dramatically but irritating at first. I don;t recall at what point that stopped irritating me and i just became lost in the mystery, but it was probably before i read the last half of the book in pretty much one sitting...
Harper makes the arid, featureless, sun-baked, dangerous landscape a major character rather than just a setting; it feels alive like a brooding presence. She creates a fully immersive setting for the central mysteery to unfold. All early reservations were put aside.

Having read and loved Jane Harper's excellent first book I couldn't wait to get back to the Australian Outback in her third book. While I found the first half of this book kinda slow the second half more than makes up for it as the mystery and the family secrets are slowly revealed leading to an incredibly satisfying conclusion. Jane has an exceptional way of bringing the outback to life in her books, you can literally feel the oppressiveness of the heat and the landscape leap off the page and her writing is evocative, her characters are authentic and the stories she tells are very believable! I can't wait to read more from this very talented writer!

After having loved Jane Harper's first two novels The Dry and Force of Nature (both part of her Aaron Falk series), I was excited to give her latest novel - The Lost Man - a go. This one is a standalone novel which has quite a different feel to the others - but is just as compelling.

Like her first two books, The Lost Man is set in the dusty, boiling Australian outback, but this time the plot takes us to Queensland, and follows the Bright family as they try to cope with the death of one of their own. Brothers Nathan and Bub try to unearth how and why their other brother, Cameron, ended up dying in an unexplained and unexpected way, and along the way they discover plenty of family and small-town secrets.

I loved how atmospheric this novel is; Jane Harper really paints a vivid picture of the Australian outback and its fierce, unrelenting heat. There's a key narrative running through the book which centers on what happened to Cameron, but there are also various other storylines which affect those within, and linked to, the Bright family. There are some really well-crafted characters who helped make this novel such a brilliant read.

The Lost Man contains some emotive, tricky subjects and, in all truthfulness, not much light relief, meaning it's jam packed full of atmosphere. It gets off to a fairly slow start, and maintains a steady pace throughout, choosing rumour and unspoken questions over fast-paced drama. However, there's plenty of tension running through these pages which keeps the story taut and memorable. To me, this well-written novel matched the unrelentlessly brilliant standard of The Dry, and keeps me looking forward to future releases from Jane Harper.

In the Australian outback, two brothers - Nathan and Bub - stand side by side. They are at the stockman’s grave, a landmark so old that no one knows who or why they were buried there. Normally, they would avoid it, but not today. Today, their brother, middle child Cameron, is lying on the grave, dead, due to the heat and lack of water. But why did he leave his fully-stocked car - which had water, food, and equipment - and walk 9 to 10 kilometres away? Some kind of bizarre suicide? If so, what made him do it? If not, the suspect list is dangerously short as the closest neighbours are hours drive away…

The past is a dangerous thing in the Australian outback…

So… what do I think of this?

Well, as you know, I like a good crime. I like a good crime with a bit of pace. So, it might come as a surprise as this was a slow, creeping burn of a mystery. Things don’t race by at a hundred miles per hour, but it is slowly revealed, bit by bit, and I weirdly enjoy this. It was a different pace for me but I liked how the Bright family coped with Cam’s death and yet, all the while, this creeping sense dread is lurking in the background, buying its times…

I am going to say I did kinda suspect how the story was going to end, but there were things that surprised me. Little layers that made me do “Oh!” over. I do think that, yes, this is a mystery story but I would say it’s much more character driven. We looked at how Nathan (who is our lead) and his family cope with Cam’s death. It’s a family driven story with the mystery of what happened to Cam more in the background, but slowly edging forward, like a dust cloud in the outback.

Another thing I liked about this book was that this book was Australian. I don’t read much Australian fiction (a frighteningly tiny amount), but I was barely half a chapter in before I felt like I was in Australia and, because of that, the vibe of the book felt different to other crime and mystery novels I have read that are set in the UK, the US or in Europe. It had its own voice and style.

I do want to say before I go any further that this book does have some triggers, so if you are affected by mental health or abuse, you might want to give this a miss. Normally, I would have DNF’ed this myself as, the older I get, the more I dislike reading this type of books. So, why did I not DNF this? Because of the way Jane happened it. It was, like the mystery of Cam, more in the background and it was drip-fed. It is important to the plot and to the characters, but like I said, this is more a character driven story so it’s important to understand why a character behaviour a certain way - unlike other books I have read and DNF which have used these issues as a shock factor.

It’s very atmospheric and very Australian. It had a quality to it that I don’t see often in the crime stories I’ve read in the past few months. I really enjoyed this book and I enjoyed Jane Harper’s writing. I do believe that, if I’m not careful, Jane Harper might be my next auto-buy author. Can’t wait to find time to read The Dry and Force of Nature…

This is a wonderful novel that held my attention throughout and transported me to the remote, stifling Australian outback. It started quite slowly, but soon I was caught up in the life of the Bright family. Husband and father of two, Cameron Bright, is found dead on the stockman’s grave. How did he get there? His brother Nathan, who has his own demons, tries to find out. The novel explores the secrets and lies leading to his death. It’s a fascinating portrayal of mistakes made and lessons learnt. The characters are true to life and the atmosphere chilling even in 40 degrees. It kept me totally gripped. I have read and enjoyed Jane Harper’s other novels and this one is darker but no less brilliant. In fact I think it’s her best so far. The quality of writing is superb. I look forward to her next book.

I was delighted to receive a copy of this much anticipated book. I have read the other two books by Jane Harper. This is a standalone. It's set in the Bush in Australia. The descriptions of the environment are excellent and scary! This story had me intrigued and guessing right up to the very end! Excellent, lots of twists and turns and stories thrown in. I highly recommend!

Jane Harper just gets better and better with each passing novel.

The Lost Man is a bit of a departure, more family drama than mystery, a haunting, melancholy tale of a lost brother and what may have lead him to just walk away from safety.

The Lost Man of the title really could refer to any one of the three brothers you'll meet within the pages and Jane Harper captures the sense of space in the outback, where danger is simply a part of living, perfectly. 

I'm on the blog tour in the New year and will certainly look forward to writing a more detailed review.

A standalone novel that simply embeds this author onto my list of the great writers. Exemplary. 

Highly Recommended.

The strongest of Harper's three novels to date, this is an oblique mystery where someone dies at the start but the question of whether it's murder or not hovers over the narrative. There's no detective as such, and the uncovering of dark secrets happens within a family. The trope of what lies beneath a family's surface has been increasingly overdone in crime fiction recently but Harper delivers one of the best-in-class: she keeps things tight rather than sensational or melodramatic, and her psychology is subtle and believable.

The setting of the outback desert, the heat, the dust, the vast distances, the harsh landscape that breeds laconic, macho men is conveyed brilliantly, becomes a character in its own right.

The narrative unfurls at a steady pace, drip-feeding information that accumulates with increasing understanding, and delivers a final payoff that is powerful emotionally and also logically satisfying. A suspenseful page-turner that is also intelligent and written with style - don't miss this one!

I read that this is a good duvet day book. And it truly is. Atmospheric and compelling - it left an impression and I will be buying more books by this amazing author.
5/5 on good reads

Another wonderful book from Jane Harper.
Fabulous characterisation, superb writing and the setting is described beautifully, you get a real sense of the isolation and grandeur of the Australian outback.
The Lost Man isn't an action packed story, it is however a slow burn that has you hooked from the start. A compulsive page turner that will keep you guessing until the end.

This is my first book by this author although I do have The Dry and Force of Nature on my (extremely long and out of control) TBR. After enjoying this book so much I will make a concerted effort to bump them up a bit!
We start with two brothers, Bub and Nathan, meeting up at a local landmark - the stockman's grave - a place where the third brother, Cameron, has recently lost his life, dying from exposure with no sign of his vehicle. What happened to him and why are only the tip of the iceberg of questions that are raised in the days that follow. The days coming up to Christmas when the whole family has come together. As Nathan slowly starts to peel back the layers of Cameron's life, his last days, shocking truths start to emerge which will take him back to his childhood and also the events which ostracised him from both his family and the town which he calls home.
One of the best things about this book, characters and story aside, was the brilliant descriptions of the Outback in which the book is set. Its isolation and the struggles that the inhabitants go through every single day. I really learned a lot about the people who live there and how much I personally take for granted that they really struggle with. Food for thought most definitely.
Back to the characters and the story which were both also excellent. Nathan was the main character and the story is told from his perspective. I found him to be a very complex character, a feeling that ramped up as more of his personal story was disclosed. He also came across as real, not wholly likeable, but understandable and I did connect with him and the reasons for the way he has become. The rest of the characters were just as well drawn, all of them eliciting some kind of reaction from me.
As for the story that the wonderful characters were enacting, well, that held my attention very well throughout. I do love a good family saga, skeletons in closets, secrets lies and dysfunctional behaviour, and I got it here aplenty. Yes OK I kept screaming at certain characters to do something which they nearly did several times throughout the book but I understand the reasons for holding back, pivotal to the story in fact, but I do admit to sitting back smugly when eventually... and I'll leave that for you to discover! Apart from that though, the story flowed well. Enough information and backstory was introduced at the right times to keep my interest and keep me guessing throughout. With nearly everyone acting a little suspiciously at certain times through the book I flitted between many possible scenarios in my head until the final reveal where I found out that I sucked at guessing this one!
All in all, a brilliant story set in a wonderful place starring the best characters. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

This is a beautifully written book by Jane Harper and her knowledge of Australia shines right through. The setting is the outback in Queensland and the plot centres around the death of one of three brothers. I loved the character of Nathan and his relationship with his son. The plot is quite intricate and delves into family relationships and past arguments. Superb writing and a harsh, hostile landscape make this a winner. My thanks to Net Galley for my ARC in exchange for an honest review. Reviewed on Goodreads and Facebook.

I guess every review of The Lost Man will describe it as atmospheric but the dry, dusty landscape is a central character here. The isolation of living hours away from your neighbour is hard to grasp when you have neighbours only seconds walk away. I did enjoy the gradual unpicking of all the secrets and lies before we found out exactly how Cameron died. I’m not sure how such a slow paced book can be so gripping, but it is.

Jane Harper's writing is so descriptive and lyrical I felt like I was in the Australian outback. The story starts beautifully with two brothers finding the body of their other brother, Cameron. I couldn't stop reading at this point but gradually I knew where this story was headed and I felt disappointed. Ultimately the book is about abuse and how families can turn a blind eye! Another good read but not a great read for me!

I loved this book, it was so descriptive of the outback that I could imagine myself being there. The dynamics and secrets of one family are untangled to reveal answers to twists throughout the book. It held my attention from the very first page, really did not know what was going to happen from beginning to end. I read the first novel by this author, enjoyed it a lot but thought this book was way better.
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