Undoubtedly one of the best mystery/suspense/crime books I have ever read - and this is a genre that I read extensively.

Another book that I came late to. I remember this being touted by podcasts I listen to. I'll admit that I tend to steer away from the mystery genre, but even so, this book came up empty. I didn't find the case to be compelling and there were a few details that weren't carefully thought out. This is the first in a series that I don't have any interest in continuing.

Summary from Goodreads:

"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 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."

My Thoughts:

The Dry was one of those highly anticipated books that I just was waiting to read but then put off reading due to all of the hype. I really hate when I let that happen because I feel like this was such a great read and one that I should have read sooner. It was definitely worth the wait though and such an atmospheric read. I found myself just immersed within the pages almost instantly. The author was able to just bring the drought this small town was living through to life in such a way that it almost felt like a character itself. The devastation that the drought had caused and how it had created this underlying tension amongst everyone living in the town just felt so real and awful at the same time. It was almost like you couldn't fully blame people for their actions but instead it was all blamed instead on the drought. I really just could not get enough of this book and the mystery that lay within. I liked that Falk wasn't your typical detective hero. In actuality he had secrets himself from long ago when he lived there, and it was possible that those secrets had been behind the death of his friend. There were just so many questions and it kept me reading unable to put the book down. The mystery itself was well done and wasn't something that I saw coming. I was flying through the pages by the end just so I could see how it was all going to end.

This is one of those books that I can easily recommend as I just enjoyed it so much! It was a memorable read and left me really excited to read more by this author. The one good thing about waiting so long to read this book is that I already have the second book just waiting to be read. I'm pumped to pick that one up after loving this book so much! It was a really good read and I just feel like the author brought the book to life for me. I can't say enough good things so I will probably just leave you with this: read it!! Highly recommended to both fans of mysteries and thrillers.

Bottom Line: An atmospheric mystery that I just couldn't get enough of!

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book thanks to the publisher and NetGalley. Thoughts are my own!

Well written and suspenseful. Thoroughly enjoyable, I am looking forward to reading more from this author.

I put off reading this book, because it seemed hard to start. But once I started, I couldn't put it down. I liked the premise, I liked the writing, I liked the characters. There were enough twists to be interesting, but not hard to follow. I really liked it!

The Dry is an excellent debut mystery series set in a small town called Kiewarra in Australia.  The town is already on edge due to the heat and a two-year drought when a farm family is found dead.  The town easily believes that Luke Hadler snapped due to the heat and drought, causing him to murder his wife and daughter and then commit suicide.  Luke's childhood friend, Aaron Falk, now a member of the Federal Police, returns after decades of being away to attend his friend's funeral.  Aaron had previously left town in a cloud of suspicion when his friend Ellie Deacon was found dead in a river and a note to Aaron was found which led people to suspect he might be responsible.  As questions arise surrounding his friend's death, Aaron uncomfortably sticks around to help the local police investigate the circumstances surrounding the deaths.  The past resurfaces in his investigation which is relayed in present day and flashbacks allowing the mystery to unfold in a nice manner.

The setting for this book is well-done, and I felt like I was there along with the characters.  Jane Harper has written engaging characters, and Aaron is a believable and fleshed-out protagonist.  This well-written mystery kept me engaged and guessing the solution until the end of the book.  I look forward to reading more in this series.

Thanks to Netgalley for an advanced copy.

It took a tragedy to get Federal Agent, Aaron Falk to go home. His childhood best friend killed his wife, son, and then himself. It was Luke's father who reached out to Aaron and summoned him. Falk had left his small Austrailian hometown years ago under a swirl of scandal when a friend of theirs was found dead in the river. But Falk goes home and finds that his hometown has practically dried up. The drought has taken a hit on the economy and everyone is on edge. Old family feuds are going strong and tensions are running high. Rumor has it that Luke's family farm was taking a hit and he was on the verge of losing it all. After the funeral one of the local authorities approaches Falk. He isn't entirely sure the case is as cut and dry as it looks. Falk agrees to stay and help the investigation and it turns out that the Sergeant was right. But who would want to kill Luke and his family?

The Dry has been getting a lot of buzz as being the next hot mystery and I understand why that it is. Aaron Falk appears to be a good guy. He leads a pretty quiet, if not solitary life, in Melbourne and a lot of that stems from the trauma of small town living. And having grown up in a small town, I totally get it. There is something very appealing about the anonymity of a big city after living in a town where everybody is up in your business. Falk has only agreed to stay for a week and the urgency is building and the past is catching up with him. The book has flashbacks back to when Luke and Aaron were kids and Ellie drowned. Ellie's family have made it very clear that they believe that Aaron is responsible, even though he wasn't. A lot of people in town also believe it to be true, which has made his visit a little more uncomfortable. I figured out who the killer was at a very specific moment about halfway through the book. I even highlighted the passage & thought "this is where I figured it out." I was right, but it could have gone any other way. - CLICK HERE FOR SPOILERS

Bottom line - even though I had it figured out pretty early, The Dry was still a page turner. I wanted to see if I was right and even though that I might not be at one point. I am glad that I stuck it out and look forward to more from Jane Harper in the future.

Details:
The Dry by Jane Harper
On Facebook
Pages: 336
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Publication Date: 1/10/2017
Buy it Here!

Jane Harper has a way with words describing an Australian town set during "the worst drought in a century." There were a few times I thought the descriptions were overkill but realized she had a reason for all of them by the finale. The pacing started off slow but I got used to it and was so caught up in the story. There are actually two mysteries to figure out. Were the current deaths a murder-suicide because of the strained burdens from the drought or something more sinister? And what really happened to a childhood friend twenty years ago? There are flashbacks throughout the whole novel to give you just a taste of the truth without giving it away until the last chapter. Quite an interesting start to what now looks to be a book series (just my luck).

You would never know this a first by this author. This book was outstanding. A quick read with a story that draws you in and frankly kept me up way to late not able to put it down

Returning to his small Australian hometown for the funeral of his childhood friend Luke, Melbourne cop Aaron Falk is convinced by Luke’s parents to take a closer look at the circumstances of his death. Doing so revives his and Luke’s shared past. That past involves a dead girl, and the town hasn’t forgotten. To make matters worse, a drought has everyone on edge. Falk has to negotiate their hostility and secrecy to shine a light into some dark places. A well-paced murder mystery in an unusual setting, with good writing. Reese Witherspoon has optioned it for a movie, and I hope that the movie lives up to the book’s cinematic quality.

Stellar debut mystery novel set in small town Australia. Also, try the audio version narrated by Stephen Shanahan who adds atmosphere with his Aussie accent. Characters are well drawn and the plot involves flashbacks which cleverly fill in the back story. Highly recommended! Look forward to more from Jane Harper!

This is Harper's debut novel, and I think she did a great job! I enjoyed the characters, the mystery and the pace. I was concerned when I realized there were going to be flashbacks, but they didn't bother me at all, which is very unusual. I suppose a compelling story is enticing whether it's in real time or flashbacks. Kudos to Harper!

Very well written for a debut. Setting was good and not overly written about it. Some authors go on and on about foliage and landscape for pages making me bored but Harper described the desolation of the outback without being wordy. Well developed characters. The "whodunit" was definitely a surprise. Nice work.

I strongly recommend this mystery set in a desolate Australian town suffering the effects of a two-year drought that shows no sign of ending. Agent Aaron Falk returns to the town that drove him and his dad out 20 years earlier, after the suspicious death of a teenage girl. Now he is driven to look into the death of the friend who'd alibied him, and who is thought to have killed his own wife and son. Riveting.

Set in Kiewarra, Australia, The Dry follows Federal Agent Aaron Falk and the ghosts that haunt him after the murder of his best friend brings him back home. What follows is a non-linear story that flashes back and forth between Falk's childhood days and present days in a desperate attempt to link together two unrelated crimes.

Per usual, I wasn't able to feel anything for any of the characters and as a result, I found the book extremely difficult to get into. The plot progresses at an aggravatingly slow pace which is frustrating. More than once, I considered putting it down because of that.

Characters and progression aside, Harper does succeed at creating unforeseen twists early on in The Dry's. I say early on because her knack for foreshadowing is a bit heavy-handed and as a result I was largely unsurprised with the solving of one of the two crimes. The other one, the more recent death of Falk's friend, was harder to follow because of small town bias and at one point toward the end, almost seemed to come out of the left field (yeah, I know I just used a cliche there).

Though the book's synopsis seems to focus heavily on what happened in Falk's childhood, the story itself is not. In fact, Falk discovers the answer to that mystery by chance and realistically he would have learned it a lot sooner. I'd divulge why, but that would be a spoiled.

Overall, I felt The Dry was just alright. It wasn't the best thriller I've read, but it was a far cry from the worst. While it doesn't appeal all that much to my preferences, I can see fans of James Patterson enjoying it. (Not to knock Patterson in any way, of course.) I am curious to see what Harper comes up with next, though.

This was an engrossing read, filled with more secrets than the CIA. There are so many twists and turns, I dont think anyone would be able to figure out the mystery. The setting was unfamiliar to me as it is set in Australia, but somehow seemed to add to the story line. Anyone who enjoys suspense or mysteries would enjoy this one and I would recommend it. Looking forward to future books from this author.

At times both delicate and brutal, The Dry follows Aaron Falk as he returns to his hometown following the mysterious death of his long time (and perhaps only) friend. As he begins to unravel the chilling death of Luke and his family, Falk is drawn in to the lives of the very people he had once escaped from.
The storyline seemed to lack tightness and control, and this reader often felt a lack of emotional connection.  Certainly, while the character development was sincere in its attempt, I never fully connected with any of the characters. Harper's writing is simple in a pleasing way, but the "clues" she left the reader throughout the book felt forced and, in hindsight, rather silly.  I finished the novel likely to never think of it again.

Australia is in the midst of coping with an extremely hot summer, Sydney and Brisbane experiencing the hottest January on record, February looking even hotter with the arrival of a heat wave and increased fire risks in Victoria and New South Wales (where currently 49 fires are burning across the state, 17 of which are not contained and the fire rating is at the level of “catastrophic”).

A situation that makes the context of Jane Harper’s new novel seem wearily appropriate.

The Dry is Jane Harper’s cracking debut crime fiction novel set in a fictional southeastern Australian town, suffering the effects of the ‘The Big Dry’, a nine-year drought.

The story follows Aaron Falk, a police officer from Melbourne, who returns to the town he and father were run out of many years back, for the funeral of his childhood friend Luke. It is clear he wants the visit over and done with as soon as possible and is unwilling to engage with anyone.

However Luke’s father is not happy with the way the police have handled his son’s apparent murder/suicide and asks Falk to stay and look into it.

With several twists, suspects and an intriguing back story of another death of a girl that occurred when the friends were teenagers, it sets a good pace, while exploring the effect of climatic conditions on a small rural community and the circumstances that cause others to seek out smaller towns as an escape.

Jane Harper is at work on her next novel, which also features the protagonist Aaron Falk.

I reviewed The Dry for Bookbrowse, where you can read the full review and a Beyond the Book article on The Big Dry.

Further Reading:

Australia Swelters in Heatwave and argues about Energy Future – The Guardian, Friday 10 Feb, 2017

A Page-Turner of a Mystery Set in a Parched Australia – NY Times review

When federal agent Aaron Falk returns home to attend a friend’s funeral, today’s headline and yesterday’s collide. Can Aaron confront the past as he attempts to determine what happened to his friend and his family?

Author Jane Harper has captured perfectly the rhythm of life in a small town, where you’re either born and bred or an outsider. When Aaron and his father left decades earlier, they left under a cloud, and in present day his arrival stirs up old memories and rivalries.

I wish I could give this debut novel six stars – it’s well written, with solid character development, enough plot twists to keep you guessing and so much atmosphere you can feel the heat and the drought.

I’ll definitely be watching for Jane Harper’s next novel.

Luke Hadler turns a gun on his wife and child, then himself. The farming community of Kiewarra is facing life and death choices daily. If one of their own broke under the strain, well...

When Federal Police investigator Aaron Falk returns to Kiewarra for the funerals, he is loath to confront the people who rejected him twenty years earlier. But when his investigative skills are called on, the facts of the Hadler case start to make him doubt this murder-suicide charge.

And as Falk probes deeper into the killings, old wounds start bleeding into fresh ones. For Falk and his childhood friend Luke shared a secret... A secret Falk thought long-buried... A secret which Luke's death starts to bring to the surface...



* * * * *



What happens to us when we are children can come back to haunt us and Aaron Falk finds this out when he is asked to investigate the death of his childhood friend. It is being pegged as a murder suicide but something just doesn't sit quite right with Aaron about that ruling.



While this book is set in the present, we are taken back quite often to the past in Aaron's memories as they are triggered by circumstances. Normally the time changes bother me but Ms. Harper has done such a wonderful job with these flashbacks that they really enrich the story. We are able to see how the past really reflects on Aaron's present when he returns to Keiwarra.



I found that the characters really come alive in THE DRY and enjoyed seeing how the people had changed from Aaron's memories of them to the current day. The book is set in a small town in Australia which is so different from my experiences that it is like stepping into another world. Thank goodness for google as I was able to familiarize myself with some of the insect life that is mentioned in the story.


I highly recommend THE DRY to any of my readers that enjoy a good mystery with a surprising and satisfying conclusion. Some of the scenes described might be a bit too graphic for a younger audience as we are discussing a murder so be advised. There is no graphic sex scenes however.



*** I received this book at no charge from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions expressed within are my own.