it feels like the town is a tinderbox, ready to burst into flames, in more ways than one.
⭐️⭐️⭐️
The blurb
A small town hides big secrets in this atmospheric, page-turning debut mystery by award-winning author Jane Harper.
In the grip of the worst drought in a century, the farming community of Kiewarra is facing life and death choices daily when three members of a local family are found brutally slain.
Federal Police investigator Aaron Falk reluctantly returns to his hometown for the funeral of his childhood friend, loath to face the townsfolk who turned their backs on him twenty years earlier.
But as questions mount, Falk is forced to probe deeper into the deaths of the Hadler family. Because Falk and Luke Hadler shared a secret. A secret Falk thought was long buried. A secret Luke's death now threatens to bring to the surface in this small Australian town, as old wounds bleed into new ones.
The Review
I actually read and raved about Harper's second book (Force of nature) before I got round to this one and you can see my review of that here. I stand by what I said in that review - if there is one thing Jane Harper is most impressive at - it's creating such a vivid atmosphere, that you feel like you're actually in the scenes with the characters.
"the way Harper writes is compelling - she narrates in such a simple, unpretentious manner, whilst still painting vivid images of the landscape, so strong, that you can almost feel the oppressiveness of the trees surrounding you."
The only difference here is that the oppressiveness she paints so vividly is one of scorching, dry, relentless heat. She really makes it feel like the town is a tinderbox, ready to burst into flames, in more ways than one. The surroundings are expertly depicted, it's hard to believe that this is her debut novel.
The crime in this book is pretty gruesome. Three members of the same family have been found brutally murdered, seemingly at the hands of one of the victims - the husband and father. Everyone in the town thinks he just couldn't take it anymore, that the heat and the constant pressure of trying to farm in a town where the rain hasn't fallen in months, got too much for him and in this last act of desperation, he decided to take his family with him. But then, why not the baby? She was in the house too, so why did he decide to leave her behind?
This is a really solid mystery and its actually one where you're very unlikely to guess 'whodunnit' and if you do, even less likely to work out the why. Harper keeps you guessing right until the end and you'd have to have a sixth sense to work out exactly what went on.
Whilst the writing in 'The Dry' is every bit as good as in 'Force of Nature' - I just didn't find this story as compelling. It's much more of a slow burn and the tension isn't always maintained throughout; in a few small sections I was a tiny bit bored. I loved Force of Nature so much, that this was always going to struggle to beat it.
Although this one didn't hit the spot quite as much as Force of Nature, Harper still remains, in my opinion, one of the best current crime writers out there and I hope to be bowled over by The Lost Man, her next offering.