The Dry by Jane Harper: book review

The Dry (2016) is set in the fictional rural town of Kiewarra, 500 kilometres north of Melbourne, Australia, during a long drought.

Thirty-six-year-old Luke Hadler, his wife Karen, and their six-year-old son Billy are found died in their farmhouse. It looks like a murder-suicide. But why would Luke kill himself and his family, yet save his 13-month-old daughter Charlotte?

Aaron Falk, a Federal police investigator of financial fraud cases, returns to his hometown Kiewarra to attend his friend’s funeral, at the request of Luke’s father, Gerry. Falk is not in town to investigate the case, yet he is drawn into it by the local police sergeant Greg Raco.

The funeral brings up memories of twenty years ago, when they were sixteen-year-olds, and best friends falling in love with Ellie and Gretchen.

Twenty years ago, Luke and Aaron shared a secret. Aaron finds out that Luke’s father Gerry knew about the secret too – and maybe others do. The secret may hold clues to the death of the Hadler family.

This is a well-written, easy-flowing, thriller that is hard to put down. I read it in one day, and enjoyed its intrigue and storyline.

MARTINA NICOLLSis an international aid and development consultant, and the authorof:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom(2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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