The Dry Jane Harper

This book has been on my TBR list ever since I heard how good it was. It was mentioned as a ‘good read’ on The First Tuesday Book Club hosted by Jennifer Byrne a few weeks back. Usually, I don’t  like to read what they’ve recommended as I find the show a tad too arty, but the cover on this book appealed to me.

Boy, I am so glad that I found it (on offer, I must say) at my local K Mart – and BOUGHT it!. Its my best read so far this year (to get the perspective on that statement; I have read over 50 books so far for my Book Challenge 2016 on Goodreads).

It is beautifully written, amazing, I loved the plot, the characters, the setting, the mood of the book. You can almost feel the hot Australian sun burning on your back as you read it – its that GOOD! Each page makes you want more; each character is a potential suspect; you will not guess until the end who is the villain.

I read in one weekend; could not put it down….

The Dry – Jane Harper

Who killed the Hadler family?

Aaron Falk arrives in his hometown of Kiewarra, rural Victoria, for the funeral of an old school friend. Now living and working as a cop in Melbourne, he left Kiewarra under a mask of suspicion some twenty years ago, when his school girlfriend Ellie Deacon was found dead in the bottom of the river, her pockets filled with pebbles.

Now he returns for the funeral of Luke Hadler, a farmer, who has killed his wife and young son and set the shotgun onto himself. The river where Ellie was found is now a dry river bed, a result of the drought that has inflicted the area for the last few years, causing farmers to shoot starving cattle, and despair of the rains returning.

Falk just wants to pay his respects, and leave. He counts down the hours until his has to go, but then finds himself investigating the deaths with the local copper. In the process, he becomes untangled into the past and the ghosts that lay there, waiting to reappear.

So Luke is cast as a despairing, depressive farmer who has lost hope and killed his family as a result, or so the local town cops believe. Its a clear cut and dried case, but is it?

An atmospheric, mesmerizing thriller, that will leave you guessing until the end!

A fabulous read –  5/5.