The Dry by Jane Harper
Nov. 28th, 2016 11:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
You know, I look at Luke Hadler and on the surface he had it all – great wife, two kids, decent enough farm, respect in his community. Why would a man like that turn around one day and destroy his family? It makes no sense. I just can’t understand how someone like him could do something like that.”
Falk rubbed a hand over his mouth and chin. It felt gritty. He needed a shave.
Luke lied. You lied.
“Raco,” he said. “There’s something about Luke you need to know.”
Australia is in the grip of its worst drought in a century; it hasn’t rained in the small country town of Kiewarra for two years. Tensions in the community become unbearable when three members of the Hadler family are brutally murdered. Everyone thinks Luke Hadler, who committed suicide after slaughtering his wife and six-year-old son, is guilty.
Policeman Aaron Falk returns to his home town for the funeral of his childhood best friend, and is unwillingly drawn into the investigation. As questions mount and suspicion spreads through the town, Falk is forced to confront the community that rejected him twenty years earlier. Because Falk and Luke Hadler shared a secret, one which Luke’s death threatens to unearth. And when Falk probes deeper into the killings, secrets from his past begin to bubble to the surface.
Aaron Falk is a policeman based in Melbourne and specialising in white collar crime and fraud but 20 years ago he and his father were run out of Kiewarra (a small country town) when he was suspected in involvement in the death of 16 year old Ellie Deacon whose body was found in a river, weighed down by stones. Falk’s alibi was his best friend, Luke, but no one believed that thanks to a one-line note Ellie left with Falk’s name on it and the fact that everyone knew they were friends.
Falk returns to Kiewarra for Luke’s funeral but this is no ordinary death: Luke’s believed to have murdered his wife and young son before committing suicide. Everyone believes it’s an open and shut case but Luke’s parents emotionally blackmail Falk into investigating because they know the alibi Luke gave him was false. Falk reluctantly joins forces with the local police officer, Greg Raco, who has questions of his own about the deaths. But Kiewarra’s in the grip of a terrible drought and tensions within the town are exacerbated by Falk’s past and the secrets that surrounded Ellie Deacon’s death are starting to come out …
Jane Harper’s debut crime novel is a well constructed story split between two time periods that shows the fractures in small town life made worse by a horrendous drought. I liked the novelty of a detective whose speciality isn’t murder and I thought Harper did a good job of taking a character weighed down by guilt and frustration who’s taken outside his comfort zone while Raco is a sturdy sidekick (a good copper in his own right rather than a lazy hick). Harper also makes the most of her small town setting – I believed in the dying businesses and dying farms caused by the devastating drought and the effects that it has on the local population as crops fail, animals die and desperation starts to set in. I particularly enjoyed the way Harper unspools the Ellie storyline, showing the tensions and passions at play in the set of friends and the ripples it continues to cause years later but wish the ending had given more of a hint as to whether justice would actually be served. I very much hope that Harper produces a series following Falk as I would definitely read on but failing that I’d also read her next work.
The Verdict:
Jane Harper’s debut crime novel is a well constructed story split between two time periods that shows the fractures in small town life made worse by a horrendous drought. I liked the novelty of a detective whose speciality isn’t murder and I thought Harper did a good job of taking a character weighed down by guilt and frustration who’s taken outside his comfort zone while Raco is a sturdy sidekick (a good copper in his own right rather than a lazy hick). Harper also makes the most of her small town setting – I believed in the dying businesses and dying farms caused by the devastating drought and the effects that it has on the local population as crops fail, animals die and desperation starts to set in. I particularly enjoyed the way Harper unspools the Ellie storyline, showing the tensions and passions at play in the set of friends and the ripples it continues to cause years later but wish the ending had given more of a hint as to whether justice would actually be served. I very much hope that Harper produces a series following Falk as I would definitely read on but failing that I’d also read her next work.
THE DRY will be released in the United Kingdom on 12th January 2017. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the ARC of this book.
Falk rubbed a hand over his mouth and chin. It felt gritty. He needed a shave.
Luke lied. You lied.
“Raco,” he said. “There’s something about Luke you need to know.”
Australia is in the grip of its worst drought in a century; it hasn’t rained in the small country town of Kiewarra for two years. Tensions in the community become unbearable when three members of the Hadler family are brutally murdered. Everyone thinks Luke Hadler, who committed suicide after slaughtering his wife and six-year-old son, is guilty.
Policeman Aaron Falk returns to his home town for the funeral of his childhood best friend, and is unwillingly drawn into the investigation. As questions mount and suspicion spreads through the town, Falk is forced to confront the community that rejected him twenty years earlier. Because Falk and Luke Hadler shared a secret, one which Luke’s death threatens to unearth. And when Falk probes deeper into the killings, secrets from his past begin to bubble to the surface.
Aaron Falk is a policeman based in Melbourne and specialising in white collar crime and fraud but 20 years ago he and his father were run out of Kiewarra (a small country town) when he was suspected in involvement in the death of 16 year old Ellie Deacon whose body was found in a river, weighed down by stones. Falk’s alibi was his best friend, Luke, but no one believed that thanks to a one-line note Ellie left with Falk’s name on it and the fact that everyone knew they were friends.
Falk returns to Kiewarra for Luke’s funeral but this is no ordinary death: Luke’s believed to have murdered his wife and young son before committing suicide. Everyone believes it’s an open and shut case but Luke’s parents emotionally blackmail Falk into investigating because they know the alibi Luke gave him was false. Falk reluctantly joins forces with the local police officer, Greg Raco, who has questions of his own about the deaths. But Kiewarra’s in the grip of a terrible drought and tensions within the town are exacerbated by Falk’s past and the secrets that surrounded Ellie Deacon’s death are starting to come out …
Jane Harper’s debut crime novel is a well constructed story split between two time periods that shows the fractures in small town life made worse by a horrendous drought. I liked the novelty of a detective whose speciality isn’t murder and I thought Harper did a good job of taking a character weighed down by guilt and frustration who’s taken outside his comfort zone while Raco is a sturdy sidekick (a good copper in his own right rather than a lazy hick). Harper also makes the most of her small town setting – I believed in the dying businesses and dying farms caused by the devastating drought and the effects that it has on the local population as crops fail, animals die and desperation starts to set in. I particularly enjoyed the way Harper unspools the Ellie storyline, showing the tensions and passions at play in the set of friends and the ripples it continues to cause years later but wish the ending had given more of a hint as to whether justice would actually be served. I very much hope that Harper produces a series following Falk as I would definitely read on but failing that I’d also read her next work.
The Verdict:
Jane Harper’s debut crime novel is a well constructed story split between two time periods that shows the fractures in small town life made worse by a horrendous drought. I liked the novelty of a detective whose speciality isn’t murder and I thought Harper did a good job of taking a character weighed down by guilt and frustration who’s taken outside his comfort zone while Raco is a sturdy sidekick (a good copper in his own right rather than a lazy hick). Harper also makes the most of her small town setting – I believed in the dying businesses and dying farms caused by the devastating drought and the effects that it has on the local population as crops fail, animals die and desperation starts to set in. I particularly enjoyed the way Harper unspools the Ellie storyline, showing the tensions and passions at play in the set of friends and the ripples it continues to cause years later but wish the ending had given more of a hint as to whether justice would actually be served. I very much hope that Harper produces a series following Falk as I would definitely read on but failing that I’d also read her next work.
THE DRY will be released in the United Kingdom on 12th January 2017. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the ARC of this book.
