A desperate act in a small town with big secrets.

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...

About the Author

Jane Harper has worked as a print journalist for thirteen years both in Australia and the UK. She lives in Melbourne and writes for the Herald Sun, among other publications. Winner of the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript, The Dry is her first novel with rights sold to over twenty territories.

awards

Winner
2015 Victorian Premier's Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript
2017 Indie Debut Book of the Year
2017 Australian Book Industry Awards Book of the Year Award
CWA Gold Dagger Award for the best crime novel of 2017
Waterstones Thriller of the Month
Simon Mayo Radio2 Book Club Choice
Sunday Times Crime Thriller of the Month
2017 Ned Kelly Awards - Best First Fiction
2017 Davitt Awards - Best Adult Crime Novel
2017 Davitt Awards - Readers' Choice

my thoughts

coming from book depository

happy reading

;)

Thanks so much for this lovely surprsie. The book arrived a few days ago then so did the snow...lots of snow!..but our postman has battled his way through this wintry weather (what a hero) to deliver the postcard & so I can "officially" confirm its arrived :o)

The crime fiction I normally read tends to be of the dark, gritty kind or Nordic Noir so an Australian setting is one unfamiliar to me & I was expecting a lot from this having heard such rave reviews about it. How refreshing to find that it lived up to its hype.

The claustrophobic atmosphere of this rural town was really bought to life - you can almost feel the heat! The characters were credible with Falk & Raco making for an interesting pairing. The story sucked me in from the start & the writing style was one I enjoyed...maybe that was why I felt I was reading an old favourite rather than something completely new. I found myself totally engrossed in both the murders of the Hadlers & that, many years before, of Ellie Deacon & was taken unawares by much that was revealed in those concluding chapters - I do so like it when that happens :o)

An accomplished debut indeed & "Force of Nature" has already been added to my wishlist list.

Added to my "A World of Crime" Bookbox Round two.

Taken out of the World of Crime Bookbox, this looks just my kind of book! As my TBR pile is massive it maytake me a while to get to this.

A brilliant first novel, I really enjoyed it. I'm so glad that this is the first in a series and that I get to meet Aaron Falk again, I'm even lucky enough to have the next one waiting for me on my TBR pile!

Going into the Debut Novel Book Box.