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Loading... The Dry: A Novel (original 2016; edition 2018)by Jane Harper (Author)
Work detailsThe Dry by Jane Harper (2016)
  
Books Read in 2017 (33) Books Read in 2018 (127) Top Five Books of 2017 (256) » 12 more Books Read in 2019 (1,275) ALA The Reading List (64) Small Town Fiction (51) First Novels (182) Secrets Books (58) No current Talk conversations about this book. This is a quick read for people who love suspense and a haunting sense of place. (  ) FurbyKirby | Jan 5, 2021 |  Enjoyable detective/mystery book. It's a classic "beach" read. (  ) 3CatMom | Dec 31, 2020 | A great murder mystery in the "Inspector Plod" tradition. No fooling the reader, just a steady accumulation of facts and enough divergent paths and red herrings to keep you guessing through to the end. (  ) motorbike | Dec 30, 2020 | I was really surprised at how much I enjoyed this. The topic seemed a bit dry (no pun intended) from the blurb, and a bit close to home when I first got the book in the midst of bushfire season, and drought across the country. However, when I started it, I found that the well-written story carried me realistically into the lives of farmers deep in the Victorian countryside, and I wished I had picked it up much sooner. The story was exciting and the characters were varied. I liked the character of Aaron Falk and thought him to be interesting, smart and just vulnerable enough to rouse feelings of sympathy. I am glad that the book is marked 'Aaron Falk #1' because I will be seeking out the second instalment. ( ) Vividrogers | Dec 22, 2020 | A grand whodunit set in a small Australian village in the midst of a terrible drought that isn't bringing out the best in anyone, but is bringing back old tensions and suspicions in the wake of the ghastly murder of the Hadler family. Aaron Falk comes home for the funeral of his old friend Luke Hadler, Luke's wife and six-year-old son, after an absence of over 20 years. He still has questions about the drowning death of one of their close companions back in their teen years. Was it suicide, as it appeared? Why did Luke insist on giving Aaron an alibi for the day of Ellie Deacon's death, even though it seems there were several people who knew he wasn't telling the truth? Was he protecting Aaron, or himself? Did Luke shoot his wife and little boy, and then kill himself? This makes no more sense to Aaron than accepting that Ellie filled her pockets with stones and jumped into the river, and he cannot let either question rest. This was a good solid read, with just a tad too many misdirections. As a first novel, very impressive, and worthy of a look at the second in the Aaron Falk series. Reviewed December 2019 (  ) laytonwoman3rd | Dec 20, 2020 |
 Aaron Falk gaat terug naar zijn geboortedorp Kiewarra in Australië voor de begrafenis van zijn vroegere vriend Luke. Bij Luke heeft zich een familiedrama afgespeeld. Falk is niet erg welkom in het stadje. Jaren geleden is hij samen met zijn vader het stadje ontvlucht omdat Falk in verband werd gebracht met de dood van zijn toenmalige vriendin Ellie Deacon. Falk is van plan om na de begrafenis direct weer te vertrekken. De ouders van Luke vragen hem echter om even te blijven en wat onderzoek te doen naar de dood van hun zoon…lees verder > Jane Harper creates an atmosphere of simmering tension right from the off. Her version of High Noon in the Outback flickers between past and present to slowly reveal what actually happened between characters who are far more engaging than the cogs usually found in clockwork thrillers. She observes all the conventions — the local loudmouth causing trouble, an old flame awakening lust, patchy mobile phone reception, a double-whammy denouement — while producing something fresh. Ms. Harper throws out so many teasing possibilities that it’s hard to believe this is her first novel. And even harder to believe that she learned to write fiction via a literary agency’s online writing course. (She had already been a print journalist for more than a decade.) One trick the course clearly taught her was a basic of the crime genre: Make sure that nothing is what it looks like at first sight. People trying to solve the Hadler murder case — and to deal with many other troubles that erupt in Kiewarra during Falk’s stay — are reliably quick to jump to the wrong conclusions. Solid storytelling that, despite a plethora of flashbacks, never loses momentum, strong characterisation and a sense of place so vivid that you can almost feel the blistering heat add up to a remarkably assured debut. Belongs to SeriesAaron Falk (1)
"A small town hides big secrets in The Dry. After getting a note demanding his presence, Federal Agent Aaron Falk arrives in his hometown for the first time in decades to attend the funeral of his best friend, Luke. Twenty years ago when Falk was accused of murder, Luke was his alibi. Falk and his father fled under a cloud of suspicion, saved from prosecution only because of Luke's steadfast claim that the boys had been together at the time of the crime. But now more than one person knows they didn't tell the truth back then, and Luke is dead. Amid the worst drought in a century, Falk and the local detective question what really happened to Luke. As Falk reluctantly investigates to see if there's more to Luke's death than there seems to be, long-buried mysteries resurface, as do the lies that have haunted them. And Falk will find that small towns have always hidden big secrets."-- No library descriptions found. 
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