The Dry cover art

The Dry

Aaron Falk, Book 1

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The Dry

By: Jane Harper
Narrated by: Stephen Shanahan
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'Spellbinding' Ian Rankin

'A riveting murder mystery and a beautifully wrought picture of a rural community under extreme pressure' Mail on Sunday Thriller of the Week

'Packed with sneaky moves and teasing possibilities that keep the reader guessing...The Dry is a breathless page-turner' Janet Maslin, New York Times

WHO REALLY KILLED THE HADLER FAMILY?

I just can't understand how someone like him could do something like that.

Amid the worst drought to ravage Australia in a century, it hasn't rained in small country town 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 the town of his youth 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 as Falk probes deeper into the killings, secrets from his past and why he left home bubble to the surface as he questions the truth of his friend's crime.

Praise for The Dry

'Riveting' Mail on Sunday

'Stunningly atmospheric' Val McDermid

A WINNER OF THE BRITISH BOOK AWARDS CRIME THRILLER BOOK OF THE YEAR
A CWA GOLD DAGGER AWARD WINNER
An Amazon.com's #1 Pick for Best Mystery & Thriller©2016 Jane Harper Crime Fiction Genre Fiction International Mystery & Crime Mystery Police Procedurals Small Town & Rural Crime Fiction Suspense Exciting Scary
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Critic reviews

My crime novel of the year is Jane Harper's The Dry...The savage beauty of the landscape makes an unforgettable setting'
A book that has atmosphere to spare, as well as a pleasing number of twists and turns. Elegant and gripping
Australian first-timer Jane Harper suggested a potential torrent of talent with The Dry, in which a man returns to the outback town from which he had been summarily exiled as a teenager. He is there to attend the funeral of a childhood best mate who is believed to have killed his wife and son, before turning the gun on himself. But the case is clearly not as simple as that and, in the tense setting of a landcape where it hasn't rained for two years, Harper slowly but thrillingly reveals where the truth lies.
Jane Harper's The Dry has a protagonist returning from a self-imposed exile to a tiny hometown riven with fear, though the backdrop here is the drought-plagued Australian outback. Harper depicts it so well that the book would have reduced me to a sweaty, crumpled heap on the floor had I not been energised by her diabolically clever plotting
It is hard to believe that this accomplished piece of writing, which returns again and again to the savage beauty of the landscape, is Harper's first novel
Harper's debut novel is The Dry, a crime thriller making its way up The Sunday Times Bestsellers charts as steadily as the mercury rises each day in the stricken agricultural town of Kiewarra, in which it is set...It feels like an Ur-Australian novel, a whodunit that evokes the punishing landscape and searing aridity so convincingly, you expect a heat haze to shimmer above the page (Patricia Nichol)
Wonderfully atmospheric, The Dry is both a riveting murder mystery and a beautifully wrought picture of a rural community under extreme pressure
I devoured it in just over 24 hours...Spellbinding
A stunningly atmospheric read
A cracking small-town thriller wound tight by desperation in a deadly Australian drought
An award-winner in its native Australia, in this first book from journalist Harper a local cop investigates the murder of a family in a small town enduring the worst drought in 100 years. This could be the start of an Antipodean wave that will overtake Scandi noir (Nick Curtis)
This superb debut from a British-born, Australia-based journalist grips like a vice from the first paragraph to the last, atmospherically evoking the isolated town of Kiewarra, outside Melbourne, which has been rocked by a horrific murder/suicide...Told with heartbreaking precision and extraordinary emotional power, it reveals the prejudices, secrets and lies of small-town life against the background of emotions inflamed by heat
All stars
Most relevant
I bought this on the basis of a good newspaper review and was not disappointed. A very well plotted story, well written and performed, it ticked all the boxes for me. The characters were all well drawn and her description of the landscape really conveyed the feeling of menace and isolation and the effect of the drought. I have already bought Jane Harper's next book and am looking forward to it.

Enthralling and suspenseful

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When one comes back to town after twenty years and he finds himself the victim of hate its difficult to prove you were innocent in the first place. Good story well written and well narrated, be ready for some late nights.

Small town memories

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Listened to this whilst running, great book for this as not lots of complex characters and storylines so you don’t get mixed up. Love the way the main character is referred to as first name when going back in time and surname when back to present day so doesn’t confuse what is happening. Several mysteries that slowly reveal themselves set in the dry Australian outback, raw and real. Really loved this book and the characters you really warm to. Nice twist.

Great steady paced who dunnit

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A good story which unravels gradually as it draws you into the characters lives in the heat and dust of an Australian draught.

Excellent listening.

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A savage tale, told slowly and methodically as she incrementally reveals the mystery. Set under the unforgiving Australian sun and during a drought, it all adds to the tension. Excellent.

Searing

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