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
When I started to listen to this book I quickly realised that I had already listened to it. I did not stop. I cannot recall ever doing this before and it say much for the quality of the book. Rich characters, a realistic plot and quality writing augmented by an excellent reading. The only downside was finishing the book and being unable to find further works by this author.

Excellent book

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A really good and intriguing story, with a superb ending. Cannot fault it.

Interesting well drawn characters, a believable plot and a dramatic ending - what more could you want?

The narrator is excellent. His voice is very easy on the ear. My only small criticism is that the awful Scottish accent is a hybrid of many others, but I can forgive him that!

Look forward to other books by this author. Loved the Australian setting and the dry conditions are such a big part of the story.

Australian heat

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A great story from Jane Harper with superb narration from Stephen Shanahan. I didn't enjoy 'The Dry' as much as Haprers 'The Lost Man' and can't quite say why - I think I liked the main characters a little less. That's not to say this isn't a great book. Again, Harper kept the mystery going throughout the book and I found myself racing through it so that I could find out what had happened. The setting of a remote outback community was evoked so well that I felt like I was there, in the town, seeing the story unfold.

Great listen

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Very grabbing story with great performance. Don't start unless you are able to listen to the whole novel!

Couldn't stop listening!

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Engaging characters. Good read. Terrible Scottish accent but otherwise good narration.
Hopped between the past and present a lot so was glad this was distinguished by using the names Aaron and Falk...although took me a little while to work this out!

Good read. Kept you guessing

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