Jane Harper: The Dry, 978034914211, Abacus (Little Brown UK), paperback

German edition: Jane Harper: The Dry – Aaron Falk ermittelt, 9783499290268, Rowohlt Paperback

WINNER OF THE CWA GOLD DAGGER AWARD 2017
The Gold Australian Book Industry Award for Book of the Year
Australian Book Industry Award for Fiction Book of the Year

I discovered Jane Harpers breathtaking thriller when checking who had won the Gold Dagger Award 2017 – she did with “The Dry”.  It is hard to believe this is her debut, not too many crime novels set in the Australian hinterland make it into the International publishing circuit taking away major prizes. “The Dry” is not only a superb thriller but a precise, atmospheric portrait of the Australian small town community Kiewarra experiencing a 2 year draught and facing an atrocious killing.  Luke Hadler, a well-liked farmer, shot his wife and child, sparing his baby daughter Charlotte before turning the gun on himself.

Aaron Falk, a financial investigator with the police in Melbourne, returns to Kiewarra for the funeral of his childhood friend Luke in disbelief of what Luke supposedly did.  Barbara and Gerry Hadler, Luke’s parents, beg him to give the closed investigation by the Clyde police a second check for the sake of their old friendship believing their son to be innocent despite incriminating evidence.  Aaron is reluctant wanting to flee his former hometown remembering why he and his father were driven out of town, him an innocent suspect around his girlfriend Ellie Deacon’s drowning death. Gerry Hadler reminds Aaron of the note he mailed to him “Luke lied. You lied. Be at the funeral”.  When Aaron decides to face the past starting his investigation with the financial records of his friend’s farm, he encounters another policemen, Sergeant Greg Raco who is not convinced the official murder investigation is air tight having come up with too many question marks around the case. The two man team up against a farming town full of violent men and an explosive atmosphere fired by economic decline, hate  and suspicion.

What follows is a breathtaking peeling away of layers, every page reveals mysteries and betrayals of the past and present  leading eventually to the truth.  I could not put this book down, the plot and the characters are not only very well drawn out but I did not suspect the outcome, well at least not one. Highly recommend “The Dry”, one of the best thrillers I have read all year.