Yes, you were right! Everyone who said Jane Harper's The Dry was a good read and suggested I read it, too, was totally spot on. It was just what I needed. A satisfying mystery that is not just another cookie cutter crime novel that (like so many other contemporary mystery/thrillers these days) is compared to those novels 'which shall remain nameless' (but you know which books they are). You know, they are "the next . . . .fill in the blank (but usually 'girl' is in the title". There were none of those blurbs on the book jacket and for good reason.
The Dry is does its own thing and does it really well. It is nicely twisty turny and a little unexpected. The mystery is not quite what you think it is, and the solution comes from a place you don't see coming even though Harper plays fair and leaves the clues out in the open. There are really two mysteries in this story, and while you get a solution at the end it is not exactly perfectly tidy, much like real life, yet utterly satisfying. And there was just the right amount of tension to move things along, make the reader a little afraid to turn the next page but unable to stop herself at the same time.
This is the debut novel of Australian author Jane Harper. The setting is compelling, maybe almost a character in its own right and as important as all the others. You feel the heat of the sun on your face and the dry, dusty air settling on your skin. Knowing that the story is set in the wide expanses of middle Australia where huge ranches butt up against each other and the small community is suffering from a prolonged drought was what ultimately compelled me to pick up the book sooner than later. I wanted an Australia that was palpably alive in the pages and indeed it was.
"Nothing but sheep and fields."
". . . she gestured to the parched trees that lined the road."
" . . . they gazed around and were always taken aback by the crushing vastness of the open land. The space the thing that hit them first. There was so much of it. There was enough to drown in. To look out and see not another soul between you and the horizon could be a strange and disturbing sight."
Kiewarra is the sort of town that people want to leave, and for those who remain life is a struggle. There are not many opportunities and the drought has dried up the land as well as the profits for those who live off it. Aaron Falk, a Federal agent who works with crimes of finance only returns to Kiewarra from Melbourne because he is pressured to come back. The note read, "Luke lied. You lied." He was expected to return. It is a request made by Luke's father, and one he cannot ignore.
Falk left Kiewarra as a young man. He had to leave following the disappearance of a friend. He, Luke, Gretchen and Ellie were inseparable as teenagers. But Ellie disappeared and then her body was found in a river. His name on a note she wrote hints that he knew more than he ever let on, or at least threw suspicion on him. That maybe he had something to do with her death, but he and Luke deny any involvement and provide each other with an alibi. One they never, ever broke. The town does not believe it, however.
When Luke and his family turn up dead all these years later, the unsettled past is dredged up once more and Kiewarra has not forgotten what happened. The deaths point to Luke pulling the trigger, killing his wife and son and then turning the gun on himself. Luke's father now wants answers and he wants Falk to come clean on what really happened all those years ago. You know the saying you can never go home again. For Falk it is going to be a painful return to his youthful home.
Kiewarra is not the sort of town that merits much of a police department. Sgt. Raco is an outsider, working his way up the ranks and using Kiewarra as a place to gain experience. He is an honest man and sees in the deaths a puzzle whose solution may not be quite as cut and dried as the residents of Kiewarra believe. He and Falk begin working together in a sometimes uneasy but mostly friendly, though very off the record manner; both men are interested in finding out the truth behind the deaths. For Falk, though, he also wants to know what really happened to Ellie all those years ago. It becomes an obsession that clouds his vision now, at seeing what is really there.
Sorry for the cliché, but this was a total page turner. In part I just wanted to know the solution, but part of me was pained turning those pages as Kiewarra was such an unforgiving place--inhospitable in a variety of ways. It is literally rough for Falk to remain in the town. He is not welcome there any longer and the people are not especially interested in dredging up the past or in giving him the benefit of the doubt that maybe he really did not have anything to do with his friend's death. It's like smoke and mirrors--you are looking at one crime and not seeing what is in front of you with the other, more pressing mystery that must be solved.
This is perfect summer reading and if you like a good, suspenseful read I can heartily recommend it. I'll be watching for Harper's next book!