Jane Harper’s atmospheric debut The Dry is a classic crime novel in the sense that there is a central crime and whodunit remains a mystery till the end. However, it has not won many awards and topped several bestselling lists for being typical. What makes it stand out are realistic portraits of not just the Western Victoria landscape but how well the drought season in the fictional outback town of Kiewarra is captured. This realistic portrayal matched with Jane Harper’s excellent storytelling means that The Dry is a formidable debut and a very enjoyable read.
Luke Hadler is found dead at his home. It looks like an apparent suicide but the outrage takes understandably bigger proportions because his wife Karen and son Billy are also killed. The crime rocks the small town of Kiewarra and the multiple death is not the only thing rocking it – the drought and attendant heat are making everyone in the town cranky and visibly irritable. Aaron Falk returns home from Melbourne to attend the funeral of his childhood friend, Luke. He ends up staying longer than he first imagined as he tries to join forces with the local police to unravel the mystery of the death of his friend and his wife and son. The mystery in The Dry is not just the primary death in view but also the sudden death of a mutual friend of Aaron and Luke, twenty years ago. The death of that friend is a mystery that has a bearing on Luke’s death as it explains the hostility that Aaron faces in his informal investigation into Luke’s death and also clouds Aaron’s views on the theories that surround Luke’s death.
One thing is almost certain in a fictional tale set in a small town – there are many secrets. Secrets outsize the population of the town. The Dry weaves twenty-year-old secrets as they bring to the fore a previously unresolved murder and the current triple deaths. Red herrings abound and the author keeps the reader guessing until the least expected suspect emerges as the killer. While swinging between the past and the present, Jane Harper’s storytelling skill keeps the reader engaged and ensures that one remains focused on the present (unlike Aaron who often let the hostilities of the past impact his judgement in the present). While the prose was nothing special, the storytelling is top-notch. The depiction of a drought-filled Australian outback and its heat was palpable in the story. It was as palpable as the joyless character of Aaron Falk. It was often hard to tell if the title referred to the principal character or the weather in Kiewarra. Whichever it is, it is as spot-on as the story itself.
3.2/5
