Jane Harper
The Dry
book | Fiction | Feb 2017
Amid the worst drought to ravage Australia in a century, a farmer turns his gun on his family and then himself. The rural community of Kiewarra is facing desperate choices daily. If one of their number broke under the strain, well, there but for the grace of God…
But as questions mount and suspicion casts a long shadow over the parched town, specialist investigator Aaron Falk is forced to confront the community that rejected him twenty years earlier. Because Falk and childhood friend Luke Hadler shared a secret, one which Luke’s death threatens to unearth. And as Falk probes deeper into the killings, old wounds start bleeding into fresh ones.
The Dry is a story of desperation, resolution and small-town prejudice, played out against the blistering extremes of life on the land.
AWARDS
Winner of the Livre de Poche Reader’s Prize for Best Crime Thriller 2018
Winner of the British Book Award for Crime & Thriller Book of the Year 2018
Winner of the UK Crime Writer's Association Gold Dagger Award for Best Crime Novel 2017
Winner of the Sunday Times Crime Book of the Year Award 2017
Winner of the Barry Award for Best First Novel of 2017
Winner of Amazon Best Mystery and Thriller Novel Award 2017
Winner of the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Mystery Thriller and Best Debut 2017
Winner of the Prix Cognac 2017
Winner of the Indie Book Award for Book of the Year 2017
Winner of the Indie Book Award for Debut Fiction 2017
Winner of the Australian Book Industry Award for Australian General Fiction Book of the Year 2017
Winner of the Australian Book Industry Award for Australian Book of the Year 2017
Winner of the Davitt Award for Best Adult Novel 2017
Winner of the Davitt Readers' Choice Award 2017
Winner of the Ned Kelly Award for Best First Novel 2017
Winner of the AudioFile EarPhones Award
Winner of the Christina Stead Fiction Award 2016
Winner of the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript by an Emerging Victorian Writer 2015
Longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Awards 2018
Longlisted for the UK's Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award 2018
Nominated to the US Crime Fiction Conference Bouchercon Award for Best First Novel 2018
Kobo's Top 10 eBooks of the Year 2017
Longlisted for the Davitt Awards for Best Adult Crime Novel 2017
Shortlisted for the Matt Richell Award for New Writers 2017
Nominated for Best Mystery/Crime Novel of the Decade at the Barry Awards 2020
Audio Rights
UnavailableFilm Rights
UnavailableKate Cooper manages the translation rights for The Dry
Translation Rights Sold
Jane Harper's fleet novel about a triple killing is packed with sneaky moves and teasing possibilities that keep the reader guessing... It's hard to believe this is her first novel... The Dry is a breathless page-turner
Janet MaslinThe New York Times Full Review
Solid storytelling that, despite a plethora of flashbacks, never loses momentum, strong characterisation and sense of place so vivid that you can almost feel the blistering heat add up to a remarkably assured debut.
Laura WilsonThe Guardian
A sad, beautifully told tale of lives regretted.
The Times
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.
Sunday Times
Wonderfully atmospheric, The Dry is both a riveting murder mystery and a beautifully wrought picture of rural community under extreme pressure
Mail on Sunday
The writing is fantastic, and the plot—where many mystery/thrillers fall short these days—was completely unpredictable in the best ways possible... Aaron Falk returns to his hometown in Australia to mourn, and inevitably investigate, his best friend's apparent suicide. What comes next is a series of twists and turns that will keep you guessing all the way until the end. I repeatedly found myself shocked and pulled in by Harper's fast paced and engrossing writing. Truly a fantastic read and hopefully the first of many to come from Ms. Harper
Amazon.com
Pulse-thumping suspense... Building from the first page, rammed with atmosphere, suspicions, lies and tension, this is a first-class crime debut.
Fanny Blake's Great ReadsWoman & Home
Set in a small Australian town during a blistering drought, this creepy and tightly woven tale about a detective investigating a brutal triple-murder is getting huge global attention for all the right reasons—it's brilliant!
Heat Magazine
Settle in a comfy chair and read... The Dry by Jane Harper. This gripping novel charts a policeman's unwilling participation in the investigation of a terrible murder in the town of his youth, and is set to be the biggest crime release of 2017.
GQ Magazine
The Dry is a well-crafted debut and Jane Harper, while delivering the necessary twists and turns
that make a good crime novel, also captures the tension created by the climatic and economic
conditions of the area.
BookBrowse
The Dry has the structure and momentum of a classic western, a searingly authentic sense of place and an elegiac feel for youth's passing... This is a first-rate piece of work.
Declan HughesWeekendReview, The Irish Times
The Dry is one of the most talked-about debuts of the new year... Harper's story is tightly plotted and moves briskly, the tension as brittle and incendiary as the dried-out crops on the Kiewarra farms.
Lauren BufferdBookPage, US
A book that has atmosphere to spare, as well as a pleasing number of twists and turns. Elegant and gripping
Guardian Best Books of 2017
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.
Sunday Times Culture
So accomplished, I couldn't believe it was a debut. The pace is whiplike and the writing is heaven.
I loved The Dry by Jane Harper, I thought it was magnificent, like everybody else did... Fabulous!
My crime novel of the year... The savage beauty of the landscape makes an unforgettable setting.
The Sunday Times
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.
The Telegraph, the Best Thrillers and Crime Fiction of 2017
A cracking small-town thriller wound tight by desperation in a deadly Australian drought.
A best crime book of 2017: Harper suggested a potential torrent of talent with The Dry... [she] slowly but thrillingly reveals where the truth lies.
The Guardian
My crime novel of the year is Jane Harper's The Dry... The savage beauty of the landscape makes an unforgettable setting.
Sunday Times Crime Book of the Year 2017
It’s a clever, likeable crime story in which the town’s secrets are slowly unravelled and the drought ridden Australian bush becomes a character in its own right.
Cosmopolitan.co.uk
Fabulously atmos -
pheric, the book starts slowly and gradually picks up
pace towards a jaw-dropping denouement.
Full Review
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The Lost Man nominated for a 2020 Audie Award and two Barry Awards
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Jane Harper Nominated at Barry Awards 2020
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Markus Zusak, Monica McInerney, Liane Moriarty and Jane Harper make Top 10 on Better Reading's Top 100 List
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Jane Harper’s novels win French literary prizes
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The Dry and Magpie Murders triumph at Bouchercon
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Force of Nature Wins Readers’ Choice Davitt Award
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Force of Nature Shortlisted for Sisters in Crime Davitt Awards 2018
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The Dry Nominated for Best First Novel in Anthony Awards
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The Dry Triumphs as Crime & Thriller Book of the Year at The British Book Awards 2018
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Jane Harper and Dervla McTiernan to feature at Harrogate 2018
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Shortlist announced for The British Book Awards 2018
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2018 Dublin Literary Award Longlist announced
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2018 Indie Book Awards shortlist announced
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Jane Harper featured on Chicago Public Library and Kobo Books of the Year lists
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Books of the Year Roundup
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Ruth Clare, Zoe Morrison, and Jane Haper all Feature in October Prize Roundups
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Best Books of 2017 announced by major UK papers
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The Dry and Tall Oaks win at CWA Daggers
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Curtis Brown and C+W Authors Shortlisted for Books Are My Bag 2017 Readers Awards
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Jane Harper’s The Dry Shortlisted for the Prix Cognac Prize