The Dry

A book that has atmosphere to spare, as well as a pleasing number of twists and turns. Elegant and gripping

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. 

I loved The Dry by Jane Harper, I thought it was magnificent, like everybody else did... Fabulous!

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.

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.

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.

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.

My crime novel of the year... The savage beauty of the landscape makes an unforgettable setting.

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.

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.​​

Fabulously atmos -
pheric, the book starts slowly and gradually picks up
pace towards a jaw-dropping denouement.

My crime novel of the year is Jane Harper's The Dry... The savage beauty of the landscape makes an unforgettable setting. 

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 

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.

A sad, beautifully told tale of lives regretted.

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.

Wonderfully atmospheric, The Dry is both a riveting murder mystery and a beautifully wrought picture of rural community under extreme pressure

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

Pulse-thumping suspense... Building from the first page, rammed with atmosphere, suspicions, lies and tension, this is a first-class crime debut.

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!

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.

So accomplished, I couldn't believe it was a debut. The pace is whiplike and the writing is heaven.