The Lost Man

I ask in earnest: How the hell does she do it? The Lost Man is Jane Harper’s third consecutive marvel… and, against long odds, her most marvelous yet, pitting brother against brother, man against nature, reader against the clock. What an extraordinary novel: part family drama, part indelible ode to the Outback—a thriller as forceful and atmospheric as a brewing storm. Harper works miracles. We’re lucky to witness them.

I can tell you I devoured it in the space of 24 hours. Every bit as good as The Dry. Probably better, actually. May have to push Jane Harper under a bus. 

The Dry was on everybody's must-read list. But with her third novel, The Lost Man, Australian author Jane Harper has crafted an engrossing outback noir that is even more gripping [...] This engrossing novel will have you thinking long after you’ve turned the last page.

Harper’s incredible story has been well told... I started it at noon and at 2 am that night I closed it and totally understood what all the fuss was about.
It was even better than The Dry... whatever Harper’s secret is, it works.

Harper has that easy turn of phrase that makes reading her books a pleasure, despite the sense of menace.

If you liked The Dry, you’ll love it. The Lost Man is an even better book, gripping to the end. [...] This engrossing novel will have you thinking long after you’ve turned the last page.

In The Lost Man, Jane Harper surpasses her achievement in The Dry, her multi-award-winning first novel. A broad range of Australian and international readers will be engaged by the strong setting and mystery storyline of the new novel, not least grey nomads and backpacking travellers.

The atmosphere is so thick you can taste the red-clay dust, and the folklore surrounding the mysterious stockman adds an additional edge to an already dark and intense narrative. The truth is revealed in a surprising ending that reveals how far someone will go to preserve a life worth living in a place at once loathed and loved.

Harper's masterful narrative places readers right in the middle of a desolate landscape that's almost as alien as the moon's surface, where the effects of long-term isolation are always a concern. The mystery of Cam's death is at the dark heart of an unfolding family drama that will leave readers reeling, and the final reveal is a heartbreaker. A twisty slow burner by an author at the top of her game.

Like the country it describes, this is a "big" book, and one likely to cement Harper's place as one of the most interesting Australian crime writers to emerge in the past decade. Her sense of place is acute, but it is her attention to the relationships that are shaped by this unforgiving, magnificent landscape that will linger long after the mystery of stockman's grave is finally revealed.

Australia’s outback, with its brutal climate and equally bruising isolation, looms large as any character in this stark standalone from bestseller Harper… [T]he surviving members of the Bright family must confront some devastating secrets. Harper’s sinewy prose and flinty characters compel. 

I absolutely loved The Lost Man. I devoured it in a day. Her best yet!

A timely and riveting family drama set in a desolate area of Queensland that will keep you guessing until the final pages.

Jane Harper is a writer at the top of her game; and with The Lost Man, she marries atmosphere, plot, suspense and believably complex characters into her best novel yet

Deceptive twists sneak up on the reader, and with The Lost Man Harper has crafted another slow burn mystery that catches the reader unaware right up to the surprise ending.

In just a couple of years, Jane Harper has soared into the first rank of contemporary crime writers. THE LOST MAN ... returns to the parched landscape she used to such powerful effect in her debut, THE DRY ... Three generations of women - the dead man's mother, wife and daughters - struggle to come to terms with terrible events, and the family's shocking history holds the key to this superb murder mystery

Told with mesmerising skill, it is a compelling portrait of isolation and the train it exerts on even the strongest character. A little masterpiece.

The Lost Man is quietly unsettling, in a hypnotic and heartbreaking way.

A twisty slow burner by an author at the top of her game.

In The Lost Man, as in Harper’s previous two novels, place is paramount, a multifaceted character that’s in turns brutal and breathtaking.

A riveting, deeply atmospheric read.

It's an evocative, sharply written and expertly plotted novel, subtle in how it navigates its themes of misogyny, retribution and guilt. 

Harper's crisp, evocative writing expertly reveals the secrets that have been festering too long in the scorching Australian sun.

The very definition of a slow burn, this is much like the land in which it is set - spartan, atmospheric, and really quite beautiful.

[A] crime masterpiece. The landscape and culture of this remote Australian territory are magnificently evoked as a story of family secrets unfolds. Rarely does a puzzle so complicated fit together perfectly—you’ll be shaking your head in amazement.

A tale of loneliness, grief and rebirth ... Gripping

The landscape of The Lost Man is even more hostile, even more alien and beautiful, as Harper deftly manipulates her small but fully realised cast to a conclusion
that chills, despite the outback heat.

Book by book, she's creating her own vivid and complex account of the outback, and its people who live where people don't live.

Where The Dry probed the dangers of prolonged drought on a close-knit farming community, The Lost Man is concerned with how people live — and die — in the unforgiving outback.

In the Lost Man, as in Harper's previous two novels, place is paramount, a multifaceted character that's in turns brutal and breathtaking.'

Jane Harper is at the top of the crime writing genre....I will drop whatever I'm doing to read a Jane Harper novel.

A twisty slow burner by an author at the top of her game.

The Lost Man is quietly unsettling, in a hypnotic and heartbreaking way.

[A] crime masterpiece. The landscape and culture of this remote Australian territory are magnificently evoked as a story of family secrets unfolds. Rarely does a puzzle so complicated fit together perfectly—you’ll be shaking your head in amazement.

Fabulously atmospheric, the book starts slowly and gradually picks uppace towards a jaw-dropping denouement.

Harper’s first novel, The Dry, won many awards, but this one is even better. Her depiction of the extraordinary landscape is superb, as is her account of the psychological and emotional burdens it imposes on the people who try to make a living within it.

Harper’s gripping third novel — after  The Dry and  Force of Nature — is her most accomplished yet: a moving story of loneliness, grief and redemption.

In the Australian Outback where the people are as unforgiving as the land, a mysterious death forces Nathan Bright to confront his personal mistakes and tortured childhood. A vivid setting and compelling storytelling weave together a gripping tale of isolation and perseverance.

The image at the heart of the novel, of a man who has perished in the punishing heat of Australia’s outback, has stayed with me ever since. Just as good— perhaps even better — than Harper’s excellent thrillers The Dry and Force of Nature

Highly recommended … a stand-alone set … in the remote outback, where 'next-door neighbours' live three hours apart. It’s an eerie, mesmerising setting for a story about a mysterious death in an isolated family: I remember the pages flying by

This Australian crime thriller begins in the vast, scorching outback, where a dead cattle rancher’s body is found by his two estranged brothers. Suspicions grow as the family tries to figure out whether someone is responsible, and if so, who. Our reviewer, Charles Finch, called Harper “a prickly, smart, effective storyteller.