The Dry by Jane Harper

We all agreed at our March meeting that the crime novel, The Dry by Jane Harper, about three murders on a farming property in the Australian outback, was a good read and some went so far as to say it was the best book on the list to date.

Members thought the characters were well drawn and interesting, with good descriptions of the rural landscape, the town and its folk living in harsh drought conditions.

None of us guessed who the murderer was and thought the ending worked well, was believable and resolved the various threads quite satisfactorily.

One member could see similarities with The Dressmaker by Rosalie Ham, another debut novel. Both lead characters had a childhood friend who died, both were run out of town, both did well subsequently, and both had to deal with the wrongful opinion of the town’s residents on their return. The close knit relationships in a country town, both good and bad, were a common theme.

Members thought The Dry would make a good movie for an ensemble cast. On that note, Reese Witherspoon’s film company bought the rights to The Dry in 2015.

Jane Harper was born in Manchester but came to Australia as a child, living in Boronia, Melbourne. She has worked for 13 years as a journalist in both Australia and the UK.

While working at the Herald Sun in Melbourne in 2014, she took a 12 weeks’ online writing course and was happy enough with the completed draft to submit it to the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards as an unpublished manuscript the following year. It won a prize of $15 000 and was described by the judges as an accomplished piece of crime writing which would appeal to a wide audience.

Publishers came knocking (or emailing) almost immediately and the book was published the same year by Pan MacMillan. It was a three book deal so if you liked the first one watch out for more Aaron Falks books - the second one apparently is already under way.

Happy reading!