The Dry Review

 I have wanted to read this book for a while now, ever since I have watched the movie based on it. Finally, I found a used copy in a charity shop and decided to purchase it. It has been a while since I have watched a movie, at least a few years, so I have forgotten some details, but enough have remained in my mind that I’m sure it has impacted my reading experience, especially when it came to the big reveal towards the end of the novel.

Jane Harper’s debut novel ‘The Dry’ follows Aaron Falk, as he hesitantly returns to his hometown of Kiewarra, a small farming community in the outback of Australia. He is now a federal investigator, working on financial cases, but when he gets a letter from his childhood best friend’s father, asking him to return, he cannot refuse it. Luke Hadler, his friend, is being accused of murdering his wife and a young son and then himself, but as Falk begins to investigate this more, he realizes that everything is not as it seems in this small, crumbling community.

Aaron Falk is an interesting character, developed enough to be able to be the lead of a novel like this. While he does fall into some tropes of the genre, I found him compelling and intriguing enough that I wanted to know more about his past and present. He is also a very capable detective, together with the local detective Greg Raco, and I enjoyed reading about a competent investigation, even if it was in the middle of nowhere with limited resources. A lot of discoveries were made because they were smart and capable enough and knew the area well, which made sense to me in an environment like this.

Harper also introduces the story of Ellie, a young girl from Falk’s past who had died under mysterious circumstances that Falk was blamed and chased out of the city for. These flashbacks were introduced occasionally and helped develop the characters and to add depth to the present story of investigating the double murder and homicide at the centre of the novel. This was not an easy story to read and at times, some elements of it, especially the characterization of Ellie’s father, felt a bit exaggerated, but as the story was from Falk’s perspective, and those two hated each other, I have accepted it as such.

Other characters were serviceable, I would say. They were not given too much development, but I don’t believe that in a story like this it was needed. They had a role to play and they played it well enough to keep the central mystery going and discovered. Speaking of the final discovery, I am not sure if this was because I have watched the movie and knew what the big reveal was, but as I was reading the book, I had a pretty strong idea of who the killer actually was. The way it was discovered in the book was through already mentioned good detective work and connecting the dots. Still, I felt like at times, the story dragged a bit before the author realized she needed to wrap the story up and give the readers the reveal.

The ending was exciting and although from the movie I knew what was going to happen, I still felt the anxiety the characters would have felt in that moment. I won’t spoil anything in case you want to read this book (or watch the movie, and you should do both), but I will say that it was well written, albeit a bit rushed. The ending also finally tells us what happened to Ellie and solves two mysteries that have been haunting Falk and the narrative of ‘The Dry’.

Where I think Harper was the most successful in this book was creating the atmosphere of Kiewarra. While reading, you can feel the oppressive heat and the Sun of a place riddled with drought. In that kind of environment, the specific kind of people that Harper writes about in this novel would definitely be living and this was entirely realistic. I appreciated the frequent description of this town, which although fictional for the purposes of the novel, felt very realistic. My husband is half Australian, and although he did not grow up in a small community like this, he had frequented them and he had confirmed that they would feel exactly like this, so I am willing to give extra points for accuracy in that description.

Finally, I do not think I will be re-watching the movie, although I appreciate what Eric Bana is doing for Australian cinematography by returning from his successful career in Hollywood to hire Australian talent for a big movie. Unfortunately, we have also watched a second movie in the Aaron Falk series and did not like it as much, but I am willing to give the novel a chance as well. It is not related to Kiewarra or any of these characters, except Aaron Falk and while the quality of acting and production was on a high level, I found the story was not engaging enough and it felt very much paint by the numbers who-done it kind of story.

I know that Jane Harper is a pretty prolific author and I will definitely be reading some of her novels in the future.

I rated ‘The Dry’ ⅗.