English

In “The Dry” (2016) Jane Harper masterfully reveals a suspenseful murder mystery set in an Australian outback town gripped by drought, economic hardship, and despair. The protagonist Aaron Falk is summoned from Melbourne to help solve a mass murder involving hid childhood friend in the town he grew up in.

Themes of masculinity, secrecy, justice and isolation are explored as Harper takes the reader on a journey that uncovers how people respond when pushed to the brink by an unforgiving land.

Through the use of imagery, symbolism and foreshadowing, Jane Harper is able to demonstrate that as a small, isolated community succumbs to plague and drought it descends into deceit, desperation and brutal violence fuelled by hyper masculinity.