The Dry by Jane Harper

THE DRY BY JANE HARPER
352 PAGES
PUBLISH DATE 31.05.2016
FICTION/CRIME AND MYSTERY

JANE HARPER, JOURNALIST AND AUTHOR

Pan Macmillan sent me this book earlier this year, it is Jane Harper’s debut novel which will be published in June 2016.

There seemed to be a lot of hype online about this book since it won the 2015 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript. All the major Australian publishers were trying to get their hands on it, Pan Macmillan were the lucky ones and have labeled ‘The Dry’ as ‘The Book of the Year 2016’.

I hadn’t read a crime thriller since I was in high school, which feels like a million years ago now. When I think back to those days I would always wonder why I was drawn to these books and why I didn’t spend my time reading the classics.

I read ‘The Dry’ in under two days and now I can tell myself, and you, why I chose those novels.

They make your heart race. They get your mind whirring, wondering, why did he say that? If he didn’t do it, then who did? Where was he? What really did happen to Ellie? Is it Falk? No, of course not, he wasn’t even there. Then, there is the temptation to skip past the pages and go to the end to find out, because you just have to know, but then stopping yourself because that’s cheating. But who is it? Then you get to the part, the climax, in this book, for me particularly the first page of Chapter 40, my eyes were literally wide open, unblinking and I realised I was holding my breath.

This experience is why. Why I chose crime/mystery novels over other books every time.

I don’t really like to read reviews or even the back cover of a book before I read it because I like the surprise, and the thrill of not knowing, so I never know how much to share when I write a review or talk about a book. Especially for this book, because it is so clever, there are so many surprises, twists and turns, it’s fabulous. But basically a guy, his wife and child are found dead in a country town five hours drive from Melbourne. Aaron Falk returns to the country for the funerals and that’s where the story starts to unfold.

I also can’t remember the last time I really fell in love with a character (actually, don’t tell anyone but I think it was Edward in Twilight), but Aaron Falk is a really special guy.