The Dry
Ratings194
Average rating3.9
This book was a slow burn and I found myself rereading parts that I already read just to remind myself what was going on.
Another great read by Jane Harper. This was the second Aaron Falk book I've read (accidentally read book 3 first) I loved how fast paced it was and managed to read this in 2 days.
Loved the twist at the end, I almost picked up on it but dismissed my suspicion initially.
এই দিগন্তবিস্তৃত দীর্ঘনিঃশ্বাস এবং হতাশার মরশুমে একজন অস্ট্রেলিয়ান লেখকের বইকে চারতারা রেটিং দিলাম বলে কেউ আমাকে “দেশদ্রোহী” বলবে না তো?
Ik hoorde voor het eerst over dit boek via Lianne's kanaal “Literary Diversions”, die absoluut dol is op deze auteur. Toen deze serie werd uitgekozen voor haar Boekenclub, besloot ik dus om deze een kans te geven, aangezien ik altijd op zoek ben naar nieuwe thrillerauteurs om te lezen.
The Dry is de eerste in een nieuwe serie met Aaron Falk als hoofdpersonage. In dit boek wordt hij aangezet terug te keren naar zijn geboorteplaats voor de begrafenis van jeugdvriend Luke, die vermoedelijk zijn vrouw en zoon heeft vermoord, voordat hij zelfmoord pleegde. Aaron wordt door de ouders van Luke ingeschakeld om erachter te komen wat er werkelijk is gebeurd, omdat ze zich niet kunnen verzoenen met deze beschuldigingen.
De terugkeer van Aaron naar zijn geboorteplaats is ook geen geringe prestatie, aangezien hij twintig jaar eerder feitelijk de stad uit was gedreven vanwege een andere traumatische gebeurtenis.
De auteur weet op een geweldige manier de sfeer in dit boek te creëren. Desolaat, onderdrukkend en claustrofobisch, vol met bekrompen mensen en geheimen om elke hoek.
Gebeurtenissen uit het verleden en het heden wisselen elkaar af, waardoor diepgaande karakters en situaties ontstaan. In eerste instantie maakte het luisterboek het verwarrend om de flashbacks te herkennen, maar ik raakte er snel aan gewend en raakte volledig verdiept, zowel in het mysterie van het heden als dat van het verleden.
Ik had het einde niet kunnen voorspellen en hoewel ik de plaatsing van sommige verklaringen enigszins vreemd vond, vind ik het erg leuk hoe goed het verhaal was afgerond en de meeste brandende vragen werden beantwoord.
Ik ga zeker meer lezen van deze auteur en deze serie.
books set in Australia are always one of a kind to me as its my home and reading books set in australia is a huge comfort
characters were great but story... ehhh
This was a classic mystery with all the right elements. It got quite frustrating at times with the small town madness, actions with no repercussions, and the hostility thrown at our protagonist. It wasn't as unpredictable in the whodunnit aspect as much as the whys I'd say, for that is what had intrigued me most
3.75. Good twists and turns- truly didn't figure out the mystery until it was revealed. Thrilling but not a breakneck pace type of novel, which only adds to the moody, desperate atmosphere of the novel set in a town with running dry. I also read this over the course of some of the hottest days of the year so far... only added to the effect.
Great book
I really enjoy this novel even much more than I was expecting.
I first heard about the dry when I knew it was being turned into a movie so I said I'll read it before watching the movie.
I would highly advise you to read it
It wasn't as good a read as ‘the lost man' but this being the author's debut novel makes up for it.
It's a tragic tale that would've been far better when written by the protagonist as an onlooker's perspective instead of a cop's perspective. The clues felt incredibly amateur, for one, and the progression of the story felt forced.
The book left we with a lot of loose ends and a lot to ponder.
Perhaps I had raised expectations because of all the positive reviews, but I found this book to be no more than ‘OK'.
Excellent police procedural, right up there with Elizabeth George and Tana French, two of my favorites.
Semua orang yakin Luke Hadler telah mengacungkan senjata ke arah istri dan anaknya, lalu membaliknya dan menembak diri sendiri. Penyelidik Federal Aaron Falk kembali ke Kiewarra untuk menghadiri pemakaman walau harus berhadapan dengan masyarakat yang telah menolaknya dua puluh tahun silam. Mau tak mau Falk terseret dalam penyelidikan kasus tersebut dan, ketika kecurigaan makin menggunung, dia pun mulai meragukan tuduhan terhadap Luke, sahabat masa kecilnya. Semakin jauh Falk menyelidik, semakin banyak luka lama yang tersingkap. Bagaimanapun, Luke dan Falk pernah menyimpan rahasia... rahasia yang terkubur dalam-dalam tapi terancam akan terbongkar dengan kematian Luke.
Ini novel debut Jane Harper & aku suka. Bagaimana tabir misteri satu persatu tersingkap. Alurnya memang agak lambat, namun stabil sepanjang buku. Buku ini menyuguhkan 2 rahasia, kematian keluarga Hadler & kematian seorang gadis 20 tahun yg lalu, yg membuat Aaron Falk & ayahnya keluar dari Kiewerra.
Apakah kedua kematian yg mengguncang Kiewerra saling berhubungan? Sepanjang cerita kita akan terus bertanya-tanya. Menjelang akhir barulah ada titik terang, dan pembunuhnya sangat tidak terduga.
I think this definitely would have been a 4 star read if I didn't go for the audiobook. The narration doesn't handle the jumps from past to present well. Switched to the actual book for the last bit and it was much more enjoyable.
To be honest, after reading the synopsis of this book, I thought I'd hate it! Drought, lonely countryside, murder mystery...not at all up my alley. I loved being pleasantly surprised! Could not put this book down. Needed to know what happened next, got sucked in so hard. Loved it!
This was REALLY good. It's super atmospheric, and the characters are well fleshed out as the book moves along. It's not very fast-paced, but that's a product of the languidness of the dying farming town, and the pacing feels right for the story it's telling. The plot description is very similar to Bonfire, but Aaron Falk is a much more reliable and trustworthy narrator, and I found The Dry to be significantly more enjoyable, even in its desolation and desperation. The whole thing was very satisfying, even when it was leaving me on the edge of my seat.
The audio was pretty good, but some things were a little weird; the book contains flashbacks within scenes, so Falk might be talking to the other cop, and it'll flash back - sometimes within his perspective, sometimes in someone else's - and there's not much differentiation, you just have to pay attention and it's not hard to figure out what's happening. (I read in other reviews that in print this is differentiated in italics, but ... well, we don't read aloud in italics.) This was made doubly confusing because the narrator occasionally threw in these long pauses between sentences, and not even at the beginning of a new scene or flashback or chapter. Just, paused for effect? I dunno. That was weird. Anyway, if you're a close payer-attentioner of audiobooks, it's not a problem, just a distraction.
“Luke lied. You lied. Be at the funeral.”
And so begins a current day triple murder investigation for Aaron Falk in his hometown of twenty years ago; while simultaneously remembering the death (suicide? or murder?) of a childhood friend (Ellie) of both Aaron's and Luke's. Harper kept me guessing through the entire novel!
I enjoyed this without thinking it reached great heights. It is very easy to read no doubt and I get its popularity but maybe I am not that good with crime novels. Just maybe I got spoilt by the brilliance of Thea Astley who I think writes on the bush and its folk so much better.
Let me just say right off the top that The Dry is just about the perfect thriller mystery. The writing is straightforward but the strength of the story comes with how well it manages to work with all the genre conventions. You have intimations of an unreliable narrator with a mysterious past that haunts him still, a crime scene with some open ended questions and a barren and hostile landscape that drives much of the plot. You really don't really need to read much more than that to enjoy this.
Federal agent Aaron Falk is called back to his rural hometown of Kiewarra for the funeral of his childhood friend Luke Hadler. Luke has killed his wife and young son and then, shortly thereafter, himself. Kiewarra is a hardscrabble little town in the grip of a multi-year drought. Businesses are closing, people are struggling and the unrelenting heat has everyone ready to erupt. It's the last place Aaron wants to stay having been drummed out of town 20 years ago after the mysterious death of Ellie Deacon. But Luke Hadler's dad insists he stay on and and resolve whether his son is a murderer or not. He sinks the hook when he tells Aaron that he knows he lied about where he was when Ellie died years ago.
There are red herrings, plot twists, and enough clues that you get the thrill of figuring out mysteries moments before it's revealed on the page. Kiewarra could be anywhere, an inward looking, insulated small town in the grip of near poverty. An Appalachian speck where the mill has closed down years ago, a Newfoundland community on it's last generation of fishers. It's the kind of place where desperation and desperate measures bubble just under the surface. It's not literary fiction by any means but I have to give it a 5 for sheer enjoyment at just the right time.
I'm sort of glad I knew very little of this book except i kept finding it in end of year “best of list” in the Crime genre. Plot is hardly original - Protagonist returns to “deliverance” type town set in the remote Outback where the locals still still blame him for a death twenty years previous he finds himself unraveling another murder/suicide. The two story-lines are well handled, the environment is well described. It is an easy read and well paced and satisfying “reveals”. Very strong for a debut novel
After a spree of badly written thrillers, this is the one I've been waiting for. It's not perfect but I loved the sense of place, the well placed red herrings, and the way the characters came to life. Force of Nature tbr.
Have heard so many rave reviews about this one and it didn't disappoint.
One of the downsides of being an author is being able to pick the plot twists and the bad guys and I picked both early in this one, but it didn't detract from my enjoyment as the story unfolded.
A real page-turner.