The Dry

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.