PAPERBACKS

The Lost Man

By Jane Harper, Little, Brown, £12.99

Review by Sam Priddy

Jane Harper’s smash-hit first book, The Dry, was a mystery set in the Australian outback during a drought. The location was a character in itself and you’d finish every chapter feeling thoroughly thirsty.

It was a winning formula and Harper has wisely returned to this scorched part of the world for her third novel.

When Nathan Bright’s brother is found dead at the border between their two cattle farms, all signs point to suicide and Nathan has to return to his family home to try to make sense of it.

Unlike Harper’s previous works, The Lost Man doesn’t feature detective Aaron Falk. In fact, in this tale, everything is so remote that, apart from a brief visit at the start and the occasional phone call, the police barely feature; it’s a detective novel without detectives. Almost the entire thing is set on one ranch and there are no shortage of suspects; from family members with grudges to shady figures from the past.

Harper’s language is occasionally repetitive — we’re constantly reminded how dusty it is and Nathan is always daydreaming before snapping back to the present — but the pace is frenetic, the landscape epic and the red herrings so cleverly placed that your prime suspect changes by the chapter.