The Lost Man

Jane Harper’s skill is in creating dark, soulful character-based stories that are cloaked in the Australian landscape.

Nature becomes part of the plot and you can feel the parched desolation of the tract of south-west Queensland where this, her third novel, is set, right from the first page. Here, two brothers meet at a stockman’s grave, the sun beating down. No one knows whose grave it is but their middle brother’s body lies dead. Did it all get too much for the father of two or is there something more sinister afoot? What follows is menacing and gripping, and certainly another hit for one of the most exciting new voices in Australian fiction. If you’ve yet to discover Jane Harper, now’s the time.