Why is there such a buzz about..?

The Dry (Sky Cinema) ATMOSPHERIC THRILLER

First-time writers dream of making debuts like the one enjoyed by British-born author Jane Harper in 2016. The former journalist’s first crime thriller,

The Dry, set in a drought-hit rural community in Australia, won the UK Crime Writers’ Association’s Gold Dagger award in 2017 and British Book Association’s Crime and Thriller of the Year in 2018.

Now a gritty, suitably arid and uncompromisingly Australian film adaptation starring Eric Bana has just arrived on Sky Cinema, and pretty good it is too. Bana plays Aaron Falk, a Melbourne-based detective who returns to his home town for the funeral of his boyhood friend, Luke, who apparently committed suicide after murdering his wife and son.

But is the tragedy really as straightforward as that? Luke’s elderly parents certainly don’t think so and ask Aaron to investigate. Aaron, however, is reluctant to linger in a hostile town where many still believe he might be responsible for the death of a teenage girl some 20 years earlier. Suddenly there are two mysteries to be solved.

Bana provides a muscular lead, director Richard Connolly mixes past and present together intriguingly, while Genevieve O’Reilly is Gretchen, Aaron’s beautiful, conveniently single old school friend. The denouement may not be the strongest point but lovers of atmospheric whodunnits should find much to enjoy.