Intriguing flashbacks, presented in subjective fragments, are sprinkled throughout the film, interrupting Aaron's present-day investigation. Still, though, Greg is a good cop, and has strong sense that there was something very 'off' about that crime scene. He teams up with Greg Raco, the local police sergeant ( Keir O'Donnell), who is traumatized from discovering the bodies and inexperienced at investigating violent crimes. Against his better judgment, struggling with guilt and ambivalence, Aaron stays. Luke's parents, however, convince Aaron to stay on to look into the closed case: they believe their son could never have done such a thing, they think there might have been foul play. Aaron walks back into a hurting community, suffering from the drought, and still in a rage about what happened years before.Īaron's return is greeted with hostility by most town members, particularly Ellie's father ( William Zappa), who blames Aaron for his daughter's death. The scandal was so intense that Aaron's family left town and never came back. Both boys were suspects in her death, and they lied to the police to cover their tracks. Aaron's return to town stirs up memories of a scandal from 20 years ago, when a teenage girl named Ellie drowned under mysterious circumstances, circumstances which implicated both Luke and Aaron.

This funeral is not your run-of-the-mill sad affair: Luke shot his wife Karen and their small son, before shooting himself. And as Falk probes deeper into the killings, secrets from his past and why he left home bubble to the surface as he questions the truth of his friend’s crime.Ī WINNER OF THE BRITISH BOOK AWARDS CRIME THRILLER BOOK OF THE YEARĪn Amazon.City detective Aaron Falk ( Eric Bana), who grew up in Kiewarra, returns for the funeral of Luke Hadler, a childhood friend. Because Falk and Luke Hadler shared a secret, one which Luke’s death threatens to unearth. As questions mount and suspicion spreads through the town, Falk is forced to confront the community that rejected him twenty years earlier. Policeman Aaron Falk returns to the town of his youth for the funeral of his childhood best friend, and is unwillingly drawn into the investigation. Everyone thinks Luke Hadler, who committed suicide after slaughtering his wife and six-year-old son, is guilty. Tensions in the community become unbearable when three members of the Hadler family are brutally murdered. I just can’t understand how someone like him could do something like that.Īmid the worst drought to ravage Australia in a century, it hasn’t rained in small country town Kiewarra for two years. ‘P acked with sneaky moves and teasing possibilities that keep the reader guessing… The Dry is a breathless page-turner’ Janet Maslin, New York Times

‘A riveting murder mystery and a beautifully wrought picture of a rural community under extreme pressure’ Mail on Sunday Thriller of the Week

The Dry by Jane Harper