The Dry, by Jane Harper

Small town suspicion about the death of a teenage girl led to Aaron Falk and his father being run out of rural Kiewarra. Twenty years later he returns for the funeral of his former best friend, Luke. Falk is now a federal police officer, specialising in financial crimes, but not much has changed for the miserable townsfolk in an area now gripped by drought. He reluctantly extends his stay to help the local cop investigate what is ostensibly a murder-suicide. Does it link back somehow to the death 20 years ago that caused his departure? Harper brilliantly evokes the dry dusty landscape and the townsfolk soured by hardship and experience. Flashbacks give an interesting insight onto the minds of departed characters, but occasionally spell out too much, not crediting the reader’s ability to join the dots. The local river has run dry – an effective metaphor for the hearts and lives of people in a crippled town. Falk is a somewhat enigmatic character, but the relationships and conversations ring true, in an intriguing mystery, satisfactorily resolved.