I can see why Harper gets so much love around here. This was a well-paced, well-written crime and family drama novel. I loved the descriptions of the Australian Outback, both the landscape and how people manage to live there. Harper does a great job of unfolding the family history as part of the narrative, dropping hints and interspersing the contemporary story with pieces of the past.

A very satisfying read. ( )

The Lost Man is very much a return to form for Harper, whose second novel, Force of Nature, held less of my attention than her excellent debut The Dry. The tension is maintained throughout, and it wasn't until just before the reveal that I figured out what was going on.

There have been some interesting inter-textual relationships in my reading lately. Rick Morton writes about intergenerational trauma in [b:One Hundred Years of Dirt|40692083|One Hundred Years of Dirt|Rick Morton|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1530526740s/40692083.jpg|63282033]. He also observes how, trapped in an abusive and violent relationship, his paternal grandmother had no way of leaving the remote cattle station where she lived with her husband and children. This is something that is also a feature of The Lost Man, as we gradually learn about the traumatic upbringing faced by the three Bright boys. With all the conversations happening around family violence, this is something that we don't hear about often enough. ( )

I loved this book about forgiveness in a land that’s brutally unforgiving. It’s about two brothers living on boarding land in the Australian Outback, looking for answers to the mysterious death of the third brother. I loved that there was just as much intrigue and mystery surrounding each character as the mystery surrounding the death of one of the Bright brothers. Besides the mysterious death, at the center of this novel is an amalgamation of lore and isolation and heat and desolation and a community’s scapegoat. It’s a story that will stay with me for awhile. ( )

But the ending is such a surprise it absolutely saved the entire book. ( )

I just finished this and Wow. Just... wow. No idea how to review this without spoiling the plot, but this is the second Jane Harper book I've read and both have been excellent, compelling reads. Unlike The Dry, it's not detective fiction, but I think the story is better for it. She has a way of creating believable, nuanced characters that I can empathize with, although none are fully likeable. Her ability to immerse the reader in the setting had me feeling hot and thirsty, feeling the grit of the Outback on my skin and in my clothes. She skillfully dropped hints and clues into the story so that the big reveal was not a surprise or a cheat, but I wasn't entirely sure of it until the very end. And that end is hopeful, but not HEA either.

Hardcover, borrowed from my public library. So very glad I came across it on the New Fiction shelf by accident.

I read this for The 24 Festive Tasks 2019, for Door 3 Melbourne Cup Day,Read a book about horses, with a horse or with roses on the cover, about gardening, or set in Australia, or written by an Australian author. This book is set in Australia, written by an Australian author, and it does have horses that serve a definite purpose in the story. ( )