When white settlers first moved into the area, the infant mortality rate was extreme. It’s a place where healthy, vibrant young men in their mid-20s die without water after just six hours.

This is not a welcoming or forgiving environment. This is a strip of hot, semi-arid land that runs through central Queensland, Australia, where the temperatures hover at inhuman levels under a cloudless sky. The local town in this novel might be fictional, but the landscape is not. For those of you, like me, who haven’t learned the metric system, that landmass translates into 2,175 square miles, an area of responsibility larger than the states of Rhode Island or Delaware. It’s home to 3,000 Herefords and just a half-dozen or so humans. He and his two brothers, Cameron and Bub, have all grown up on Burley Downs Station, their parent’s ranch, which is 3,5000 square kilometers. Harper takes her themes of emotional and environmental isolation to a whole new level.Īt the center of this novel is Nathan Bright. This is a solid mystery and a stunning family drama set in an unforgiving and unforgettable landscape. Her third novel, The Lost Man, is a standalone novel-and her strongest story yet (which is saying a lot). Her first two novels, The Dry and Force of Nature, launched her series featuring Aaron Falk, an insurance investigator who is a bit of a loner. The Lost Man by New York Times-bestseller Jane Harper is a stunning new standalone novel about two brothers who meet in the remote Australian outback when the third brother is found dead.īritish-born, Australian writer Jane Harper has quickly established herself as a writer you can trust to deliver a great read.

The lost man book