Review: The Lost Man

The Lost Man by Jane Harper
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT.

Jane Harper is a gifted writer. She has the ability to evoke that dusty, dry, Australian countryside and use its atmosphere to build tension underneath an intriguing murder mystery that keeps you glued to the story from page one.

This book I found to be particularly clever, as there's no detective figuring things out - there's just the Bright family, who are struggling to come to terms with the horrific death of brother/son/husband/father/uncle/nephew, Cameron.

It's told mostly from the perspective of Nathan, who is the eldest son and lives on a neighbouring property completely alone. The lonely nature of the location seems so bleak to me, and its hard to imagine this kind of 'town', where people live kilometres away from others, and spend days travelling out to fix fences around their lands, etc. I have a vague idea about small Australian towns, having passed though plenty, but the vastness of this landscape was still really incredible to me. That level of isolation terrifies me, and it's a fantastic ploy of the novel to draw on that isolation, and weave it into the hostile environment.

Harper has created some fascinating characters here. I found my opinions of them all mutating throughout the book, as their natures became more apparent, and by the end of it I was happy to leave this broken family behind. There are secrets upon secrets, and everyone is suspicious because no one seems to be at first. The information leaks slowly into the story, first raising questions, then answering those with new questions, until you're tearing through chapters trying to figure out what exactly happened to Cameron, and who was behind it. I found it highly addictive because there was always a fresh bone to gnaw on, and more puzzles to solve.

It's very Australian, so I wonder how international readers will fare with the language and terminology, and whether that will affect the reading experience. I really enjoyed the setting that was crafted here, and Harper has a way of taking vast, flat, mundane Australian landscape and turning it into a character that plays just as vital a role as the others.

The Lost Man will have you thinking a lot about the ugly side of human nature, so be ready to be confronted by your own thoughts and the kind of person they make you. There were so many times in this book where I found myself wondering what I'd do in a similar situation. It explores the many facets of family and protecting loved ones (or not), and dynamics outside the ordinary that will draw you in and make you silent witness to the intricacies of the lives behind closed doors.

Safe to say, Jane Harper is still in fine form with this one, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Highly recommend.

With thanks to Pan Macmillan Australia for my ARC.


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