The Lost Man: the gripping, page-turning crime classic

Jane Harper

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0349142130 ISBN 13: 9780349142135

Publisher: Abacus, 2019

The bestselling Richard & Judy Book Club Pick by the author of The Dry

Why did Cameron Bright die?

He had started to remove his clothes as logic had deserted him, and his skin was cracked. Whatever had been going through Cameron's mind when he was alive, he didn't look peaceful in death.

Two brothers meet at the remote border of their vast cattle properties under the unrelenting sun of the outback. In an isolated part of Australia, they are each other's nearest neighbour, their homes hours apart.

They are at the stockman's grave, a landmark so old that no one can remember who is buried there. But today, the scant shadow it casts was the last hope for their middle brother, Cameron. The Bright family's quiet existence is thrown into grief and anguish.

Something had been troubling Cameron. Did he choose to walk to his death? Because if he didn't, the isolation of the outback leaves few suspects...

PRAISE FOR THE LOST MAN

'Harper secures her place as queen of outback noir with this haunting family mystery' Sunday Times

'Her best book yet' Evening Standard

'A riveting, deeply atmospheric read' Mail on Sunday

'Harper's intricate, beautifully woven mystery...sucks you into a world where nothing is ever what it seems and everyone has secrets . . . Told with mesmerising skill' Daily Mail

Review:

Harper's gripping third novel...is her most accomplished yet: a moving story of loneliness, grief and redemption (The Times, Best Crime Fiction Books of 2019)

Harper secures her place as queen of outback noir with this haunting family mystery (Sunday Times Crime Club, star pick)

Like its precursors, The Dry and Force of Nature, The Lost Man is a gripping mystery that drips with atmosphere (and sweat). This time, though, Harper has added an emotional heft that is deeply moving. It is her best book yet (Evening Standard)

Jane Harper writes beautifully and compellingly about the Australian Outback. Superb (Evening Standard)

In just a couple of years, Jane Harper has soared into the first rank of contemporary crime writers. The Lost Man... returns to the parched landscape she used to such powerful effect in her debut, The Dry... Three generations of women - the dead man's mother, wife and daughters - struggle to come to terms with terrible events, and the family's shocking history holds the key to this superb murder mystery (Sunday Times)

I read Jane Harper's The Lost Man in February, the height of Australia's summer but the depths of the English winter. The image at the heart of the novel, of a man who has perished in the punishing heat of Australia's outback, has stayed with me ever since. Just as good - perhaps even better - than Harper's excellent thrillers The Dry and Force of Nature (Alison Flood Observer (Thrillers of the Year 2019))

A riveting, deeply atmospheric read (Mail on Sunday)

Another splendid slice of outback noir...Fabulously atmospheric, the book starts slowly and gradually picks up pace towards a jaw-dropping denouement (Guardian, Best Recent Crime and Thrillers)

Harper's debut, The Dry, centred on the horrific murder of a family in a hot, remote Australian town. Her follow-up, Force of Nature, moved the setting to the bushland, where a woman goes missing on a corporate retreat. The landscape of The Lost Man is even more hostile, even more alien and beautiful, as Harper deftly manipulates her small but fully realised cast to a conclusion (The Observer)

One of the best written and most accessible novels of its kind in years . . . utterly absorbing (Richard Madeley)

Book Description:

Three brothers. One death. No answers.