The Dry by Jane Harper (2015)
Synopsis:
After getting a note demanding his presence, Federal Agent Aaron Falk arrives in his hometown for the first time in decades to attend the funeral of his best friend, Luke. Twenty years ago when Falk was accused of murder, Luke was his alibi. Falk and his father fled under a cloud of suspicion, saved from prosecution only because of Luke’s steadfast claim that the boys had been together at the time of the crime. But now more than one person knows they didn’t tell the truth back then, and Luke is dead.
Amid the worst drought in a century, Falk and the local detective question what really happened to Luke. As Falk reluctantly investigates to see if there’s more to Luke’s death than there seems to be, long-buried mysteries resurface, as do the lies that have haunted them. And Falk will find that small towns have
always hidden big secrets.
What I thought:
This novel is described as a breathless page-turner. Well certainly the second if not pacey. I did not want to put the book down, I needed to find out who killed the Hadler family. Let's call it a satisfactory thriller, not a brilliant one, but it is well plotted. The writing is adequate, it was not a style of writing which made me squirm, or want to get out my red pen!! I have some picky gripes though. The author does not make a strong case for the supposition at the outset, that there is more to the killings than a matter of the father killing his wife and child. That there is foul play which goes beyond a domestic tragedy. It would be more logical to lay some reasons for this before the reader. Early on in the narrative the present day killings are linked to the death of Ellie Deacon twenty years earlier. This gives a bit more length and substance to the novel. Quite a lot of the book is given over to the flashback narrative (italicised) leading up to Ellie's death. The whispering campaign against Aaron Falk kicks off without a real explanation. We learn that the alibi Luke and Aaron have is flawed but that is not widely known. I did think that the author was quite skilful in placing Gretchen as a possible culprit when she wrote the rabbit-shooting scene two thirds of the way through, throwing in the question of paternity for her child for good measure. Ultimately I thought the matter of the proper interpretation of the word 'grant' was a clever device to introduce a perpetrator and a motive. One of those twists you look for in a whodunit. The finding of the rucksack corroborated Aaron's suspicion that Ellie Deacon was being abused. I also thought the denouement taking place in the tinder-box conditions of the parched terrain on the outskirts of the town was a clever way to bring a resolution in the context of the extreme drought which had put the town under so much tension. There were enough twists and turns in the plot to keep the story moving. I enjoyed it.
The Hog's Back Mystery by Freeman Wills Crofts (1933)
Amazon
Dr James Earle and his wife live in comfortable seclusion near the Hog's Back, a ridge in the North Downs in the beautiful Surrey countryside. When Dr Earle disappears from his cottage, Inspector French is called in to investigate. At first he suspects a simple domestic intrigue - and begins to uncover a web of romantic entanglements beneath the couple's peaceful rural life. The case soon takes a more complex turn. Other people vanish mysteriously, one of Dr Earle's house guests among them. What is the explanation for the disappearances? If the missing people have been murdered, what can be the motive? This fiendishly complicated puzzle is one that only Inspector French can solve. Freeman Wills Crofts was a master of the intricately and ingeniously plotted detective novel, and The Hog's Back Mystery shows him at the height of his powers. This new edition of a classic is introduced by Martin Edwards.
Review from
Crime Review
Review
Julia Earle, living near Farnham in Surrey, has invited her sister, Marjorie and an old school friend, Ursula, to stay a few weeks with herself and her husband, Dr James Earle. It becomes clear that all is not well with Julia's marriage. Could she be having an affair with a younger neighbour or is her husband the one having an affair? The marriage is going to be put under a spotlight because, a few days into the visit, Dr Earle vanishes from his house, as quietly and completely as though he had been spirited away.
When the local police are unable to find Dr Earle or any plausible reason for his disappearance they call in help from Scotland Yard. Thus, Inspector Joseph French arrives on the scene. It soon becomes clear that this is not a simple disappearance; another woman has gone missing in the area. Is this murder, or an affair? French has to puzzle through a tangle of alibis, clues and lies to get to the truth.
Freeman Wills Crofts was a crime writer during the 'Golden Age' of crime fiction. And this book is very much set in that era; middle class people in the mid-war years. There are maids, cooks, drivers and gardeners to interview. Chemists make up powders according to doctors' individual recipes. French rarely travels by car, but uses trains, bicycles and his own feet as he traces the crime around the Hog's Back hill.
Crofts was also a member of the Detection Club, and one of the tenets of that body was that the author should 'play fair' with the reader so that they could solve the puzzle from the information presented in the book. And this book is very much a puzzle. There are no deep, psychological insights into the human condition or the criminal mind to be found here. Indeed, it does not seem that Crofts is particularly interested in the personalities of the people involved. I felt I knew as much about a clue-bearing chemist as I did about the main players. It turns out that the murderer has the simplest of motives, but a very complex means of achieving it.
Did Crofts play fair? Yes, and to prove it page numbers are provided when French is explaining things. I did not solve the crime, only spotting one dodgy alibi and the body disposal site. In my defence, the explanation requires (and provides) a timetable of the suspects’ whereabouts and a map showing their movements.
I enjoyed this book, and it's worth reading just to see how far the genre has developed since it was written.
