What readers think of The Lost Man, plus links to write your own review.

The Lost Man is a stand-alone novel by award-winning, best-selling Australian author, Jane Harper. In outback Queensland, Nathan Bright and his teenaged son, Xander abandon the fence-mending chore on his own property to return to the family’s holding when they learn that Nathan’s younger brother is dead.

Cameron Bright was meant to meet the youngest Bright brother, Bub, at Lehmann’s Hill for a repair job on Wednesday. Instead, he lies dead against a remote gravestone in the blistering mid-December heat, his car, replete with food and water, parked nine kilometers away. His brothers are mystified.

Sergeant Ladlow, a city-trained stand-in for their local cop, Sergeant Glenn McKenna, asks about Cameron’s mood over the previous weeks: it’s clear he believes Cam walked away from his car intending to end his life, although how he could have attained that distance in the heat is a puzzle.

With just days until what will be a very subdued Christmas, the family gathers at the homestead, stunned at the news, incredulous, asking each other when they last saw Cam and was there any sign that this was in his mind.

A few things niggle at Nathan: that the two British backpackers employed as hands seem wary of police; the very particular way Cam’s car keys were placed in his car; that their farm manager, Harry Bledsoe located the car so easily; and Bub’s light mood in the face of such a grave situation. And Xander draws Nathan’s attention to the thorough preparations Cam made for the planned repair, hardly the actions of a man intending suicide.

The presence of Cam’s wife (now widow), Ilse is also distracting: there is a history between them, and despite his avoidance, the attraction is still there. Nathan’s self-imposed exile, born of the same incident that saw him ostracised by the entire community of Balamara, means that he has missed a lot of what has transpired at his family’s home. Over the next few days, the funeral and Christmas, what he sees and hears gradually reveals exactly what has happened.

Harper easily evokes the outback setting and the prevalent community attitudes. She gives the reader a tale that features isolation, loneliness and suicide risk, as well as domestic violence, coercive control and sexual harassment. Fans may note that the events of Harper’s first novel in KIewarra, The Dry, intersect with the story at a certain point. Brilliant Aussie slow-burn crime fiction.

Jane Harper’s THE LOST MAN is one of the best mystery/suspense novels I have ever read. If you read and loved THE DRY, one of her previous books, you’ll love THE LOST MAN. If you haven’t read THE DRY, you’ll want to after you read THE LOST MAN.

Nathan, the eldest of three brothers, discovers the body of Cameron, another one of the brothers, in the outback desert. There begins the mystery: how did he end up in this predicament when his car is loaded with supplies to sustain him? Was this suicide or was it murder? If murder, who had cause to hate him this much?

You would expect that a Harper book would take place in Australia. But her descriptions of the outback, in particular, where the brothers and the rest of the family live and work, made me actually see its vastness and feel the desolation, danger, and heat they dealt with.

Here is a book you won’t want to end. When I got there, it felt too soon.

Harper's stand-alone third novel is every bit as engrossing as her first two! The crime mystery is typical, but her ability to bring both characters and settings to life is anything but. I found the re occurrence of abuse throughout the novel and its stronghold until the very end most believable. Humans were designed for love and when love turns sick (aka abuse in all its forms), people turn to survival. Never underestimate a mother's strength, love, fury, or weakness.

I read this book earlier in the year when it came out in hardback. I can’t remember what caused me to be interested, but my records show I actually bought it on my Kindle. Something or someone’s review must have convinced me to try it! I really do not like Westerns and I would at least partially classify this novel as a Western novel, albeit set in Australia. The mystery of the story was great, well-plotted and intense. I couldn’t stop reading. And the descriptions of the landscape were amazing. I frequently found myself stopping to imagine the landscape and the vast distances described by comparing them to distances more familiar to me. Overall a great read and I’ll be looking for more by this author.

The author took you to the Outback and introduced a family to the reader. Then slowly and intricately showed you their flaws and how they each handled their life situation. The suspense carried you to the end. Read with a tall glass of water. Well done!

This was very different from Harper's first book which I realized received rave reviews despite my less than enthusiastic review. This book on the other hand was terrific, although I feel labeling it a mystery is not right. This in a true sense is a novel about a dysfunctional family, despite Harper's attempt to make it out to be a mystery by providing many twists and turns.

Writing again about Australia again, Harper gives us great insight to a large desolate area of the Outback region. Life was hard, the people were hard, and misery was around every corner.

Her prologue lead us on into the search for a reason why anybody would live there.

We meet the Bright family, an almost successful ranching family, and as their story unravels we cover many modern and varied issues from child abuse, spousal abuse, divorce, suicide and depression. Five stars from me, a must read.

This crime novel set in the Australian outback has elements of a typical mystery, but it's the conventions it lacks that make it so satisfying. Our protagonist, for example, is not a PI, cop, or otherwise typical gumshoe character. Rather, he is a member of the family. While The Lost Man is a slow-burning thriller, it is also an emotion- and character-driven family saga. I will be reading Jane Harper's The Dry ASAP.

When I saw Jane Harper's third novel as a "First Impressions" choice, I was thrilled. Having just finished her 1st and 2nd novels, I knew I was in for a treat.
Ms. Harper has a talent for describing people and locations in such a way that one gets inside the heads of her flawed, and so very human, characters, and by the time I finished the book I actually felt dehydrated by the searing Australian heat.
Three brothers - the middle one dead - in circumstances that suggest suicide, but as family relations and secrets come to light, the suspicions and doubts begin to grow.