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I was drawn to this arid Australian crime thriller by a desert storm of five-star reviews, not to mention the fact that this was The Sunday Times Crime Book of the Year.
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*Folds his arms and sighs*
I'm not saying that this was a bad book �� it was OK �� though the storyline (for me) was flat, improbable, slow-paced and bereft of suspense.
Apart from that, it was fine!

Bland federal agent, Aaron Falk, returns to the small Outback town of his childhood for the funeral of his best friend (and also his best friend's immediate family) and is drawn into an unofficial investigation as to how they really met their deaths.

Here is a list of just some of the things that niggled me:

1) The book is titled The Dry. It's set in the swelter of the Outback in the middle of the worst drought to hit Australia in a century. Yet I didn't get any real sense of the suffocating heat, nor do I remember flies being swatted from any number of sweaty faces.

2) Aaron Falk is in town and just happens to be on the financial intelligence side of criminal investigation (how very convenient for the purpose of the story).

3) The dialogue was unconvincing. I mean, don't rough, tough, leather-necked Aussie men in the middle of the Outback ever use the f-word? I know Crocodile Dundee didn't, but come on!

4) I guessed who the killer was the moment he/she was introduced! As subterfuge goes, that's pretty average.

5) I found it difficult to connect with any of the characters; most were portrayed as small-minded and insular.

So, for me (and I seem to be swimming against the tide), this novel was several shrimps short of a barbie. But almost everyone else likes it, so please, please don't take a blind bit of notice of anything I've said!