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I loved both of Jane Harper’s previous books but I think this one might just be the best yet. Set in the Australian outback it’s a tale of a three brothers: Nathan, Cameron (Cam) and Bub. As the book opens Nathan and Bub have met at old gravestone on family land. The grave represents the final resting point of a man known as the stockman, the tale of whose demise takes many forms. In the shadow of the gravestone lies a body, it’s that of Cam.

The family farm is vast and quite why Cam was at this spot, miles from anywhere with no vehicle in sight is a mystery. It seems that he was due to meet up with Bub to carry out a repair some distance from this point, but he didn’t show up. The heat is so extreme in these parts that to be separated from your vehicle and from water for even a short period can be fatal. Out here everyone know that you live on your wits and take no chances �� which makes Cam’s fate all the harder to understand. Though it seems that Cam had been somewhat stressed lately, could it be that he deliberately found his way to the stockman’s grave knowing what his fate would be?

From this small view of the three brothers gathered together under such tragic circumstances we start to learn their story. Actually, it’s the story of a mother and father and their three boys and also of the broader family, as the boys grow into men and add grandchildren into the mix. It’s also an account of what it’s like to live in such a place, a farm a thousand kilometres from Adelaide and fifteen hundred from Brisbane, with a journey by road to the latter taking some 18 hours! There’s a small town some hours away but really nothing much else in the vicinity.

From such an intimate beginning the picture gradually grows, but it grows slowly. There was a point early on where I thought for an instant that the pace might be too slow but almost immediately thereafter I found myself totally captivated by this book. Without warning I realised that I just had to know everything about these people, their lives in this place and �� maybe �� what caused Cam to die in such a way. The characters are largely gruff, hardened by the life and the landscape, but to an extent that’s just surface noise. As I learned more and more about the upbringing the boys had had and about their more recent lives a clearer view started to emerge: actually life was even tougher than I’d thought! And I felt for all of these people who had jointly suffered this loss and were desperately trying to absorb it and to understand it.

There's sadness here and tension and a mystery to be solved too. The writing is first class, the pacing (despite my early reservation) is perfect and the way in which Harper describes life in this harshly beautiful place is extraordinary. If I read a better book this year, I’ll be a happy man �� this one is already guaranteed to be in my top 5!

My sincere thanks to Little, Brown Book Group UK and to NetGalley for supplying a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.