The Lost Man
'Her best book yet' Evening Standard
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4.3 • 174 Ratings
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- £4.99
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
'[A] haunting family mystery' Sunday Times
'A riveting, deeply atmospheric read' Mail on Sunday
'Just as good - perhaps even better - than Harper's excellent thrillers The Dry and Force of Nature' Observer
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
'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
A best crime fiction book of 2019 pick in The Times
A thriller of the year 2019 pick in the Observer
A bestselling Richard & Judy book club pick 2019
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Australia's outback, with its brutal climate and equally bruising isolation, looms as large as any character in this stark standalone from bestseller Harper (Force of Nature). For years, the three Bright brothers divorced dad Nathan, the eldest; family man and everybody's favorite, middle child Cameron; and the mentally challenged youngest, Bub have maintained an uneasy equilibrium on adjacent cattle ranches. That flies out the window the week before Christmas when Cameron goes missing; his desiccated corpse is subsequently discovered a few miles from his perfectly operational truck in the shadow of the eerie headstone known as the stockman's grave. Absent any clear indications of foul play, the local authorities undertake a perfunctory investigation, leaving a troubled Nathan to start asking questions that no one wants to answer. In the grim journey that follows, the surviving members of the Bright family must confront some devastating secrets. Harper's sinewy prose and flinty characters compel, but the dreary story line may cause some readers to give up before the jaw-dropping denouement. Author tour.)
Customer Reviews
Ending came suddenly
I really enjoyed this, as I did the other books by Jane Harper.
It’s well written and I was very much engrossed in it.
The ending was wrapped up very neatly but it came quicker than I thought!
Thoroughly Enjoyed It
Wonderful evocation of the desolation of the Australian outback.
A Crackin Read, Jane Harper got her Mojo back!
As good as, if not better, than her first novel.
A pleasure to read