Intergenerational family violence within the context of remote isolation is intimately explored and I feel that Jane handled this well, balancing out the effects over the three brothers, along with the far reaching consequences of this legacy for all members of the Bright family. This really appealed to me, particularly the issues that Jane honed in on. In line with this, The Lost Man is styled as a family drama, with the dynamics between the family members and their respective histories, both on an individual basis as well as collectively, taking precedence over the crime.

The Lost Man opens with a crime, but as the novel progresses, it becomes less of a case of who killed Cameron and more about why he ended up dead. A place where rivers flooded without rain and seashells fossilised a thousand miles from water and men who left their cars found themselves walking to their deaths.’ A million years ago when a million natural events still needed to occur, one after the other, to form this land as it lay in front of him now. ‘At night, when the sky felt even bigger, he could almost imagine it was a million years ago and he was walking on the bottom of the sea. Right from her first novel, this has been one of Jane’s strengths. Jane Harper has such a keen sense of place and her writing brings the scenery of her story to life with vivid, and accurate, detail. About 11 hours directly north, you reach Mount Isa, my home, so the landscape and lifestyle depicted in The Lost Man is all too familiar to me. Jane did much of her research for this novel in the area of Birdsville (see her author notes for more detail). In Jane Harper’s third novel, she takes the reader on a journey into remote Western Queensland, a hot, dry, arid region with a vast and unforgiving landscape. LONGLISTED FOR THE 2019 INDIE BOOK AWARDS FOR FICTION Did he lose hope and walk to his death? Because if he didn’t, the isolation of the outback leaves few suspects…įor readers who loved The Dry and Force of Nature, Jane Harper has once again created a powerful story of suspense, set against a dazzling landscape. The Bright family’s quiet existence is thrown into grief and anguish. But today, the scant shadow it casts was the last chance for their middle brother, Cameron.

They are at the stockman’s grave, a landmark so old, no one can remember who is buried there. Two brothers meet at the border of their vast cattle properties under the unrelenting sun of outback Queensland. The man lay still in the centre of a dusty grave under a monstrous sky.

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