The Dry – Jane Harper

I just can’t understand how someone like him could do something like that.

Amid the worst drought to ravage Australia in a century, it hasn’t rained in small country town Kiewarra for two years. Tensions in the community become unbearable when three members of the Hadler family are brutally murdered. Everyone thinks Luke Hadler, who committed suicide after slaughtering his wife and six-year-old son, is guilty.

Policeman Aaron Falk returns to the town of his youth for the funeral of his childhood best friend, and is unwillingly drawn into the investigation. As questions mount and suspicion spreads through the town, Falk is forced to confront the community that rejected him twenty years earlier. Because Falk and Luke Hadler shared a secret, one which Luke’s death threatens to unearth. And as Falk probes deeper into the killings, secrets from his past and why he left home bubble to the surface as he questions the truth of his friend’s crime.

*********

The Dry is a very good debut novel. I liked the writing. It kind of sucked me in immediately. I felt as if I was in that hot, dry town of Kiewarra which was suffering from a longstanding drought.

Aaron Falk is the outsider who has reluctantly returned to the town of Kiewarra where he had grown up, to attend the funeral of Luke Hadler and his wife and son. Luke and Aaron had been friends when they were younger but Aaron had left Kiewarra with his father and had gone to live in the city where he now worked as a policeman. Luke remained a farmer, married Karen and had two children. Apparently Luke came home on day shot his wife and son (but not the baby daughter) and then shot himself in the face.

Aaron planned to stay just for the funeral and wake and leave the next day but he is persuaded by Luke’s parents to stay on for a few days to look into the deaths to see if their son’s name can be cleared. What caused Luke to murder his wife and son? Was his business in financial ruin? When Aaron starts to investigate he finds a few things that just don’t make sense.

Things are complicated by the fact that Aaron is not welcome in the town. He and his father had left the town twenty odd years before having been under suspicion for the death of 16 year old Ellie Deacon, who had been Aaron’s girlfriend at the time. Luke had come up with an story that gave Aaron an alibi at that time but they had agreed to keep that secret between them.

However as Aaron and local police Sergeant Greg Raco investigate deeper, old wounds open, scores have to be settled. Emotions are running high. The drought has affected everyone. Livestock have had to be destroyed because there is no feed, debts are mounting, some farmers have been ruined. Was Luke another casualty of the drought?

Aaron is threatened, his vehicle is damaged, he is challenged in the street, he’s accused of harassment – the tension and the underlying threat of violence is kept running high.

In the meantime we get flashbacks to what actually happened in the past (printed in italics so easily distinguished from the present).

There are quite a few twists and red herrings. Just as Aaron and Raco think they have someone who could have been involved in the family’s murder, an alibi surfaces.

The writing is good and the characters are interesting. I liked the flashbacks to the past. Emotions and surroundings are at flashpoint (literally). A real page turner and a very good ending.

The Dry has already been published in Australia and the author’s webpage can be found here.

It’s scheduled for release in the UK 12 January 2017.

My thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown for an advance copy.

My Name is Leon

A brother chosen. A brother left behind. And a family where you’d least expect to find one.

Leon is nine, and has a perfect baby brother called Jake. They have gone to live with Maureen, who has fuzzy red hair like a halo, and a belly like Father Christmas. But the adults are speaking in low voices, and wearing Pretend faces. They are threatening to give Jake to strangers. Since Jake is white and Leon is not.

As Leon struggles to cope with his anger, certain things can still make him smile – like Curly Wurlys, riding his bike fast downhill, burying his hands deep in the soil, hanging out with Tufty (who reminds him of his dad), and stealing enough coins so that one day he can rescue Jake and his mum.

Evoking a Britain of the early eighties, My Name is Leon is a heart-breaking story of love, identity and learning to overcome unbearable loss. Of the fierce bond between siblings. And how – just when we least expect it – we manage to find our way home.

My Name is Leon is a beautifully written book which is heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time.  It’s hard to believe it is Kit de Waal’s debut novel.  It is set in London in the early 1980/81 against a backdrop of racial tension and violence and a royal wedding. Kit de Waal captures the era very well and there are subtle references that anchor the story to the early 1980s.

When I first started reading it I feared that things would not turn out well 9 year old Leon who had taken on the responsibility of caring for, as best as he could, his baby brother Jake and his mother who had mental health issues and just couldn’t cope on her own, frequently going out and leaving Leon to look after the baby and himself. Eventually Social Services become involved after a concerned neighbour contacts them.

It was hard for Leon when he and his brother were placed in emergency foster care. He missed his mum and his toys, but then to make matters worse it was decided that it would be better for Jake if he were adopted.  Jake is a white baby and Leon is not. That meant it would just be Maureen the foster carer and Leon.

I like the way the story is told through the eyes of Leon. He sometimes behaves badly, having major strops and even stealing small amounts of money and various items. You hear his thoughts before his frustration and anger get out of control and he acts out. From a 9 year old’s point of view, and given his situation, it seems quite reasonable. Leon doesn’t like the social workers. He doesn’t trust them; they have fake smiles and don’t always mean what they say. He listens behind doors when they talk to Maureen and Maureen talks to her sister and he doesn’t like what is being said about his mother. However Maureen is an older experienced foster carer and she and Leon generally get on well.

All the way through the book Leon is squirrelling away money and collecting things so that he can go and find his brother and his mother and look after them.

As if all these separations weren’t bad enough, Maureen becomes seriously ill and is taken into hospital. It’s then decided he will stay with her sister Sylvia. This means another change of school.

I think this would traumatise any child. I kept thinking about my own grandson who is 9 but I just couldn’t imagine him in Leon’s situation. At times Leon seems older than his years carrying burdens he really shouldn’t have.

After he is given a bike by the social worker he goes out more and, unknown to Sylvia, spends a lot of time at the allotments. He meets various characters, one being Tufty who is black and reminds Leon of his dad. Another important one is Mr Devlin an older man. Although the men don’t see eye to eye they both help Leon (eventually), encouraging him to grow things.

Even so, Leon witnesses incidents that take place at the allotments including an acquaintance of Tufty’s being dragged off by 4 policemen.

You wonder if things will ever get better for Leon. By this time he just wants Maureen to get out of hospital so he can go back and live with her although he still wants to find his brother and his mother. Unfortunately he overhears part of Sylvia’s telephone conversation and jumps to a conclusion, and decides he has to run away to find them.

It gets worse. He gets caught up in the street riots between civilians and Police and sees people getting hurt.

Oh dear. You would think this book is all doom and gloom. It isn’t. I really liked it probably because it is so well written and I found the characters interesting and very believable. The book isn’t just about the huge upheavals in Leon’s life.  The story is enriched by all the other little things in between and the people he encounters. For all his troubles Leon comes across as a likeable young boy.  You really want him to enjoy a happier, more settled future.

An excellent, thought-provoking but enjoyable book.

My Name is Leon by Kit de Waal will be published on 2 June 2016 by Viking.

Author’s website:   www.kitdewaal.com/

FREEBIES

Oops. Something went wrong here.  This post had reverted to draft.  It was written in the early part of August, certainly long before 25 August!

I've spent the past couple of weeks mainly reading 'free' downloads for Kindle.

I used to trawl through the Amazon 100 bestsellers (free) for Kindle.  I would 'buy' all sorts of books in the hope of finding a wee gem - and quite often there would be a book that was an excellent read.

There were others of course that were not so good, thankfully though not too many that were completely unreadable.

As I said before, nowadays I use Bookbub and The Book Hippo.  I get a daily email from each of those offering books that are either free or great bargains. Sometimes the 'bargain' is for a very limited time.   I set the criteria for books offered.  Both sites are easy to use, even my 80 year old mother can now download her Kindle books easily.

So this weeks's books were The Good Lawyer by Thomas Benigno.  A typical courtroom/crime story but a good read.  A young, ambitious lawyer, brought up with connections to the Mafia, serial rapist/murderer and the suicide of a young victim, family secrets - all cleverly connected.  I bought this book for free but I think you now have to pay.

I also read The Good Sister by Leanne Davis.  Also free when I bought it.  Again it was a good read. I suppose it is a romance but the main character is a victim of domestic abuse who is unable to escape  /leave her controlling husband.  Apparently it is the second book in a series but it was still enjoyable even although I hadn't read the first book.

Lindsay is the sister who seems to have the success: nice house, handsome husband who intends to run for state governor. Growing up she was her Father's favourite daughter and always tried her best to please him.   However she is basically a prisoner and can only do what her monster of a husband allows. She also suffers frequent vicious assaults at his hands.

Jessie on the other hand had a very troubled rebellious childhood and was hated by her father.  She now lives on the other side of the country with her husband and is expecting a baby.  She also works for a good looking vet.  Somehow her sister Lindsay is permitted to visit her sister.  Over a few weeks she blossoms and begins to find her voice.  Of course there is that good looking man.

It's a well written book, making it easy to read although the subject matter makes it quite difficult to read without feeling angry, sad, frustrated.

The book is also quite explicit so is really only suitable for adults.

I also managed to fit in another couple of books that I actully paid for.

One was The Shadow Wife by Diane Chamberlain.  I think this might be one of her earlier books but it was still enjoyable.  Her books tend to have some kind of moral dilemma.  I would say this was good romantic fiction with that dilemma.

The other book was Still Alice by Lisa Genova.  I loved this book. I haven't watched the film and I'm not sure if I will.  The book is well written and although you might think it would be depressing (it's about a Harvard Professor who is diagnosed with Alzheimers at the age of 50) I didn't find it so.  The diagnosis changes her relationships with her husband and grown children, she has to stop working sooner than she had planned,

Unfortunately Alzheimers is something that seems to be touching the lives of more and more people. I just found this book remarkable and I would definitely recommend it.