The Lost Man

Written by Jane Harper

Narrated by Stephen Shanahan

The gripping new novel from the author of the Sunday Times top 10 best sellers The Dry and Force of Nature.

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....

• Language: English
• Publisher: Little, Brown (Hachette UK) Audio
• Release date: Oct 23, 2018
• ISBN: 9781405535175

Jane Harper

Jane Harper is the author of four internationally bestselling Australian mysteries, including The Dry. Her books are published in 40 territories and have sold more than 3 million copies worldwide. Jane has won numerous top awards including the CWA Gold Dagger, the British Book Awards Crime and Thriller Book of the Year and the Australian Book Industry Awards Book of the Year. The 2021 movie adaptation of The Dry, starring Eric Bana, is one of the highest grossing Australian films of all time. Jane worked as a print journalist for 13 years in both Australia and the UK, and now lives in Melbourne with her husband, daughter and son.

Reviews for The Lost Man

[zmagic69 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The best so far.
Lonely, Loners, and Desperate people, desolate landscape and lots of personal secrets.
Wow this author can write!

[bangerlm · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Very well written. Great setting, characters, pacing and mystery.

[pgchuis · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was slow to get going, and I nearly gave up on it, but I'm glad I persevered, because it was excellent. The writing was good, the sense of place outstanding, and the characterization interesting. It became quite exciting towards the end, and the solution to the mystery was well clued without being obvious.

[steven1958 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

"Three brothers, one death, no answers".A psychological thriller set on a million acre property. A grown man, who is more like his father than everyone else can see. A dysfunctional family, trying to survive in outback Australia. Harper has captured the essence of life on stations in Australia, and one that will have you guessing till the end.

[quondame · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It takes a couple of chapters for this book to take off but it does and pulls us through a version of "in the outback you're damned lucky if anyone hears you scream." The brutal death by exposure of the middle of the three adult sons baffles the sparse residents and family members because it seems entirely out of character for the most, maybe the only, successful son to either accidentally or deliberately endanger himself. We follow the oldest brother, Nathan, financially struggling, divorced, shunned by the community, and perhaps having his last ever visitation with his city raised son, as he spends the days before and after Christmas staying with his widowed mother, widowed sister-in-law, nieces, surviving brother and an old family retainer. We are pretty sure Nathan and his son could have nothing to do with the death, but anyone else? But why?

[amzzz_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Gripping enough to keep me up reading well past my bedtime. Part mystery, part family drama. Jane Harper writes the Australian landscape in such an intense way!

[lauralkeet · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Lost Man opens with the death of Cameron Bright, discovered in a remote location by his brothers Nathan and Bub. Set in the Australian Outback, the conditions are unrelentingly hot and dry. There is no sign of foul play, so it seems Cam may have died from exposure. But how could this happen to an experienced rancher whose car is chock full of water and other supplies? That sets the stage for a mystery, but determining the circumstances of Cam’s death requires unraveling complex family relationships and motives. Nathan, the older brother, is divorced and trying to establish a more solid relationship with his teenage son. Bub is several years younger than Nathan and Cam, and desperately wants to earn their respect as a partner in managing the family’s land. Their widowed mother and Cam’s newly-widowed wife are part of the tangle, as are a long-term employee and a pair of backpackers doing seasonal labor. Jane Harper’s depiction of the outback’s isolation and climate add another layer of intensity. While “whodunnit” is a question that needs to be answered, this novel goes deeper and is a very satisfying read.

[drapple_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

As with other Harper books, the main character in this novel is really the brutal outback environment. Three brother have grown up on a cattle station in the Australian outback. As the novel begins, one of them is found dead, leaving the rest of the family trying to figure out what happened. The characters are fully developed and the suspense is maintained throughout the book.

[majkia · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Australian brother is found dead, miles from his car. No sign of violence. What happened what lead up to this?I really enjoyed the slow boil of this one, and the heavy emphasis on the environment as a factor in not just the death but in the lives of the locals.

[thekellyfamily · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I never read Jane Harper and was intrigued by the cover description. I have to admit, I was NOT disappointed. Her description of the Australian outback and her beautiful prose, kept me intrigued throughout. I highly recommend the book - it truly was a look at the human psyche and how we all handle the events that life may deal to us.

[techeditor_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Jane Harper’s THE LOST MAN is one of the best mystery/suspense novels I have ever read. If you read and loved THE DRY, one of her previous books, you’ll love THE LOST MAN. If you haven’t read THE DRY, you’ll want to after you read THE LOST MAN.Nathan, the eldest of three brothers, discovers the body of Cameron, another one of the brothers, in the outback desert. There begins the mystery: how did he end up in this predicament when his car is loaded with supplies to sustain him? Was this suicide or was it murder? If murder, who had cause to hate him this much? You would expect that a Harper book would take place in Australia. But her descriptions of the outback, in particular, where the brothers and the rest of the family live and work, made me actually see its vastness and feel the desolation, danger, and heat they dealt with.Here is a book you won’t want to end. When I got there, it felt too soon.

[sallyelizabethmurphy · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I am not sure why this book received such good ratings. I found the novel tedious and difficult to follow. I like the author, and this was definitely not my favorite.

[purple_pisces22 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I was not quite sure when I started this book what to expect. I enjoyed Jane Harper’s previous books, but the description of the book just didn’t grab me. I am very glad I gave it a shot though. I will say the ending was totally not what I expected. There were parts that I suspected but the ultimate outcome had never even crossed my mind. I love it when that happens!

[clue_4 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Brothers Cameron and Bub Bright were to meet and repair a piece of equipment a few hours drive from their home in the Australian outback. Cameron never arrives and his body is found lying near a lonely road far from where he was meant to be. It's summer and so close to the desert a man can die within 24 hours of exposure but Cameron knew that and when his car is found it's still loaded with water and other supplies. There are no clues to his death and before the mystery is unraveled everyone in and around the family is suspect. I liked this standalone as much as Harper's two Aaron Falk mysteries. She is so adept describing the outback it's worth the read for that alone. There is good news for Harper's fans, another standalone will be released in February.

[mercef_9 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Mmm...better than her last book (Force of Nature) which I’ve now had to change to a 3 star rating. But not as good as some of my other 4 star reads. So - I’m in a real quandary. Do I now need to change some of the 4 star ratings to 5?? Have I mentioned before how much I really dislike the Goodreads rating system??
This book did not engage me nearly as much as Harper’s first book, The Dry. I wasn’t overly curious about solving the mystery and it wasn’t what I would call a real page turner. I know I’m in the minority here with this view but overall, I would say...meh. Good for a quick holiday read but needed more ‘oomph’.

[christopherswann · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

4.5 stars. Jane Harper continues to hit home runs.

[stephanie_m-868484 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was one of the best novels this author has written, imo. I loved it, and I could easily imagine myself being in the book, with the characters, living life alongside them all.
Stephen Shanahan is the narrator, and he is PERFECT for the role/job. His broadly accented Australian accent melded perfectly with the storyline and gave it a real flavor. His characterizations were on point, and I could tell them all apart easily. I hope Macmillan Audio uses Shanahan’s services tons more.

4 stars, and seriously recommended to everyone.

[robert3167 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Two brothers meet under a scorching summer sky. At their feet lies the body of their brother Cam. How did an experienced stockman end up here, alone, dying of exposure and dehydration? His car discovered 10 km away. So begins this enthralling mystery by Jane Harper. "From above, from a distance, the marks in the dust formed a tight circle. The circle was far from perfect, with a distorted edge that grew thick, then thin, and broke completely in places. It also wasn’t empty.In the center was a headstone, blasted smooth by a hundred-year assault from sand, wind, and sun. The headstone stood a meter tall and was still perfectly straight. It faced west, toward the desert, which was unusual out there. West was rarely anyone’s first choice.The headstone threw a small shadow. It was the only shade in sight and its blackness was slippery, swelling and shrinking as it ticked around like a sundial. The man had crawled, then dragged himself as it moved. He had squeezed into that shade, contorting his body into desperate shapes, kicking and scuffing the ground as fear and thirst took hold.The circle in the dust fell just short of one full revolution. Just short of twenty-four hours. And then, at last, the stockman finally had company, as the earth turned and the shadow moved on alone, and the man lay still in the center of a dusty grave under a monstrous sky."Every family has their secrets. This family is no different. Little by little the civilised veneer of the Bright family is peeled apart. The family run a cattle property in central Queensland, Three and a half thousand square kilometers, with about three thousand Herefords. Fifteen hundred kilometers to the east lay Brisbane, the state capital, situated near the coast.The story is told from the POV of Nathan, the older brother. Nathan is a bundle of issues, working a marginal smaller property adjacent to the family station. A messy divorce, custody issues, banned from town for the last nine years, he is not in an ideal position to work out what happened. To complicate matters, Nathan's teenage son Xander is also there, visiting for the Christmas break. Harper's skill is in rendering the characters and their environment so vividly that you can feel the 45°C heat, feel the gritty red dust. Through Nathan's interactions we have a definite idea of the personalities and traits of each of the characters. There is a risk in putting all the action and observation through the eyes of one central character. What Nathan doesn't see or hear has to be covered in some other way or we become constrained by his observations.Despite this, it works. Little by little Nathan puts the little clues together. Secrets are exposed, lives are changed irrevocably.I thoroughly recommend this book. It's a crime novel, but not as you know it.

[japaul22 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This mystery set in the Australian outback kept me up late last night because I couldn't stop reading it at my normal bedtime. I really liked it - better than Harper's last book. This one deals with the ramifications of domestic abuse. The ending is a little too neat, but I find most mysteries suffer from this. Either there are too many loose ends or everything is tied up nicely, but not necessarily realistically. I like how Jane Harper unfolds the mystery of the murder and the family's secrets at the same time - well-paced. I think I was in the mood for a good, fast-paced novel and this fit the bill.

[kbranfield-837433 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

4.5 stars.
The Lost Man by Jane Harper is a captivating, character-driven mystery set in the Australian Outback.

Nathan Bright, middle brother Cameron "Cam" and youngest brother Bub are co-owners of the family cattle station, Burley Downs. Nathan spends little time with the family since he is running cattle on his own property. However, when repairs are needed, everyone pulls together due to their isolated location. When Cam fails to show up to work on a project with Bub, fear quickly strikes and a helicopter is called in to search for the missing man.  Cam's body is soon found at the grave of a stockman who perished over century ago.

Despite the police ruling that Cam's death is an unfortunate mishap due to the harsh conditions and soaring temperatures, Nathan is driven to look into the circumstances of his brother's death. Too many inconsistencies in Cam's behavior in the weeks leading up to his death coupled with the fact his brother's fully stocked vehicle is miles from where his body is discovered  rouse Nathan's suspicions. Why was Cam nowhere near the repeater he was supposed to repair with Bub? More importantly, why Cam would walk nine kilometers to the stockman's grave without taking supplies with him?  Are Nathan's concerns there is more to Cam's death than meets the eye accurate?

Nathan has been long estranged from his family and he rarely spends time in their company. Devastated by his divorce ten years earlier, he spent a good number of years in a protracted custody fight with his ex-wife. Nathan lives a very isolated, solitary life that is only broken by visits with his sixteen year old son, Xander.  In the aftermath of Cam's death, Nathan stays at Burley Downs with his mother, Liz, Bub, honorary uncle Harry and Cam's wife, Ilse, and their young daughters, Sophie and Lo. Amid tense undercurrents and complicated  histories, Nathan learns disturbing information about Cam and to some extent, Bub. As the days pass leading up to Cam's funeral, Nathan reflects back on his childhood and few of those memories are happy.

Unable to let go of his feeling there is more to his brother's death, Nathan and Xander continue digging into his Cam's activities. Nathan is confused by the discovery that someone from Cam's long ago past has been calling. He is also uncovering very disturbing details about his brother's interactions with Ilse and their daughters. Nathan is also starting to question how his brother's relationship with Ilse started all those years ago. A very troubling picture of Cam is beginning to emerge but does any of this newly discovered information have anything to do with Cam's death?

With dark undertones, The Lost Man is a riveting mystery that is multi-layered and engaging.  Nathan is a wonderful character whose life has beaten him down and he is barely holding on. The Bright family has a complex history that is full of dark secrets that are clearly influencing the events playing out in the present.  Jane Harper once again masterfully brings the harsh and remote setting vibrantly to life.   The novel comes to an absolutely stunning conclusion as Nathan finally learns the heartbreaking and shocking truth about Cam's death. I absolutely loved and highly recommend this phenomenal mystery to fans of the genre.

[laura400 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A slow slog, then a strange and sudden wrap-up.

[maydacat_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The story begins with two brothers, Nathan and Bub, looking down at the body of a third brother Cameron. Life in the Australian outback is harsh to the point of being deadly, but Cam’s death made no sense. His car, fully functional and loaded with supplies, was within walking distance of where he was found. They could not understand why he left it and died in the heat. Then for many, many pages, we learn about this family, parents, spouses, and children, even going back a generation, in a series of flashbacks and remembrances. Finally, within pages of the end, we learn how and why Cameron died. The characters are interesting, and this is most definitely a character-driven story, but so little happens in the way of a “real” plot, it is almost boring in places.

[rglossne · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The brutally hot and isolated Australian outback is the murder weapon in this suspenseful tale. Brothers Nathan and Bub Bright meet for the first time in months at the site where their brother Cameron has died. Cameron's car is miles away, and the mystery is what caused him to set out alone, without supplies, to his certain death? Suicide in this manner is not unknown. But Nathan is suspicious and begins to investigate the motives of the few left behind. Jane Harper's suspense novels are well written; this is her third, and I cannot recommend her enough.

[kinwolf · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is part of my "Read something else" series, where I "force" myself to read something out of my usual repertoire of sci-fi/fantasy/adventures. I picked this one after reading about it in Bookmarks magazine.The outback, Australia, Three brothers, all "veterans" of working in the Outback, one of them found dead in an impossible way. This is the story of a broken family and this mystery.First, the good: The story is very well written, the text flow easily and the author doesn't lose itself in countless description(a pet peeve of mine, I can't stand minutious description of scenes anymore.) The characters are all believable, and have wildly different persona. Lastly, I never thought I would enjoy so much reading about the Australia outback the impact it has on it's inhabitant. The novel is full of informative facts about living there and I was half-tempted to become a backpackers after finishing it! The author is giving us a grand picture of the life of workers there and I never thought it would be my favourite part of the book.The so-so: That family, and it's habit of never finishing their thoughts or conversations, really start getting on your nerves mid-story. The bad: Not a true negative, but once I finished the story, I couldn't get rid of the feeling that I "knew" this story already. Plot wise, there was nothing really new in it, it really felt like I had seen/read many variants of this story over the years. You know, like you watch a movie about a kid and a dog, and it reminds you of 10 others movies you saw in your youth about a kid and his dog... Well, that's the same feeling I had here. That said, the true star of this book was the setting, the Australian outback, and that was nailed perfectly and made this a worthwhile read for me.

[gypsysmom_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is the first book by Jane Harper that I have read but I have heard that The Dry is excellent. I intend to listen to the audiobook of it soon.The outback of Australia is a harsh unforgiving land. People who live there learn to take food and water and a means to communicate any time they venture away from home. So why did Cameron Bright leave his vehicle some miles away when he visited the old grave near the boundary of his land and his brother's. Nathan Bright is the oldest of the three brothers and Bub, who lives on the family ranch with Cameron and family and their mother, is the youngest. But these are all grown men well-versed in the cautions of living in this land. Cameron died of dehydration and his body was found by the stockman's grave, a place that has its share of stories from years past. Nathan is determined to find out why his brother died but he also has to think about what will happen to the family ranch now that Cam is gone. Bub doesn't seem to have the interest or the intelligence to manage the ranch and Cam's wife might not be able to fill her husband's shoes. Nathan still has a partial ownership of the ranch so he has a fiscal reason for seeing it succeed. This also would bring him into close contact with Ilse Bright with whom he had a relationship before Cam married her. Nathan's own marriage has long ago broken down but he does have a nearly grown son that he has to consider. As Nathan continues to ask questions he learns more about his dead brother and his propensity for violence (just as their father exhibited while the boys were growing up). It looks more and more like Cam's death was not a horrible accident but was somehow perpetrated and the possible perpetrators are a pretty small group limited to those living on the ranch. The reveal at the end took me completely by surprise.Highly recommended.

[a9shelf9apart · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Unf.

Jane Harper looks right into my brain, pulls out all the half-formed ideas I have and writes out novels that are much better than anything I could have written.

Best novel of hers yet.

[hemlokgang · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book came highly recommended by several bibliophile friends. I second that emotion! This was an excellent psychological, suspenseful novel. Set in the Australian outback, a family faces a sudden tragedy, which in turn leads to the revelation of a violent set of family secrets. Somehow, Ms. Harper is able to powerfully convey the outback's unique ability to shape people's lives. Survival is a daily effort, which embodies the entire novel. Excellent story of family, the power of secrets, and the will to survive.

[arubabookwoman · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

One of three brothers living on a remote cattle station is found dead of dehydration. The mystery is why he would have abandoned his fully stocked and safe car to wander several kilometers in the desert, ultimately leading to his death.This is more of a psychological study of a family with secrets than a murder mystery per se, and it does not move quickly. Nevertheless, I always wanted to get back to reading it, and I loved the descriptions of life in the remote outback--neighbors and town miles and miles away; schooling for your children by TV; walk-in freezers (cool rooms) for food storage; electricity by generator; a log to enter where you are going and when you will be back every time you leave the house. Recommended.

[icolford · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Australian Jane Harper has built a solid international reputation for her two crime novels featuring Federal Investigator Aaron Falk, The Dry and Force of Nature. Falk does not feature in The Lost Man, but his absence does not mean this novel is any less gripping or suspenseful than her first two. The story is set in the outback, at an isolated cattle station more than 1,000 km west of Brisbane during the hottest days of the Australian summer. The Bright family is one of the chief landowners in the area. One day shortly before Christmas Cameron Bright sets out on an errand but fails to return home, and his wizened body is later discovered at a local landmark called the stockman’s grave. Cameron—smart, experienced, respected—has succumbed to the pitiless and relentless heat, which can kill a man in a few hours. But what was he doing out there, alone, apparently unprepared and completely exposed? The most shocking and inexplicable aspect of the death is that his Land Cruiser—in perfect working order and fully stocked with water and food, none of which had been touched—is discovered about 9 km away. There was no distress call. The police force, which consists of a single officer, conducts a perfunctory investigation. But with no witnesses, no evidence that a crime has even been committed, and no suspects, the investigation stalls and produces nothing by way of conclusive results. Ultimately, it is ruled a case of death by misadventure, which means everyone assumes Cam, who by all accounts had recently been acting strangely and seemed to be troubled, took his own life. The family, especially Cam’s older brother Nathan, have doubts about this. Nathan, acting on nothing more than his gut, which pesters him with suspicions and a feeling that something is very wrong, starts nosing around, asking questions and peeling back the layers. Jane Harper is a patient writer, and the action proceeds slowly, haltingly, as myriad disconcerting family secrets and prior bad acts are dragged into the light of day. Nathan, a solitary soul with a complicated past, stumbles through a haphazard investigation into his brother’s death and in the process learns more than he wants to about himself and the people around him. One of the most compelling features of Jane Harper’s novels is her use of the Australian landscape to build tension and evoke human emotion. In The Lost Man, Australia’s beautiful, shimmering, deadly outback haunts every page. Jane Harper has outdone herself with this richly textured and thoroughly engaging novel.

[adonisguilfoyle · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Initially, I was charmed by this novel because the outback setting reminded me of The Flying Doctors, but there is actually a solid murder mystery at the core of the plot, plus some Christie-esque character interaction. The Bright brothers meet between their properties in the middle of the vast and dangerous Australian bush to reclaim the body of their middle brother, Cameron, who has died of dehydration on a local landmark, the isolated grave of stockman from long ago. But why did Cameron seemingly abandon his well-stocked and air-conditioned car to walk out into the middle of nowhere and perish in the unforgiving winter sun? Elder brother Nathan sets out to find the truth about what happened to his brother, and come to terms with his own past.The story is fairly plodding - Nathan never gives up investigating, but has a few domestic issues of his own to work through, including memories of his abusive father, a messy divorce, his teenage son staying with him for Christmas, feelings for his brother's widow, and the reason why nobody in town will talk to him - but the atmosphere of the family cattle ranch is just so claustrophobic and tense that I got instantly caught up in everybody's secrets! And yes, reading about the blazing sun of the Aussie outback on one of the hottest days of the year (in the UK at least) certainly helped set the mood!Definitely recommended, and I will be looking up Jane Harper's other novels (and possibly rewatching The Flying Doctors!)