Australian country towns are often veritable paradoxes of varying shades. On the one hand, they are (to those looking in from outside) frequently carefree and even whimsical utopias where everyone knows each other and everyone knows everyone’s secrets (or do they?), and social support abounds (or does it?).

On the other hand, how well do you really know your neighbour in a country town (or any place for that matter)? Are folk always as they outwardly appear? 

It is darkly true that secrets swirl and over time gain momentum wherever humans co-exist. Secrets that can cause seismic ruptures when revealed. Lives forever altered and sometimes causatively diminished.

Such notions are superbly explored and examined in powerhouse Australian (being born in England, she has dual nationality) author, Jane Harper’s, latest exemplary crime novel, Last One Out.

The (fictional) small town of Carralon Ridge in New South Wales has seen better days. The tiny population consists of those who (for whatever reasons) have ‘held on’ as the Lentzer coalmine on the outskirts of town has purchased property after property for somewhat measly sums.  “The coalmine was a twenty-four-hour operation, fully self-contained and staffed by Lentzer’s specialised and vetted workforce who were brought in from elsewhere on rotation. In the very early days, there had been a faint hope around Carralon of a silver lining in the shape of local jobs and a boost to the town’s businesses but none of that had materialised in any meaningful way. The mine’s workers lived, slept and socialised entirely within the sprawling complex and were given no need or excuse to venture into the sleepy neighbouring community”.

So many businesses in Carralon have closed and so many folk have fled this small locale (for better opportunities, jobs and so forth) that Carralon is now a sad shadow of it’s former welcoming persona. 

For exes, Griff and Ro Crowley (living apart but not divorced), Carralon holds deeply bitter-sweet memories. For them, a dark cloud of grief, shock and even anger will hover over Carralon forever. Five years ago, their beloved and ambitious 21 year old Sam went missing on the environmentally harsh outskirts of the town, and was never found. His footprints were found in the dirt around three houses that had once been owned by the locals but were vacant and boarded up at the time Sam walked around them. His rental car was parked nearby, but alas there was no physical sign of Sam.

Five years later, forever grieving Ro (once the town GP at the now closed medical centre in town) is living and working in Sydney.

Griff, still living in the docile family home in Carralon, had been in charge of the area’s “fire response” for many years, up until the closure of the “local station”. Nowadays, Griff is “employed by Lentzer to maintain his few remaining neighbours’ fire-fighting equipment” and to be on the lookout for problems and “spot flares” in the community, relating to fire safety.

Griff intensely dislikes being employed by the mine. In fact, everyone in town loathes Lentzer and the menacing, smelly and dust-inducing mine that lurches and groans audibly to those in town day after day.

Ro has come back to Carralon to attend Sam’s annual memorial. It had been the day of his 21st birthday when he went missing, Ro and Griff waiting for him to come home for his birthday dinner.

Sam’s sister, twenty-three year old Della, is also in town to attend the memorial. Her work as a “junior accountant for a major investment bank in Sydney” keeps her firmly on her toes. Even during her visit home, she is doing business via her computer and phone.

Sam’s old school friends, Darcy and Jacob are still in town. Back in the day, the three boys got up to a lot of mischief together, although they later felt bad about that (in terms of causing grief to the town’s residents by their silly pranks).

Will Ro and Griff ever find out what happened to Sam? Ro still holds onto a slither of hope that Sam is alive somewhere. Is that realistic? What could have happened to make their son vanish without a trace (apart from the sturdy footprints)?

Does someone in the town know something? Is someone in the town not who they seem from the outside?

There are many simmering resentments festering in Carralon. The business closures, lack of opportunity and Lentzer buying up properties for a pittance means that the few remaining townsfolk are not in a good head space most of the time.

Why did Griff’s cousin, Warren, take his own life? What was the pressure he was under?

Ro and Griff had first come across each other at the Black Creek Inn (now opened occasionally by Warren’s ex-girlfriend, Sylvie) in town and they had been quite taken with each other from the beginning. It had been Ro’s best friend’s, Heather’s, wedding reception. A day of great happiness. How could Ro and Griff known what unmerciful eventualities would take place in their lives?

Of the small number of residents now residing in Carralon Ridge (when Sam first disappeared, there had been four hundred people living in the town, now there is only a trickle), can all these ‘friends’ be trusted? Having any of them been living with the knowledge of what happened to Sam? Have any of them had a part in Sam’s disappearance?

Jane has written a sterling crime novel that overflows with intelligence and wisdom, and with great insight into the human psyche and condition. Descriptions of the unique and often unforgiving Australian landscape are eloquently written. Words such as “Ro had drawn in the fresh tang of eucalyptus in the air. The gum trees had swayed gently overhead, kookaburras calling down from the branches, their good-natured laughs…”.

Of course this is a crime novel, but it is also such a heartbreakingly accurate and tellingly deep exploration of grief. Grief of a parent for a child and sister for a sibling. Also grief for a way of life that has been taken away forever. (In this case the sad constriction of Carralon, a town that had once been so full of promise, hope and beauty. A town’s possibilities that have now having ebbed away from it’s residents grip).

Bravo Jane! You have once again written a crime novel (this is Jane’s sixth) that gives we readers all we could ask for in this searingly-popular genre worldwide. Small-town Australia, both beautiful and brutal environs, complicated and nasty characters, intrigue in abundance and a plethora of questions we have that are answered so well by the time we have turned the final page.

Love in families and between friends is also described in the book. Wherever people exist in the world, the human condition with all it’s foibles and nobilities is on display (and sometimes hidden quietly from view).

Reading a novel by Jane Harper is one of life’s sublime treats. I loved every second of reading this novel. Being an Australian and loving this country so much, a novel set in this quintessentially unique and sometimes mysterious place ticks all the boxes for me.

I can’t wait to read whatever Jane writes next.