Books like “The Dry”

What to read after “The Dry” by Jane Harper: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.

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1
The Killer Inside Me
Jim Thompson · 1952
From the same world: “Noir”
- Noir
- Small Town Secrets
Deputy sheriff Lou Ford seems like an ordinary small-town man, but his mild manner hides a violence he has carried since childhood. When old secrets and a woman from his past resurface, his two selves begin to pull him toward more killing.
2
The Little Friend
Donna Tartt · 2002
Similar atmosphere: “Melancholic”
- Melancholic
- Small Town Secrets
Years after a boy was found hanged in the family garden, his younger sister sets out to learn who killed him. Her amateur sleuthing among the town's odd characters pulls her from her grieving family into a dangerous, half-understood world.
3
The Silent Sister
Diane Chamberlain · 2014
Same genre: “Mystery fiction”
- Small Town Secrets
- Twist Ending
After her father's death, Riley returns to their North Carolina house to settle his estate. Sorting through his papers, she finds evidence that her older sister, long believed to have killed herself as a teenager, may be alive and living under another name.
4
A Flicker in the Dark
Stacy Willingham · 2022
Same genre: “Mystery fiction”
- Small Town Secrets
- Twist Ending
As a child she helped put her father away for killing girls. Twenty years later she is a therapist about to marry, when young women in her town begin to disappear again and the old case follows her into the present.
5
Big Little Lies
Liane Moriarty · 2014
Same genre: “Mystery fiction”
- Small Town Secrets
- Twist Ending
Three mothers at a coastal school become friends while a death at a school event draws nearer. Their polished lives hide abusive marriages, old grudges and rumour, and the night of the fundraiser forces the truth into the open.
6
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Stieg Larsson · 2005
From the same world: “Noir”
- Noir
A disgraced financial journalist is hired by an old industrialist to solve the decades-old disappearance of his niece. His researcher is Lisbeth Salander, a brilliant, guarded hacker with her own scores to settle.
7
Where the Crawdads Sing
Delia Owens · 2018
Similar setting: “Small Town Secrets”
- Small Town Secrets
Abandoned by her family as a child, Kya grows up alone in a North Carolina marsh, shunned by the nearby town as the Marsh Girl. She teaches herself to survive on the land and inches toward love, until a local man is found dead and she becomes the chief suspect.
8
Dark Places
Gillian Flynn · 2009
Similar setting: “Small Town Secrets”
- Small Town Secrets
- Twist Ending
Years after her mother and sisters were killed and her teenage brother was convicted, Libby Day is approached by a group of true-crime enthusiasts who believe he is innocent. Short of money, she agrees to ask questions, and the answers force her to revisit what she remembers of that night.
9
The Talented Mr. Ripley
Patricia Highsmith · 1955
From the same world: “Noir”
- Noir
Tom Ripley, a poor young man in New York, is sent to Italy by a rich shipbuilder to bring home his son Dickie. Instead Tom is drawn into Dickie's comfortable world and, when it is threatened, does whatever it takes to keep it.
10
Double Indemnity
James M. Cain · 1936
From the same world: “Noir”
- Noir
Insurance salesman Walter Huff is drawn to Phyllis, the alluring wife of a client, and agrees to help her kill her husband and make it look like an accident. Their scheme is carefully plotted, but the company's claims investigator begins to notice details that do not add up.
11
Brighton Rock
Graham Greene · 1938
From the same world: “Noir”
- Noir
- Twist Ending
Seventeen-year-old Pinkie Brown runs a small gang on the Brighton seafront and commits a murder to hold his position. A cheerful, persistent woman who barely knew the victim decides to find out what really happened, closing in on a boy who believes he is beyond ordinary justice.
12
A Good Girl's Guide to Murder
Holly Jackson · 2019
Similar setting: “Small Town Secrets”
- Small Town Secrets
- Twist Ending
For a school project, Pip reopens the closed case of Andie Bell, a local girl murdered five years ago, and her boyfriend Sal, who confessed and then died. As she records interviews with the people involved, the tidy story everyone accepted begins to come apart.