Dysfunctional families aren't unique to any country.

But when they're isolated in the middle of the Australian Outback, have a reputation to uphold and Christmas is approaching, it puts a slightly different slant on their story.

The Lost Man begins with a shocked Nathan Bright and his younger brother Bub staring down at a tarp covering Cameron, middle brother of the Bright family, who has died, apparently of dehydration and sunstroke, nine kilometers away from his parked vehicle, fully stocked with water and other essentials for survival.

Cameron had departed from the family cattle station, intent on making repairs to a radio repeater mast. Bub, who'd left home by another route and stopped to check water bores along the way, was to meet and assist him at the tower. When he arrived, Cameron wasn't there.

Called in to assist in a search, a helicopter had finally spotted Cameron's remains at the Stockman's Grave, a site haunted by legends of another man lost to the terrors of the desert. Nathan, accompanied by his 16-year-old son Xander, who is visiting for the holidays, heard radio reports of the search while tending fence and hurried to join Bub.

Did Cameron commit suicide, or was his death the result of foul play?

Ilse, Cameron's wife, and his two young daughters are distraught, as is Liz, Nathan, Bub and Cameron's mother. Everyone is puzzled. Rumors of strange behavior by Cameron and the actions of other people prompt suspicions.

Nathan, due to a misjudgment a decade earlier, has been living in isolation on an adjoining property, shunned by most everyone in the scant society of the outback. As he ponders to understand the reason for his brother's death, long-hidden secrets are unraveled and new alliances forged.

This is a page-turner with lots of surprises and a conclusion to shock even the most hardened crime reader. Jane Harper has crafted an enthralling tale of suspense, relationships, vivid characters and a landscape so real you can taste the dust and sense the lonely emptiness.

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