The Dry

Luke was a farmer in Kiewarra, who was married to Karen and a father to Billy and Charlotte. He was confident, fit, with thick black hair, and a “slightly knowing look in his eyes” (5). He is suspected of murdering Karen and Billy, and then killing himself. Given how dire the conditions are in Kiewarra, and how poorly the farms were doing, some residents do not blame Luke for wanting a “way out,” but he is overwhelmingly villainized for hurting his family. 

Luke was Falk's childhood best friend and used to be Gretchen’s boyfriend. Falk remembers that as a child, Luke had been “a good ally” and “loyal almost to a fault” (81) but could “change his mood like flipping a coin” (44). Luke is the one who comes up with an alibi for Falk when Ellie was killed, and even years later, refused to tell Falk where he really was that day.

Luke is characterized both positively and negatively, sometimes contradictorily, which makes it difficult for other characters to discern if he has ever been capable of murder. Luke was always the center of attention in their friend group and remains at the center of the investigation until Falk realizes Luke was “a smoke screen” (275) to distract them from the intended victim, Karen.

Whitlam is in his early forties and has a “wide smile” and a “broad chest” (81). He became the principal of Kiewarra Primary School when he moved from Melbourne with his wife Sandra and daughter Danielle 18 months ago. He initially says they moved because Sandra wanted “a change of scenery” from the city (82), but he later discloses that it was because he was the victim of a violent mugging that resulted in a man's death.

He is passionate about sports history, and it is later revealed that he has a profound gambling addiction. His debts are what forced his family to move to Kiewarra, especially because he was the one who killed the man in the mugging. He justifies stealing a $50,000 grant from the school if it means keeping his family safe. After he realizes that Karen knows what he did, his desperation to keep this a secret drives him to murder the Hadlers. Throughout the novel he maintains a calm exterior around everyone else, moving and interacting undetected. In his standoff with Falk and Raco, his desperation comes to a head—he would rather burn Kiewarra, risking everyone's lives, than be held accountable for his grave actions.

Grant is Deacon’s nephew and Ellie’s cousin. He is in his mid-forties and has not aged well: His “flabby frame” (55) supports a flushed face with a “scruffy beard” and “sludge-brown” hair (25). Even from an early age, he was hot-blooded and intimidating. As a middle-aged man, Falk notices that “the bitterness seemed to seep from his pores” (130), and he is still always keen to pick a fight.

He moved to Deacon's farm in his twenties to help with the work, and two decades later works odd jobs around town. He is often surrounded by his interchangeable friends, who always mindlessly support what he says. Throughout the novel, he is constantly at odds with Falk, blaming him for Ellie's death, while Falk suspects that Grant killed the Hadlers. They share a parallel experience, though, because both of their names were found on notes written by the victims, and neither one can explain why. Grant and his uncle epitomize the worst of Kiewarra: ruthlessly bullying others because they know they can get away with it, and inconsequentially living with the fact that they are the ones who killed Ellie 20 years ago.

Deacon is Grant’s uncle and Ellie's father. He is an aging, arrogant, “aggressive old bastard” (51) with “ropy arms” and large hands (56). He is a farmer who lives on the property next to the Hadlers and has always been the town bully. He is disliked for the shameless things he has done, but the community of Kiewarra puts up with him because the local businesses are all dependent on one another.

He has always insisted that the Falks were responsible for his daughter's death, forcing them to leave town. Even now, in old age and affected by dementia, he relentlessly blames Falk and tries to get him to leave Kiewarra. Deacon’s alcoholism and abuse are what drove his wife to leave many years ago, and what drove Ellie to plan the same. Even though he insists that he loved her, the end of the novel reveals that Deacon is the one who murdered Ellie when he caught her running away, a secret he has been able to live with and justify to himself for two decades.

Gretchen is a farmer in Kiewarra, where she has lived her entire life. She is an attractive blond, with blue eyes and high cheekbones. She has a five-year-old son named Lachlan (Lachie), but Lachie's father is not in the picture and remains unknown throughout the novel.

She was “the balancing force” within the friend foursome and dated Luke for several years after Falk left town. She later admits that she was deeply in love with Luke and was hurt when Luke chose Karen over her. Gretchen is the only familiar face Falk actively seeks out in Kiewarra, and their renewed friendship begins to take shape as something more romantic, until Falk starts to suspect her as the murderer. 

Like Falk, she is burdened by the secret of where she was when Ellie died. She and Luke had seen Ellie at the river but decided not to say anything. She has always believed that Ellie committed suicide and feels guilty that she prioritized her relationship with Luke over her friendship with Ellie. 

Raco is the new chief of police in Kiewarra. He is about 30 years old, “built like a boxer” (32) with Mediterranean skin, curly hair, and an accent that is “pure country Australian” (32). He is married to Rita, who is pregnant with their first child.

Raco ended up in Kiewarra because of the chance at a sergeant's post. He is ambitious and hardworking, and Rita believes he is driven by a desire to impress his father, who was also a police officer. He works tirelessly on the Hadler case, and because he only recently moved to Kiewarra, is the one of the few characters who objectively witnesses the effects the town has on the people who live there. He is willing to call out Falk for being obsessed with his tumultuous past in Kiewarra when he goes too far with Deacon, asserting his control of the case and demonstrating his objectivity. Raco is the only character whose actions are not driven by a secret or ulterior motive.

Karen was Luke's wife and Billy and Charlotte's mother. By the time she married Luke, she had no family of her own, which is why the only family mourning her death are Barb and Gerry Hadler. She met Luke when they were about 30, and Luke ultimately chose to marry her over Gretchen. She was a doting mother and an attentive bookkeeper for both her family's farm and the elementary school. She was generally well-liked, and “could easily be cast as a how-does-she-do-it mum in a supermarket ad” (84). She kept Luke grounded, a characteristic Barb Hadler believes Falk shared with her.

Karen is the one who suspects Whitlam stole money from the school and is cautious enough to confront him personally about it before reporting it to anyone. Her caution and hesitation to act is what gives Whitlam enough time to carry out his plan of killing her family, and her plain personality is what keeps the attention of the case drawn to Luke.

Ellie was the fourth member of the teenage friend group that included Falk, Luke, and Gretchen. With her quiet introspection and long, dark hair, Ellie served as an opposite to Gretchen's bubbly, blond personality. Falk and Luke often competed for her attention, but Ellie found herself more drawn to Falk because he made her feel safe. Twenty years ago, her body was found in the Kiewarra river, and those who did not suspect suicide blamed the Falks.

The questions and secrets surrounding Ellie's death become intertwined with those of the Hadler case, further perpetuating the growing sense of mistrust in Kiewarra. Only through flashbacks is it revealed that she was planning to run away from her abusive father, Deacon, and that he is the one who killed her. This is only revealed at the end, forcing characters to reflect and try to reconcile the choices they made in their relationships with Ellie. Despite Ellie dying two decades before the events of the present story take place, she is a central character and serves as a connection between Kiewarra's secretive past and its miserable present.