It’s a bit of a cliché, but I really think one of the greatest things about fiction is its ability to transport you to faraway places. I’m not just talking about places you’ve been before or long to visit someday, but ones that, realistically, you’ll probably never see --- whether it’s the farthest reaches of space or, as in Jane Harper’s crime novels, isolated communities in rural Australia.

Harper has always been good at bringing settings to life, but in LAST ONE OUT, this sense of place is particularly strong. Carralon Ridge is a tiny community on the verge of becoming a ghost town. Over the past several years, a mining company, Lentzer, has been gradually expanding their territory. They have been aggressively offering residents buyouts of their property to encourage them to sell --- and eventually making life in the area so intolerable that many others just leave out of frustration.

"[O]nce Ro and Griff uncover a pivotal clue, the pieces start to slide into place quickly, and the narrative momentum ratchets up to match the emotional stakes."

Rowena Crowley’s situation is a bit different. She left Carralon Ridge several years ago, but not in direct response to the mine. Ever since the disappearance of her son, Sam, on his 21st birthday, she can’t find any meaning in staying. Her estranged husband Griff, who once worked for the town fire department, has stayed behind, working for the mining company to help spot the fires that often flare up in the area, a byproduct of their mining activities. But Ro and her younger daughter, Della, now live in Sydney, where Ro has been able to continue her medical practice (of course, the clinic in Carralon Ridge has been shuttered for years).

Ro returns to Carralon Ridge just once a year --- a few days before the anniversary of Sam’s birth and disappearance. She reconnects with old friends, stages a makeshift memorial service where Sam was last seen, and usually heads back home to the city. This year, however, Ro feels a new sense of urgency. Griff’s contract with Lentzer is not being renewed, which also means his ability to continue renting the home that he and Ro once owned and where they raised their children will be coming to an end. Meanwhile, an increasing number of people who once knew Sam have moved away. Even the town pub almost never has enough customers to warrant opening its doors. This might be Ro’s last opportunity to return to Carralon Ridge and try to find answers about what happened to Sam.

One thing Ro keeps coming back to is that Sam was deeply affected by the sudden death of his uncle Warren by suicide. He also was asking a lot of questions in the days before Warren's passing, doing research as part of his university coursework into how the mine’s activities affected town residents. Ro has practically memorized the notes he left behind, which seem to indicate more than just a socioeconomic interest. Sam was asking pointed questions about Warren and the circumstances of his death. Is it possible that it was not a suicide but a murder? And if so, might Sam’s disappearance, just steps away from Warren’s property, be connected?

Harper does an admirable job of drawing readers into the heart and mind of a grieving mother. Ro’s sorrow is compounded by her larger sense of grief over a place she once loved that now has become not only unrecognizable but practically uninhabitable. Harper also introduces readers to the handful of families desperately or resentfully holding on to their footholds in Carralon Ridge, all of whom are inwardly wondering which of them will be the last one out. At times, Harper perhaps seems a bit too invested in the minutiae of these family relationships and the shifting sands of their intermingled histories. But once Ro and Griff uncover a pivotal clue, the pieces start to slide into place quickly, and the narrative momentum ratchets up to match the emotional stakes.

I can’t say I’d ever want to visit a place like Carralon Ridge, but thanks to Harper’s excellent writing, at least now I can begin to picture and understand it.