Exiles

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Title:

Exiles

Author:

Harper, Jane (Jane Elizabeth), author.

Series:

Aaron Falk ;

Series Number:

Summary:

"At a busy festival site on a warm spring night, a baby lies alone in her stroller, her mother vanishing into the crowds. A year on, Kim Gillespie's absence casts a long shadow as her friends and loved ones gather deep in the heart of South Australian wine country to welcome a new addition to the family. Joining the celebrations is federal investigator Aaron Falk. But as he soaks up life in the lush valley, he begins to suspect this tight-knit group may be more fractured than it seems. Between Falk's closest friend, a missing mother, and a woman he's drawn to, dark questions linger as long-ago truths begin to emerge."-- Provided by publisher.

Edition:

First U.S. Edition.

Physical Description:

356 pages ; 25 cm.

Genre:

Detective and mystery fiction.

Thrillers (Fiction)

Subject Term:

Missing persons -- Investigation -- Fiction.

Wine districts -- Fiction.

Friendship -- Fiction.

Interpersonal relations -- Fiction.

Geographic Term:

Australia -- Officials and employees -- Fiction.

Australia -- Fiction.

Publisher:

Flatiron Books,

Publication Date:

2022

ISBN:

9781250235350

9781250889881

Publication Information:

New York : Flatiron Books, 2022.

Call Number:

HARPER

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607003602573	New Adult Fiction	HARPER Jane	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

Bound With These Titles

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Summary

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

"I love Jane Harper's Australia-based mysteries." --Stephen King

"Once again Harper proves that she is peerless in creating an avalanche of suspense with intimate, character-driven set pieces...Harper's legions of fans will exult in reading Exiles ."
--David Baldacci, #1 New York Times bestselling author

FROM NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AND AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR JANE HARPER COMES EXILES , A CAPTIVATING MYSTERY ABOUT A MISSING MOTHER

Federal Investigator Aaron Falk is on his way to a small town deep in Southern Australian wine country for the christening of an old friend's baby. But mystery follows him, even on vacation.

This weekend marks the one-year anniversary of Kim Gillespie's disappearance. One year ago, at a busy town festival on a warm spring night, Kim safely tucked her sleeping baby into her stroller, then vanished into the crowd. No one has seen her since. When Kim's older daughter makes a plea for anyone with information about her missing mom to come forward, Falk and his old buddy Raco can't leave the case alone.

As Falk soaks up life in the lush valley, he is welcomed into the tight-knit circle of Kim's friends and loved ones. But the group may be more fractured than it seems. Between Falk's closest friend, the missing mother, and a woman he's drawn to, dark questions linger as long-ago truths begin to emerge. What would make a mother abandon her child? What happened to Kim Gillespie?

Author Notes

Jane Harper is an author who won the 2015 Victorian Premier's Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript for her novel The Dry. The $15,000 award was presented at the opening night of the 2015 Emerging Writers Festival. Harper's winning manuscript was chosen from a shortlist of three from more than 130 entries. The Dry tells `the story of a city policeman who is dragged back to the country township he fled years earlier to investigate a multiple homicide'. The Victorian Premier's Literary Award, for an Unpublished Manuscript, is administered by the Wheeler Centre. The Dry won the 2017 Indie Book Award for Derbut Fiction and as Book of the Year. It was also the winner of the 2018 British Book Awards, Crime and Thriller book of the year, and won the 2018 Barry Award for Best First Novel. Her second book entitled Force of Nature was published in May 2018, which won the 2018 Davitt Award for Readers' choice. The Lost Man is her third book and was published in October 2018.

(Bowker Author Biography)

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Bestseller Harper's stellar third outing for Aaron Falk (after 2018's Force of Nature) takes Falk, of the Australian Federal Police's financial division, back to the town of Marralee, the site of a popular food and wine festival. A year earlier, Falk was in Marralee when a tragedy occurred. During that year's festival, 39-year-old Kim Gillespie left the stroller containing her five-week-old daughter in the stroller storage area--and disappeared. Despite frantic searches, Kim never turned up, though her shoe was found in a nearby reservoir, leading to the belief that she drowned there. Falk agrees to revisit the mystery at the behest of Zara, Kim's teenage daughter, and Greg Raco, a friend of Falk. The inquiry suggests a possible link to another unresolved case--the hit-and-run death of accountant Dean Tozer six years earlier, also coinciding with the Marralee festival. Writing at the top of her game, Harper effectively uses whodunit tropes to explore her characters' hidden lives. Readers interested in literate and nuanced mysteries will be eager to see more of Falk. 5-city author tour. Agent: Daniel Lazar, Writers House. (Jan.)

Library Journal Review

In Harper's third Aaron Falk series installment (after The Dry and Force of Nature), the detective is with Greg Raco's family in the wine country of South Australia, having been invited to attend the christening of Raco's son, who is also Falk's godson. But the gathering has a dark cloud over it, as one member of the family, Kim Gillespie, disappeared the previous summer from the local food and wine festival, leaving her infant daughter alone in her stroller. It is widely believed that Kim took her own life by jumping into the local reservoir; her body was never found, though one of her shoes was. Kim's teenage daughter, Zoe, has never believed that version of events, and Zoe and her friend Joel, who lost his father several years earlier in an unsolved hit-and-run accident, hope to find more information by making an appeal at this year's festival. Falk gets pulled into the investigation, making a connection with the earlier case as well. There is no shortage of suspects, motives or inexplicable evidence, giving Falk plenty of work to do, and the eventual answers to the deaths are both very believable and deeply sad. VERDICT A strong entry in a series best read in order.--Stephanie Klose