About the Author
Jane Harper is the author of four internationally bestselling Australian mysteries, including The Dry. Her books are published in 40 territories and have sold more than 3 million copies worldwide.
Jane has won numerous top awards including the CWA Gold Dagger, the British Book Awards Crime and Thriller Book of the Year and the Australian Book Industry Awards Book of the Year. The 2021 movie adaptation of The Dry, starring Eric Bana, is one of the highest grossing Australian films of all time.
Jane worked as a print journalist for 13 years in both Australia and the UK, and now lives in Melbourne with her husband, daughter and son. Follow @janeharperautho on Twitter
About the book
A mother disappears from a busy festival on a warm spring night. Her baby lies alone in a pram, her mother's possessions surrounding her, waiting for a return which never comes. A year later, Kim Gillespie's absence still casts a long shadow as her friends and loved ones gather to welcome a new addition to the family.
Joining the celebrations on a rare break from work is federal investigator Aaron Falk, who begins to suspect that all is not as it seems.
As he looks into Kim's case, long-held secrets and resentments begin to come to the fore, secrets that show that her community is not as close as it appears. Falk will have to tread carefully if he is to expose the dark fractures at its heart, but sometimes it takes an outsider to get to the truth...
Review
A young baby abandoned in a pram in full view of everyone at a festival - mother gone and there are no clues to her whereabouts. Aaron Falk just happens to be one of the few witnesses to the events of that evening, and unfortunately the missing woman is connected to the family of good friends of his.
When he returns a year later and the family jogs memories in the hope of an explanation he realises that there are a few things niggling him, he just can't quite figure out what they are.
Very much a Holmesian fallacy at play here - I couldn't think of a better scenario when the solution is absolutely directly linked to eliminating the impossible. The solution and truth is evident from the very beginning, and I couldn't decide whether that was intentional. It was the only clear possibility no matter which way everyone turned and searched. Was the story really about creating the frame for Falk to view his life in a different way?
The author creates an epi-centre, but the actual story is the surrounding area. Waves of emotions, complex relationship structures, memories and moments of energy and self that Kim has left in the wake of her mysterious disappearance.
I loved it, but then I do enjoy the way Harper writes and plots - I still think about The Lost Man a lot. It's the very specific way the author draws in the environment, the characters and the plot in equal measures. Simultaneously the way the story is fiction and reality - the kind of plot that you recognise in the people and world around you.
Buy Exiles at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher : Macmillan; pub date 2nd Feb. 2023. Buy at Amazon com. Buy via MacMillan.
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