Brenda's Reviews > Exiles

In the small town of Marralee in South Australia's vineyard region, not far from Adelaide, the annual festival was about to get underway once again. But this year was to be a little different, as a young woman and her family searched for answers to a woman who went missing the previous year from this same festival. Kim Gillespie's tiny baby, Zoe, was found snuggly covered in her pram, safe and secure, but alone. And her mother was nowhere to be found. Kim's teenage daughter Zara was leading the quest for information, hoping that something would come to light that hadn't the year before.

Federal investigator, Aaron Falk, was joining the family this year, as he was to be godfather to his best friend's child. As Aaron was drawn into the mystery of the past, he also learned about a hit-and-run six years earlier which had never been solved. The grief that rippled through the community was raw, even after the passing of years, and Kim's disappearance added to that grief. But would answers be found? Or would the two cases remain unsolved?

Exiles is the 3rd in the Aaron Falk series by Aussie author Jane Harper and it was breathtakingly brilliant! This is an excellent series but I've heard a whisper this is the final installment. I hope it's not! The characters are well-crafted, turning them into real people, people I've seen and met in small country towns. It was like chatting with friends, enjoying the festival, concerned about the mystery. Ms Harper knows how to keep her readers enthralled and I'm looking forward to her next book. Highly recommended.