After hearing great things about award-winning Australian author Jane Harper’s writing, I’ve been keen to read her work for quite sometime. So when I saw it was available, I requested an advance copy of Exiles, immediately. It’s the third book in Harper’s Aaron Falk series. I waited a long while to get a copy, but it was well worth it. Exiles does not disappoint. This time we are in South Australian wine country. Aaron Falk has come to attend the christening of his good friend Greg Raco’s son, Aaron will be his godfather. There are lots of wonderful descriptions of the festive celebration that I really enjoyed. It was a spring night and the South Australian sky was clear and starry with no rain forecast, but the weatherproof hood had been pulled over to full stretch. A linen square normally used as a sunshield was draped over the opening between the hood and the pram. A casual glance would not now see the sleeping girl at all. In Exiles, Investigator Aaron Falk finds himself drawn into a complex web of tightly held secrets in South Australia's wine country.

Raco’s brother Charlie use to be married to Kim and they have a daughter together. This close-knit family is still struggling with her disappearance and how out of character it was for Kim to leave her baby that night. Stellar…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.” Ultimately, all the plot threads converge and details get spelled out and characters’ motivations get explained, though Harper sustains the overall air of mystery and a satisfying level of suspense until the end. I’m not a reader of the romance genre, but felt the generous helping of a timeless romance that develops between Aaron and Gemma was far and away one of the strongest parts of the story. Especially since their happy relationship stands in such sharp relief to the darker relationship between two other major characters. Jane Harper gifts us with the presence of Aaron Falk, once again, in her third installment of this series. Not to worry. Exiles reads perfectly as a standalone. But when you come front and center with the caliber of Jane Harper, you should read The Dry #1 and Force of Nature #2. They are that good.

Early praise for Exiles

Thus Zara plans to pass out fliers and stage an appeal at this year's festival, asking for information about her mother. Kim's husband Rohan, who's been raising little Zoe alone, will also be present to aid with the appeal. meet some of the town's colorful residents (such as a beautiful flirtatious woman and a former footy star); Harper “always fictionalises the town” but she does do research trips from her home base in Melbourne, heading to locations that inform her work. Her latest novel, Exiles, sees Falk head to lush South Australian wine country to celebrate a christening (and then starts investigating a local mother’s disappearance). It was a pleasure for Harper to both research and write. Harper skillfully ratchets up the tension in this powerful, slow-burning portrait of small-town life... high quality, atmospheric crime fiction' – Mail on Sunday

The kind of crime novel you move into rather than just reading it - a wholly absorbing set of mysteries, a cast of characters that feels entirely real and a setting so vivid you can practically smell the breeze through the bushland. Aaron Falk is the still centre of the novel, a quiet presence like no other in crime fiction. Exceptional in every way." Jane CaseyIl romanzo comincia all’annuale Festival di Gastronomia e Vino di Marralee Valley, zona dell’Australia principalmente dedita alla produzione enologica. Overall, while I did like Jane Harper’s Exiles, I wasn’t completely bowled over by it as other readers have been.