Exiles by Jane Harper
In order to attend the baptism of an old friend’s child, federal investigator Aaron Falk is travelling to a little hamlet located in the heart of Australia’s wine region. But even on his vacations, intrigue accompanies him. The disappearance of Kim Gillespie was one year ago this weekend. One balmy spring night at a busy town festival, Kim safely stowed her sleeping infant in her stroller before blending into the crowd. Since then, nobody has seen her. Falk and his old friend Raco are unable to leave the case alone when Kim’s elder daughter appeals for anyone with information about her mother’s disappearance to come forward.
Exiles by Jane Harper
31 used from $13.18
Free shipping
Amazon.com
Falk joins the close-knit group of Kim’s friends and family as he takes in life in the verdant valley. But the gang might not be as cohesive as it first appears. Dark doubts persist as long-forgotten secrets start to come to light regarding Falk’s best friend, the missing mother, and a lady he finds attractive. What may cause a mother to leave her child behind? How did Kim Gillespie fare?
At the Marralee Valley Annual Food and Wine Festival, there is a pram bay where visitors can leave their strollers, pushchairs, bicycles, scooters, and other items. When the festival ends, there is only one unclaimed pram, but upon closer inspection, a technician finds a six-week-old baby girl named Zoe Gillespie sleeping inside, with her mother Kim, who is 39 years old, nowhere to be found. One of Kim’s shoes is eventually discovered during the investigation in the reservoir’s dam filter, which is just a short walk from the fairgrounds. What transpired with Kim? Was there a suicide? Murder? Or did Kim just go away on her own? Though why?
Aaron Falk attended Greg Raco’s (more on him later) son’s christening that evening while Marralee visited him at the festival. Since Kim had close personal ties to Greg’s family, the christening had to be postponed due to the tragedy, and it has been exactly one year since Kim vanished. Aaron is now back in Marralee for the same christening.
Kim’s closest friends and family members are also unaware of what occurred to her twelve months ago. The Food and Wine Festival’s opening night has arrived once more, and organizers are hoping that a planned appeal and tribute will revive attendees’ recollections of last year’s event and uncover new information about what actually happened to Kim Gillespie.
Exiles take place in Marralee Valley, the little town Greg grew up in, six years after the events of The Dry. When they come to visit, Greg Raco, Rita, their two children, and Aaron Falk stay in the family cottage that his older brother Charlie still occupies and has successfully transformed into a vineyard. The biggest mystery surrounding Kim’s disappearance was a hit-and-run vehicle accident that happened at the same location overlooking the reservoir Kim probably jumped from five years earlier. This case was even more mysterious than Kim’s disappearance.
The fictional village of Marralee Valley in South Australia’s wine region is as vivid, realistic, and well-written as I’ve come to expect from Jane Harper, but this time the element of a hard climate was missing. A lush green, serene, lovely bit of paradise, it was hot (they drank a lot of water), but not oppressively so. It was the kind of location where you’d think nothing horrible could happen, but it did.
To serve as the young son’s godfather, Aaron Falk travelled back to Australia’s Marralee Valley in the wine region. The christening falls on the same day as Kim Gillespie’s disappearance, which happened a year ago. Kim was Greg’s ex-wife and the mother of his teenage daughter. Falk is drawn into trying to understand why Kim would leave her husband Rohan and abandon her new baby at the local wine festival, despite the fact that his police expertise is as a member of the Financial Intelligence Unit in Melbourne. Falk quickly becomes involved with Greg’s close-knit circle of friends in the small town. Falk becomes acquainted with Gemma’s son Joel and finds himself drawn to the festival director.
