About
Reviews
Search
Submit
Home

Mystery Books for Sale

[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]


  

EXILES
by Jane Harper
Flatiron, January 2023
368 pages
$27.99
ISBN: 1250235359


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Based on the first half of this book, I would have to say it was better than mediocre, but not by a lot. Based on the second half, I'd say it was excellent. So overall, it falls somewhere in between those two assessments. The book starts slowly, as Harper introduces us to the inter-related characters and their lives. The Australian wine-country setting is well described, as is the surrounding bush country. The insularity of a small village as well as the multi-generational living at the vineyard add a sense of always being under observation. Conversations are picked up and falter just as they do in real life, and Harper's dialogue is surprising in the way that characters overhear and catch fragments of conversations going on around them. Reading the book reminded me of how most authors are not authentic in their representation of the scattering of words around us but rather give us fully formed verbal interactions. I found Harper's approach startling at first because it was so unique but, ultimately, quite clever.

As we begin what is the third in a series, Aaron Falk is headed to the christening of his new godson at the vineyard owned and run by friends. There have been two disappearances in the area, the most of recent of which was just a year ago and the event that triggered a delay in young Henry's christening. The previous disappearance appeared at the same time of year (during an annual food and wine festival) six years ago and in the same general location. Falk's relationships with the townspeople develop at a leisurely pace as he quietly becomes involved in the mostly abandoned investigations. Last year's disappearance during the festival involves Kim, a member of Falk's vineyard owning friends' family, and Kim's older daughter's insistence that the finding of suicide cannot be correct informs Falk's unofficial search for the truth. The older disappearance involves an unsolved hit and run accident, with the victim having ties to Kim, Falk's friends, and the festival.

Falk is a policeman, but he's involved in high level financial investigations rather than feet-on-the-ground policing. Digging into the two disappearances while on vacation is a consequence of his wanting to help the families heal, as well as an ingrained curiosity. He reflects many times about how, when pieces fall into place in an investigation, there's a moment like a key clicking a door open that often blows the case wide open. This happens as he becomes more entrenched in the small Australian town when clues that he's been gathering seem to coalesce into a pattern, The book encourages the reader to become intellectually involved in rooting out those clues and searching for connections. There are not many red herrings but, rather, many out-of-context clues. There's a gratifying feel to the solutions, and by the time they arrive late in the book, an equally gratifying feel to developing relationships.

I did not read books number 1 (THE DRY) and 2 (FORCE OF NATURE) in the series, so I can confidently say that this book can be read as a standalone, Harper has set the series up for a change at the start of book 4, and it will be interesting to see how that plays out.

§ Sharon Mensing, retired educational leader, lives, reads, and enjoys the outdoors in Arizona.

Reviewed by Sharon Mensing, December 2022

This book has more than one review. Click here to show all.

[ Top ]


QUICK SEARCH:

 

Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]