Book Review - Exiles by Jane Harper
I always look forward to a new book by Jane Harper. As a self-confessed Australophile (that is a word, right?) I enjoy the settings, the lifestyle, and of course the story because Harper is one the best thriller writers out there. I’ve loved everything she’s done and ‘exiles’ is no exception.
Aaron Falk
Firstly, good to see Aaron Falk back again. Seems like a while since we last met him back in ‘Force of nature’ and I like him as a character - there’s a quiet dignity to him, a sense that he still believes in some sort of truth. He’s got interesting scars that we, the reader, know and like about him. (I finally got around to seeing ’The dry’ with Eric Bana recently, which I enjoyed - definitely kept to the spirit of the book.)
Here, he’s attending a family event - Old friend Greg Raco’s son is being christened, and Aaron is the godfather. However, there’s a strained atmosphere in the town. The christening had been scheduled for the previous year, when Falk had also been present, but had been cancelled after a young woman called Kim went missing at the festival, leaving her infant child behind in a pram.
Story
Kim used to be in a relationship with Greg’s brother Charlie, and they had a daughter who is distraught at her mother's disappearance - she still hasn’t been found a year later. Is it related to a previous disappearance in the same area?
Of course, Falk gets drawn into the investigation. Harper does a superb job of creating a tight-knit community and all its secrets, and Falk's place as an outsider gives him an advantage. He has a tenacious mind and gets an instinct when something doesn’t seem right. He turns details over and over in his mind like he’s unravelling a knot.
There’s a dual timeline early on in the novel that works well because it forces you to concentrate. Harper writes beautifully, and as well as the evocative descriptions, she immerses you in the community and setting. You feel like you know this small town,
Another aspect of Jane Harper’s books that I like is that they are very talky. The conversations always feel natural, and give life to the characters. Often feels like I’m eavesdropping.
Setting
I think one of the strongest aspects of Harper's books is the effort that she puts into the setting. From the small town in a drought in ‘the dry’, to the remote bushland of ‘Force of nature’, the parched cattle ranches of outback Queensland in ‘The lost man’, and most recently, the small Tasmanian beach town of ’The survivors’.
In ‘Exiles’ it’s a setting that I am familiar with - the lush wine country of South Australia. I also enjoyed mention of Melbourne - Southbank, trams, Flinders station, and of course a rainy evening. It’s always fun when you read of a locale you are familiar with, even if was just a fleeting impression based on a few week's holidays. A strong sense of place and culture makes the book all the more rooted - there’s even a bit of AFL in this one.
I’ve said this before, but Jane Harper writes location so well, as good as any other writer I know. She repeatedly uses a couple of key locations and by visiting them repeatedly, makes them all the more vivid in the readers mind. In this book, there’s a reservoir, a farmhouse at a vineyard, and a festival site that I could sit sit down and describe even now.
Characters
The characters also have a relationship to the setting - in this case, they’ve spent time at the site as teenagers, worked at the festival, etc so you can imagine them moving around these places. And of course, these same people have histories with these places, not all good. Things happen in small towns that locals don’t forget about.
Each of the characters have enough of a background, and have some sort of relationship to each other, to make you consider all sorts of motives. They are believable, complicated people.
Summary
I have nothing to say about the plot in ‘Exiles’, except that the book's tagline - ‘we see what we expect to see’ - tells us all we need to know. Tightly plotted and intricate, I was kept guessing to the last page, just like Jane Harper’s previous books.
356 pages
First published September 20, 2022 by MacMillan
Book Review - Exiles by Jane Harper