The reverberating immoral timbre of the human race can be cloudy, murky and depraved. Paradoxically, the moral fortitude of the same species is capable of soaring good-will and redemption. Humans are undoubtedly able to do great good in this world, as well as atrocious and even evil things.
Such diverse truths are shockingly apparent in powerhouse British Australian author, Jane Harper’s, latest spectacular crime novel, Exiles.
The novel almost entirely takes place in the breathtakingly beautiful and fertile town of Marralee, set amongst the winemaking region of South Australia.
At the start, a six-week-old baby, Zoe Gillespie, has been found abandoned in her pram on the opening night of the ever-popular Marralee Valley Annual Food and Wine Festival. Her father, Rohan Gillespie (an engineer), at the time Zoe is discovered is having dinner in town with his parents. Zoe’s mother, thirty-nine-year-old Kim (a graphic designer) is nowhere to be found.
The perplexing thing is, none of Kim’s friends (Charlie Raco, Naomi Kerr, Gemma Tozer, Shane McAfee and Greg Raco and his wife, Rita, who grew up elsewhere) who had grown up with her in Marralee (Kim, Rohan and Zoe now live in Adelaide) say they talked to Kim the night of the festival.
When a shoe of Kim’s is found in the nearby reservoir, and it is revealed that Kim had been on anti-depressants, the case seems to be solved. Or is it?
A year on from Kim’s disappearance, Aaron Falk, in his early forties, (who works for the AFP in the financial division, is based in Melbourne and has appeared in two of Jane’s previous novels), is back in Marralee (he was at the festival the night that Kim disappeared) to visit policeman Greg Raco, Rita and their five-year-old daughter, Eva, and one-year-old son, Henry. A year ago, Falk was to be ‘sworn in’ in Marralee as godfather to Henry, but that was derailed by Kim going missing. Now Falk is here for the rescheduled christening.
Greg Raco (referred to in the book simply as Raco), who has an unsettling history with Falk, is staying at a vineyard outside Marralee that is run by Raco’s brother, Charlie. Charlie, whom Kim had been teenage sweethearts with, and whom had had a lengthy on-off relationship with Kim, shares an eighteen-year-old daughter, Zara, with Kim.
Falk and Raco, one year later, are still revising and mulling over what really might have happened to Kim (her body has never been recovered). Eerily, no-one saw Kim leave the festival that fateful night. Or did they? And, additionally strange, is the fact that Zara is convinced that there is some sort of link between Kim’s disappearance and a hit-and-run car accident that killed Gemma’s husband, Dean, some six years ago. Dean’s son, Joel, now eighteen, won’t let the case go (Dean’s body was recovered, but the driver never found). Local policeman, Sergeant Dwyer, is considered by Joel and Zara to be inept.
One bright flicker of hope for Falk is the fact that his visit to Marralee reunites him with Gemma (the director of the festival), whom he’d met in Melbourne some sixteen months prior, and had a spark with. Things look dim for Falk, however, as Gemma doesn’t want to ‘do’ a long distance relationship. Further problematic is the fact that workaholic Falk is perpetually working nights and weekends.
What actually happened to Kim Gillespie? Why had she not been in contact with her old friends? Is someone not saying something? Is someone hiding the truth? Who ran into Dean with their car, and why? Why was there virtually no glass found at the site of Dean’s accident?
Can Falk, consumed by his job, ever open his heart to love?
I devoured Exiles. Quite simply, a Jane Harper novel never disappoints. Jane has written a supremely intelligent, wise, classy, meticulously researched and thoughtfully written book. The twists were many and shocking (many I did not see coming).
Bravo Jane! You have knocked it out of the park again. Your insight into the human psyche and condition is second to none. I loved this book, and eagerly look forward to the next book that Jane writes.
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