Exiles

 

Exiles by Jane Harper

Aaron Falk, #3

Mystery

2023 Flatiron Books

Finished on July 17, 2023

Rating: 3/5 (Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

At a busy festival site on a warm spring night, a baby lies alone in her pram, her mother vanishing into the crowds.

A year on, Kim Gillespie’s absence casts a long shadow as her friends and loved ones gather deep in the heart of South Australian wine country to welcome a new addition to the family.

Joining the celebrations is federal investigator Aaron Falk. But as he soaks up life in the lush valley, he begins to suspect this tight-knit group may be more fractured than it seems.

Between Falk’s closest friend, a missing mother, and a woman he’s drawn to, dark questions linger as long-ago truths begin to emerge.

An outstanding novel, a brilliant mystery and a heart-pounding read from the author of The Dry, Force of Nature, The Lost Man and The Survivors.

I've read all of Jane Harper's books and I liked this one better than The Survivors, but not as much as The Dry or The Lost Man. Exiles is a very, very slow burn and I was tempted to give up (the plotting is tedious and lacks tension), but I eventually grew more interested, eager to see if my early assumptions were correct. If you're a patient reader, and have enjoyed Harper's earlier works, borrow this one from the library. It's not one I'll read twice.

The Lost Man

 

The Lost Man by Jane Harper

Mystery

2018 Flatiron Books

Finished on March 27, 2023

Rating: 4.5/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

Dark, suspenseful, and deeply atmospheric, The Lost Man is the highly anticipated next book from the bestselling and award-winning Jane Harper, author of The Dry and Force of Nature.

Brothers Nathan and Bub Bright meet for the first time in months at the remote fence line separating their cattle ranches in the lonely outback. Their third brother, Cameron, lies dead at their feet.

In an isolated belt of Queensland, Australia, their homes a three-hour drive apart, the brothers were one another's nearest neighbors. Cameron was the middle child, the one who ran the family homestead. But something made him head out alone under the unrelenting sun.

Nathan, Bub, and Nathan's son return to Cameron's ranch and to those left behind by his passing: his wife, his daughters, and his mother, as well as their long-time employee and two recently hired seasonal workers. While they grieve Cameron's loss, suspicion starts to take hold, and Nathan is forced to examine secrets the family would rather leave in the past. Because if someone forced Cameron to his death, the isolation of the outback leaves few suspects.

A powerful and brutal story of suspense, set against a formidable landscape, The Lost Man confirms that Jane Harper is one of the best new voices writing today.

Photo Credit: Author's Website

If you're a faithful follower here, you know how much I love a good mystery series. I've spent the past two years reading all of Deborah Crombie's Kincaid/James mysteries, as well as getting caught up on Louise Penny's Three Pines series. I was trying to remember when I last read a stand-alone mystery and as I scrolled down my sidebar, I realized that it was a year and a half ago when I read The Survivors by Jane Harper. What a coincidence! I loved her debut mystery, The Dry, and thought Force of Nature was also very good, but The Survivors was a disappointment. With Harper's latest release (The Exiles) landing in my TBR stack, I was determined to read The Lost Man first and found a copy at the library. 

For some reason, I thought Aaron Falk (a Special Agent with the Financial Intelligence Unit in Melbourne, featured in both The Dry and Force of Nature) would make an appearance in this book, and I spent the first fifty or so pages waiting for him to show up, until I finally realized that The Lost Man is a stand-alone. While I missed Falk, his absence was quickly dismissed as the story progressed. And what a story! I was swept up in the Bright brothers' lives, enjoying each layer of the tale as it was slowly revealed. Jane Harper expertly transports her readers to the Queensland outback, where the sun's unrelenting heat had me reaching for a cool glass of water. 

I have never had a desire to visit the Australian outback (not that it's even remotely anywhere near our backyard) and after reading The Lost Man, I feel even more content living in my soggy Oregon rainforest. The fear of suffocating dust storms, power outages with the loss of life-sustaining air conditioning, the mind-numbing isolation, not to mention snakes, have no appeal to me. 

But back to the mystery. 

Harper cleverly feeds her readers little clues, reveals family secrets, inserts red herrings like a trail of breadcrumbs, and before the big reveal, had me convinced that everyone was guilty. Not really, but the list was long! I did catch one clue right away, which is always fun, but the guilty party was a complete surprise. Oh, and did I mention that I stayed up until almost 2 a.m. to finish this book? Yep. Definitely a compulsive page-turner. Well done, Jane Harper! 

The Survivors

 

The Survivors by Jane Harper

Mystery

2021 Macmillan Audio

Narrated by Stephen Shanahan

Finished on September 25, 2021

Rating: 2/5 (Fair)

Publisher's Blurb:

Coming home dredges up deeply buried secrets...

Kieran Elliott's life changed forever on the day a reckless mistake led to devastating consequences.

The guilt that still haunts him resurfaces during a visit with his young family to the small coastal community he once called home.

Kieran's parents are struggling in a town where fortunes are forged by the sea. Between them all is his absent brother, Finn.

When a body is discovered on the beach, long-held secrets threaten to emerge. A sunken wreck, a missing girl, and questions that have never washed away...

Boring! I listened to this audiobook for almost two weeks, hoping it would improve the further along I got, but it continued to bore me to tears. I should have called it quits early on, but I enjoyed Jane Harper's previous mysteries and thought this one would be worth persevering. I read the print editions of The Dry and Force of Nature (click on titles for my reviews), so maybe I should have gone that route with this book. Stephen Shanahan's narration wasn't bad, but it did feel somewhat slow. I increased the playback speed, but even that didn't enhance the narrative. I will definitely get the print edition when I decide to read The Lost Man. 

I received a complimentary copy from Libro.fm. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Force of Nature

Force of Nature (Aaron Falk, #2) by Jane Harper
Mystery
2018 Flatiron
Finished on February 26, 2018
Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

A major voice in contemporary fiction. Like Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad series and Kate Atkinson's Jackson Brodie novels, Jane Harper's deftly plotted mysteries double as sensitive inquiries into human nature, behavior, and psychology. Force of Nature bristles with wit; it crackles with suspense; it radiates atmosphere. An astonishing book from an astonishing writer." (A.J. Finn, author of The Woman in the Window)

Publisher's Blurb:

Five women reluctantly pick up their backpacks and start walking along a muddy track. Only four come out on the other side.

The hike through the rugged Giralang Ranges is meant to take the office colleagues out of their air-conditioned comfort zone and encourage teamwork and resilience. At least, that's what the corporate retreat website advertises.

Federal Police investigator Aaron Falk has a keen interest in the whereabouts of the missing hiker, Alice Russell. Because Alice knew secrets, about the company she worked for and the people she worked with.

The four returning women tell Falk a tale of fear, violence and fractured trust during their days in the remote Australian bushland. And as Falk delves into the disappearance of Alice, he begins to suspect some dangers ran far deeper than anyone knew.

I loved The Dry (the first installment in the Aaron Falk series) and was very happy to get a copy of this new release, which grabbed me from the opening pages. After a chapter or two, though, my enthusiasm began to wane and it wasn't until I had read half of the book before it really captured my interest; then I couldn't put it down. I liked the addition of Carmen to the mix of returning characters and was glad the author decided to stop reminding us of Aaron's burned hand. Set in Australia, I should have known this installment would also have its share of poisonous creatures. The Dry had spiders, so guess what's in this one? Snakes! A carpet python and tiger snake, if you really must know. Ugh. 

Overall, I enjoyed Force of Nature, but it didn't call out to me as much as The Dry. I had to suspend disbelief that such a dangerous retreat was not better supervised, given that it was run by a seemingly professional company, and the uneven writing wasn't nearly as taut as that in The Dry. But, I never did figure out whodunit, so it was still an enjoyable read. I'm anxious to see how Harper does with her next release, The Lost Man, which is due out in February. It's nice to get in on a series from the very beginning!

The Dry

The Dry (Aaron Falk, #1) by Jane Harper
Mystery
2017 Flatiron Books
Finished on January 11 2018
Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

Federal agent Aaron Falk hasn't been back to the place where he grew up in twenty years. Not since he and his father were run out of town. Even when Falk gets word that his childhood best friend, Luke, is dead and his entire family has been murdered, Falk still isn't planning on going back. But then he gets a note: Luke lied. You lied. Be at the funeral. And just like that, Falk is swept back into the secrets of the place and people he left so long ago.

When Falk returns for the funeral, Luke's parents implore him to look into his death -- though everyone else in town thinks the case is open-and-shut, they're sure something's not right. But as Falk himself knows, it's hard to get people to change their minds, and sometimes things are not as they appear. Amid the worst drought in a century, long-buried mysteries will resurface, as will the lies that accompany them. And Falk will discover anew what he's known all along: Sometimes you have to go back home in order to finally leave your past behind.

What a rip-roaring page-turner! I fell in love with Harper's masterful debut, eager to get back to it every evening, trying to unravel the threads of the two separate murders, chasing each red herring right up until the big reveal. The Dry is much more than just a mystery. The Australian setting is very much a character, with its unrelenting heat, dry open fields, snakes and spiders -- spiders such as the Huntsman and Red Back. (Nope. Sorry. I can't provide links because that would mean I would have to look at pictures of those spiders!) If this story is ever brought to the big screen, I can guarantee I will have my eyes covered at any mention of spiders. (OK, they were only briefly mentioned three times, but that was enough to make me a little uneasy.) 

On Grief:

No-one tells you this is how it’s going to be, do they? Oh yes, they’re all so sorry for your loss, all so keen to pop round and get the gossip when it happens, but no-one mentions having to go through your dead son’s drawers and return their library books, do they? No-one tells you how to cope with that.

Jane Harper has hit a home run with this debut thriller! The pacing is taut, the characters well-developed and the conclusion satisfying and not one bit convoluted or rushed. The flashbacks are seamlessly woven into the narrative without creating a jarring disruption to the flow of the story. Well done!