Exiles by Jane Harper is set in the wine country of South Australia, where a close-knit community still deals with the oppressive aftermaths of a local woman's disappearance and a man's hit-and-run death.
Federal Police agent Aaron Falk is on a personal visit to see old friends in the small town of Marralee. But he is slowly drawn into the past mysteries that yet cast a pall over the whole town.
A year earlier, young mother Kim Gillespie vanished without a trace from a fairground, her infant daughter left abandoned in a parked stroller. Five years before that, local accountant Dean Tozer was run down by a driver who was never found.
As Falk becomes more involved with the tight circle of family and friends connected to both Kim and Tozer, he begins to sense false notes that warn him someone among them may be a sociopathic killer.
Exiles is not a fast paced thriller. It is a character-driven, psychological crime novel that builds slowly toward harsh revelations. An engrossing and thoughtful mystery read.
