Exiles

By: Jane Harper

Narrated by: Steve Shanahan

Length: 12 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

FROM THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING NUMBER ONE AUTHOR OF THE DRY

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

A mother disappears from a busy festival on a warm spring night.

Her baby lies alone in the pram, her mother’s possessions surrounding her, waiting for a return which never comes.

A year later, Kim Gillespie’s absence still casts a long shadow as her friends and loved ones gather to welcome a new addition to the family.

Joining the celebrations on a rare break from work is federal investigator Aaron Falk, who begins to suspect that all is not as it seems.

As he looks into Kim’s case, long-held secrets and resentments begin to come to the fore, secrets that show that her community is not as close as it appears.

Falk will have to tread carefully if he is to expose the dark fractures at its heart, but sometimes it takes an outsider to get to the truth . . .

©2023 Jane Harper (P)2023 Pan Macmillan Australia

Critic reviews

'Addictive storytelling' ANN CLEEVES

'An avalanche of suspense' DAVID BALDACCI

'A fantastic crime writer' BELLA MACKIE

Story amazing as always! Weird pauses in the narration though

I’ve read all three of the Aaron Falk books now and each story is as good as the last! Gripping and exciting I would recommend Jane Harper’s books to anyone!

Slight issue with the narration where there seemed to be long pauses where there was no need to be which is unlike Steve Shanahan in the previous books but was able to overlook them mostly.

Great listen!

A bit less good than the others

I looked at my previous reviews of Jane Harper’s books, and in particular the Aaron Falk books. I never gave 5 stars, and yet I did come back for more. They are a good listen, but not great literature. I found this one could have wrapped up sooner, that the story was dragged out, though I didn’t lose interest. There were some good twists in the plot. The performance is decent, but the same issue as always - not enough distinction between characters, nor between male and female voices. Sometimes it takes a moment to realize who is talking. And, the usual Harper style of jumping around in time, which also might take a sentence or two at the beginning of a chapter to realize that this is not immediately after the previous chapter (unless it states so clearly). At this point, I would not put another Jane Harper book on my Wish List, because there are so many other books than another of this type that I’d want to get to first. If I run out of ideas of what to listen to, then I’d check which authors I enjoyed and maybe try another. Life is short and there are so many good authors out there! Time to move on (as - spoiler here - some characters in books do, too).