Exiles

August 1, 2022

In Amidon's Locust Lane, a young woman is found dead in the more fashionable section of a New England suburb, and the three teenagers who were with her that night are now suspects in her murder (100,000-copy first printing). From Carlsson, youngest winner of the Best Swedish Crime Novel of the Year, the internationally best-selling Blaze Me a Sun features a serial killer in a small Swedish town who commits his first murder the same night in 1986 when Prime Minister Olof Palme is assassinated. In a continuation of Cosimano's USA Today best-selling and Edgar--nominated series starring author and single mom Finlay Donovan, readers will find that Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun; unexpectedly owing Russian mobsters a favor, she must help them identify a contract killer before the cops do, especially crucial because the killer might actually be a cop. In The Motion Picture Teller, a stand-alone from CWA Dagger winner Cotterill set in 1996 Bangkok, postman Supot and his best friend, video store owner Ali, discover a mysterious film titled Bangkok 2010 that no one seems to know anything about--and that might be cursed. In Jane Harper's Exiles, Australian federal investigator Aaron Falk--whom readers know from the New York Times best-selling Dry--senses fault lines among the close group of attendees at a party in South Australian wine country, owing to the disappearance of a friend whose baby was found abandoned at a busy festival. From the Edgar Award--winning Jordan Harper, Everybody Knows features publicist Mae Pruett, who makes sure that everybody doesn't know about the shady dealings of the lawyers and private security firms for which she works, now trying to discover the secret her boss took to his death. In You Must Remember This, from Edgar-nominated YA author Rosenfield, Miriam Gardiner's fall through thin ice one Christmas Eve in the spot where decades ago she used to meet a lover might be an accident or suicide, but motives for murder emerge when daughter Delphine starts looking into the entire family. In the New York Times best-selling Tracy's The Devil You Know, LAPD Detective Margaret Nolan faces a tough case with the suspicious death of popular actor Evan Hobbes in a Malibu rockslide just 24 hours after a fake video smashes up his career; the subsequent murder of his agent's brother-in-law suggests evil intent.

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Starred review from November 14, 2022
Bestseller Harper’s stellar third outing for Aaron Falk (after 2018’s Force of Nature) takes Falk, of the Australian Federal Police’s financial division, back to the town of Marralee, the site of a popular food and wine festival. A year earlier, Falk was in Marralee when a tragedy occurred. During that year’s festival, 39-year-old Kim Gillespie left the stroller containing her five-week-old daughter in the stroller storage area—and disappeared. Despite frantic searches, Kim never turned up, though her shoe was found in a nearby reservoir, leading to the belief that she drowned there. Falk agrees to revisit the mystery at the behest of Zara, Kim’s teenage daughter, and Greg Raco, a friend of Falk. The inquiry suggests a possible link to another unresolved case—the hit-and-run death of accountant Dean Tozer six years earlier, also coinciding with the Marralee festival. Writing at the top of her game, Harper effectively uses whodunit tropes to explore her characters’ hidden lives. Readers interested in literate and nuanced mysteries will be eager to see more of Falk. 5-city author tour. Agent: Daniel Lazar, Writers House.

October 1, 2022

In Harper's third Aaron Falk series installment (after The Dry and Force of Nature), the detective is with Greg Raco's family in the wine country of South Australia, having been invited to attend the christening of Raco's son, who is also Falk's godson. But the gathering has a dark cloud over it, as one member of the family, Kim Gillespie, disappeared the previous summer from the local food and wine festival, leaving her infant daughter alone in her stroller. It is widely believed that Kim took her own life by jumping into the local reservoir; her body was never found, though one of her shoes was. Kim's teenage daughter, Zoe, has never believed that version of events, and Zoe and her friend Joel, who lost his father several years earlier in an unsolved hit-and-run accident, hope to find more information by making an appeal at this year's festival. Falk gets pulled into the investigation, making a connection with the earlier case as well. There is no shortage of suspects, motives or inexplicable evidence, giving Falk plenty of work to do, and the eventual answers to the deaths are both very believable and deeply sad. VERDICT A strong entry in a series best read in order.--Stephanie Klose

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from October 15, 2022
Federal Agent Aaron Falk makes his third appearance (following Force of Nature, 2018) in another all-consuming mystery from Harper, who has introduced millions of readers worldwide to the land down under and its many landscapes, from drought-stricken towns to dense forests. This time readers find themselves in Australia's lush wine-growing region. Falk is visiting his old friend Raco, who, like himself, still bears burn scars from the events described in The Dry (2017). Raco's brother owns a winery in the Marralee Valley, and the annual food and wine festival is underway. The previous year a woman disappeared during the festival, leaving behind her infant, carefully tucked up in blankets in her carriage. The only trace of the missing woman was her sneaker, found in a nearby reservoir. It was written off as a suicide, but Falk forms his own suspicions, especially after learning of an unresolved hit-and-run of a local man in the same location. Adding to the chorus of warning bells, Falk notes a certain hollowness at the core of the allegedly tight-knit group to which both victims belonged. Fans will relish Falk's intuitive "spider sense" moments here, and they will be amazed at the simultaneously shocking and tender ending.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Harper's acclaim is growing in print and on screen. The Dry was adapted into a film released in 2021, and a sequel based on Force of Nature is in production.

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