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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 . . . Aaron is such a well-developed character and I loved getting a deeper understanding of him and the way his mind works, not just in his professional life, but in his personal one as well. The author has a keen insight into human nature and is able to develop compelling characters who are believable and engage in realistic dialogue. Of special note is Zara, the missing woman’s teenage daughter, and Joel, the hit and run victim’s son, who are both likable characters (so difficult to pull off with this age group). Harper skillfully ratchets up the tension in this powerful, slow-burning portrait of small-town life... high quality, atmospheric crime fiction' – Mail on Sunday The novel’s subplot is frankly more compelling than the mystery of the main plot. Falk has a romantic interlude with the festival organizer Gemma Tozer, while simultaneously solving the mystery of her late husband’s death six years prior. This narrative is more compelling than the mystery of Kim’s disappearance since its resolution actually makes sense. The love plot is utterly predictable but altogether sweet, especially the scenes where Falk bonded with Gemma’s son and helped him through his grief.
No spoilers here but I will tell you that there is more than one mystery to solve and also a budding romance, or two!! Aaron may have some important lifestyle decisions to make as he spends time in this beautiful wine country and meets a very special woman. The pace here is certainly much slower than Melbourne!! In 2014, Big Issue published one of Harper's short stories. [14] In the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards in 2015, Harper won an award for an unpublished manuscript ( The Dry). [15] In 2017, Harper won the Gold ABIA for Book of the Year and the Davitt Award for The Dry, [16] and the Gold Dagger awarded by the Crime Writers' Association of the United Kingdom for the best crime novel of the year. [17] Harper became a New York Times bestselling author for The Dry. [18] Reese Witherspoon bought the rights to The Dry to turn it into a movie, which was released in January 2021. [19] 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. It was a spring night and the South Australian sky was clear and starry with no rain forecast, but the weatherproof hood had been pulled over to full stretch. A linen square normally used as a sunshield was draped over the opening between the hood and the pram. A casual glance would not now see the sleeping girl at all. As Falk soaks up life in the lush valley, he is welcomed into the tight-knit circle of Kim’s friends and loved ones. But the group may be more fractured than it seems. Between Falk’s closest friend, the missing mother, and a woman he’s drawn to, dark questions linger as long-ago truths begin to emerge. What would make a mother abandon her child? What happened to Kim Gillespie?
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It’s been both fantastic and bittersweet to bring together this final story for him. I’ve loved writing Exiles and I hope readers enjoy it." Early praise for Exiles Aaron Falk has a lot of baggage, which he is also working to resolve. And I became more than a little frustrated with him over his indecision and often inept pursuit of Gemma when it seemed clear they should get together. But Falk, a mixture of subtlety and pathos, is a character I liked immediately and seems a real person. Harper also expertly fleshes out the rest of the cast who seem like people I can easily imagine might inhabit rural Australia. All are relatable and I felt like I got to know all the characters well by the end of the book. Unlike other Australian authors I’ve read, who use descriptions of the Australian landscape to establish a sense of place, Harper relies more (at least in this book) on using the Australian manner of speech in both dialogue and inner thoughts of the characters to accomplish that. It’s effective and makes the reader aware the story takes place in Australia, yet perhaps not as effectively as Australian writers, who descriptively transform the sense of place into almost a character in its own right. The Australian Mystery Road movies and television series are good examples of this. And I’ve read several novels where the authors used similar techniques in their prose. Harper’s technique isn’t necessarily bad, just different.
This is very much a character driven mystery, my very favourite kind, and I relished the seemingly slow pace, the introduction of another, older, unsolved crime, and a welcome diversion in Falk's private life.
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L’indagine – e quindi la risoluzione del caso - avanza con lentezza – nonostante le sue storie si svolgano in archi temporali stretti, di solito pochi giorni, qualche settimana – e avanza attenta a dettagli e particolari. Harper ama entrare nell’animo dei suoi personaggi, raccontarne pensieri emozioni e reazioni, oltre che le parole pronunciate e i gesti. Scandagliare comportamenti caratteri psicologie. I loved the sense of family that surrounds Raco and Rita, whom we first encountered in The Dry. Falk is welcomed, even embraced, in this family and it stirs the feeling that maybe work isn't everything, that maybe there could be more if he would just open himself to the possibility.
Every book has an uncertain outcome – but every now and then, due to a strange alchemy that publishers wish they could bottle, a megahit emerges. Thanks in large part to the Dry, Harper has sold 1.5m books in Australia and 3.5m worldwide. The Dry also became a hit film in 2020, starring Eric Bana as Falk. The Dry is now the 15th highest-grossing Australian movie ever; another adaptation is in the pipeline for Harper’s second Falk novel, Force of Nature, which will also star Bana. While Falk investigates this mystery, he has a new romance brewing on the sidelines and big decisions that could affect his career and overall life. While Aaron's in town, he'll also attend Marralee Valley's annual Food and Wine Festival, where a tragedy occurred a year ago. THE AUTHOR: Jane worked as a print journalist for thirteen years both in Australia and the UK, and now lives in Melbourne. Barossa Valley, altra zona vinicola dell’Australia del sud usata da Jane Harper per ambientare il romanzo.Jane may write about crime, but she’s most interested in “what’s brought the characters to this moment, what’s fed into that, and how their relationships have forged the path they’re on”. Credit: Hugh Stewart
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