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 Exiles is a 2022 mystery novel by British-Australian author Jane Harper. It is the third and final book in the Aaron Falk series, which also includes The Dry and Force of Nature.

Plot
Exiles takes place six years after the events of The Dry. Aaron Falk is visiting Marralee, a fictional town in the South Australian wine country, for the christening of his godson, Henry, who is the son of Aaron's friends Greg and Rita Raco. The christening was postponed from the previous year after Kim Gillespie, the ex-wife of Greg's brother Charlie, went missing at the annual Marralee food and wine festival, leaving her infant daughter, Zoe, alone in a pram. Greg, a police officer who grew up in Marralee, asks Aaron to help him investigate Kim's disappearance.

Also investigating is ____, a Marralee police officer who finds it suspicious that Kim did not speak to any of her friends on the night of her disappearance. His daughter died as a result of alcohol abuse, and he now does charity work to prevent alcohol abuse among teenagers.

Many people have assumed that Kim committed suicide by jumping into a nearby river, citing Kim's history of depression, her recent withdrawal from her friends, and the discovery of one of her shoes near the river. However, Kim's teenage daughter, Zara, is convinced that Kim could not have committed suicide because she would not have abandoned Zoe. Zara also argues that Kim could not have left through the exit leading to the river because Joel Tozer, a friend of Zara's, was stationed at the exit for the entire night and did not see her leave.

Zara and Joel ask Aaron to consider that Kim's disappearance may not have been the result of suicide. They also ask Aaron to investigate the death of Joel's father, Dean Tozer, who was killed in a hit-and-run five years earlier. Joel shows Aaron a video he took of the accident scene, as well as chips from a traffic barrier that hold remnants of paint from the car that killed his father.

Meanwhile, Aaron develops a romance with Gemma Tozer, the organizer of the Marralee food and wine festival and Joel's stepmother. Aaron and Gemma had previously met in Melbourne more than a year earlier, when both were scheduled to meet with Greg Raco, a mutual friend, who canceled at the last minute. Aaron and Gemma had dinner together and Aaron asked for Gemma's phone number, but Gemma did not give it to him. Later, Gemma explained that she did not give Aaron her phone number because she predicted that any future relationship between them would end in heartbreak, with neither wanting move or give up their career.

At this year's food and wine festival,

Six months later,

Characters

 * Aaron Falk- an officer with the Australian Federal Police who specializes in investigating financial crimes. He is visiting Marralee for the christening of his godson, Henry Raco.
 * Kim Gillespie- mother of Zoe and Zara, ex-wife of   , and wife of.   Kim grew up in Marralee and went missing at the previous year's food and wine festival.
 * Greg and Rita Raco- friends of Aaron

Reception
Exiles was reviewed positively in The New York Times, People, Publishers Weekly, and The Sydney Morning Herald, a

However, the novel was reviewed more critically in The Harvard Crimson, which called it "an underwhelming mystery novel with a disappointing twist and a conclusion that is barely satisfactory."

Early Life
Layard was born Mary Enid Evelyn Guest in Merthyr Tydful, Wales on July 1, 1842 or 1843. Her father was Sir Josiah Guest, the first Member of Parliament for Merthyr Tydful and owner of the Dowlais Ironworks. Her mother was the writer and aristocrat Lady Charlotte Guest. Layard was the eight of ten children and was largely raised by a governess, Emily Kemble.

In 1846, Layard's family moved to Cranford Manor (now Canford School) near Wimborne, Dorset.

Josiah Guest died in 1852, and in 1855, Lady Charlotte married Charles Schrieber, who had previously worked as a tutor in the Guest household.

Marriage
On March 9, 1869, Layard married Austen Henry Layard, a cousin of her mother's. At the time, Sir Austen was 51 years old and Enid was 25. Their marriage was reportedly happy, and they never had children.

Upon their marriage, Sir Austen gifted Lady Enid a necklace made from ancient seals he had acquired during his excavations. The seals in the necklace roughly date from 2200 BC to 350 BC and originated in the Akkadian Empire, Babylonia, the Achaemenid Empire, and Assyria. According to her diary, Lady Enid reportedly wore the necklace to dine with Queen Victoria. donated the necklace to   after her death.

Beginning in the 1870s, the Layards lived in Venice at the Palazzo Cappello Layard (also referred to as Ca' Capello Layard). The couple reportedly filled their house with a wide array of European and Middle Eastern art and hosted artistic salons.

Diary
Layard began writing her diary in 1869, and continued until her death in 1912. The diary consists of more than 8,000 pages and nearly 14,000 entries, largely of descriptions of Layard's social life and her travels.

In her diary, Layard also wrote of several notable figures in her social circle, including Robert Browning