In this book, its main character, Inspector Aaron Falk, visits his friend Greg Rago. The latter lives not far from Melbourne or Sydney, but in Marraleigh, a small wine-growing town in South Australia. A year ago, Kim Gillespie, 39, disappeared, leaving her six-week-old baby Zoe alone in her pram. What happened ? Months later, it is clear that the investigation has ended in failure. Codes are limited. Local police found the shoe submerged in water and covered in silt. More than a kilometer to the east is trapped in the dam’s filters. But no body.
Greg asked Aaron to be his son’s godfather. But Inspector Falk’s return to Murali is anything but ordinary. It was the city of his childhood, where he had sworn never to return. However, here he turns away from friendship again and looks for something else. It is a festival of wine and gastronomy. Around this time, the previous year, Kim disappeared. The air is heavy, loaded with infinite grains of sadness and irrational hope that would make one believe the young woman is about to emerge with a wave of a magic wand. Greg asked his friend Aaron to investigate. Wisely.
Personality of the victim
Kim’s personality is at the center of the case. For a long time, she dated Charlie. A couple on a roller coaster destined to fall in love with each other and then break up. While always close. In particular, the couple had a daughter, Zara, who is now seventeen years old. Kim rebuilt her life, moved to Adelaide and married engineer Rohan Gillespie. As he remained silent, she also went outside. Then one day, she calmed down. He spoke. Little.
Two trials overlap in Jane Harper’s novel. The novelist likes to pull this kind of thread in his thrillers. She takes the reader into the bush and makes him bite the dust. Slowly. Overwhelmed by the heat. Doubts, assumptions. Until the end screen goes up. Envisioned by Jane Harper with a deceptive softness, it pulls you out of this imposed situation. With the inertia of an hourglass. It is Australian land.
Marali’s Forgotten, By Jane Harper, translated by David Falkenberg, Editions Kalman Levi Gero, 448 pages, €22.90.
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