I found this book quite intriguing and, having become allergic to murder stories full of dismembered bodies, it was a relief to have a believable scenario without buckets of blood and gore. Set in my homeland of South Australia so had an added interest.

This story is set in a beautiful wine making region of Southern Australia. Aaron Faulk, an investigator with the Australian Federal Police, has travelled to the area to attend the christening of his friend Greg's son. While there, Aaron is introduced to and gets to know the family of Kim Gillespie, who disappeared from a local festival exactly a year ago, leaving her young baby daughter alone in her pram. The case has never been solved and the family prepare to print posters and prepare talks to heighten awareness at the festival which is due to take place again, hoping something can jolt someone's memory and provide some clue as to the events which occurred the previous year. Aaron becomes intrigued and slightly obsessed by the disappearance of Kim Gillespie and as he learns more about Kim and her relationship with the family members he begins to form opinions about certain people but can he find out the truth of what happened that day ? I listened to this book as an audiobook and although I enjoyed it, I found it to be a real slow burner. In my opinion the story could have been reduced slightly without losing any of the impact. I recommend this novel.

Having bought a copy in my local store I could not wait to start this book. Very much more of a slow burner than Jane Harper's other books I found. It is character driven and well written. The life of a small community is so well portrayed and the relationships between the extended family engaging.

This is the first book I’ve read of Aaron Falk and although I may have benefitted from reading the previous two in the trilogy I didn’t feel it was detrimental to my understanding of his character. The setting of the story in South Australia was magical and I was involved from the start but I found myself losing interest mid-way as there was a lot of repetition making the plot slow down although the last few chapters did get me focused again. Despite the story concentrating on the characters rather than the actual crime, it did get more exciting towards the end when the truth of what happened to Kim was finally revealed. I’d like to read more books by this author as I liked her style of writing that was very descriptive and flowed nicely.

This is one of those books that keeps you guessing right to the end. I did find it a little slow to be honest, and I kept having to backtrack to remind myself who was who, but it was an intriguing and enjoyable read. The ending really took me by surprise and was a bit of a shock – I would never have guessed in a million years. Not a book that thoroughly gripped me, but an enjoyable read. Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the advanced copy.