Joan's picks: Exiles and Forever Home

Exiles by Jane Harper. In the last few years she’s become the Queen of Australian crime. Her first book was six years ago, called The Dry (was also made into a movie which has just started screening on Netflix). This new one is set in small town South Australia, where one night a woman goes missing at a festival leaving her baby in a pram. Detective Aaron Falk (who has featured in some of her other books) is on the case and finds that nothing is as it seems to be. She writes small town characters and nuance really well.  Forever Home by Graham Norton (he of the TV chat show). This is his fourth book and he’s really good – like Jane Harper, he writes small towns and their characters really well except this time they’re set in Ireland. This is about a divorced woman whose son is grown up, and who takes up with a younger man – which causes all sorts of rumour and speculation in the town, and when things go badly for them his children kick her out and she has to go back to live with her parents. He writes with real heart and warmth.  LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.