Exiles

The Raco family includes Greg, usually referred to as Raco, who is the closest person to Falk. They were in a fire several years earlier that left them scarred and traumatized. Raco is in his late thirties and works as a sergeant in Kiewarra. Falk thinks, “If he couldn’t trust Raco, he couldn’t trust anyone” (281). Raco is married to Rita, and they have two children: Eva, who is five years old, and Henry, the infant who becomes Falk’s godson. Falk says that the Racos are “honestly the best friends I’ve ever had” (376). Raco keeps a large file on Kim’s case, which helps Falk figure out that Kim never went to the festival. Raco is Falk’s sidekick. The other Raco who helps Falk solve the case is Eva. She waves at people on a ride, which helps Falk realize that he never saw Kim wave from the Ferris wheel.

While the “Racos were a police family” (30), including their father and brother, Charlie, Greg’s older brother, runs Penvale Vineyard instead. Charlie and Kim dated for many years but never married. He was upset when Kim married Rohan. While Rohan suspected Kim cheated on him with Charlie, Kim never had an affair. Charlie is upset by the losses of Kim and his friend Dean. He is also dedicated to helping his friends. For example, he offers Falk a job at his vineyard.

Charlie and Kim had a daughter, Zara, who is 17 and lives with Charlie. She looks like Charlie in that she is “striking rather than pretty” (22). Zara insists that Kim didn’t die by suicide, and she is proved correct in the end. Zara did not like living in Adelaide and does not like Rohan. Yet, she is somewhat jealous of Zoe, Rohan and Kim’s baby. She overcomes these feelings by the end of the novel and achieves some closure in knowing the details of her mother’s murder.

Rohan Gillespie, 42, is Kim’s husband and has the “look of a man who did not sleep well” (9). He grew up in Marralee, and his parents still live there, but he lives in Adelaide. Rohan is slowly revealed to be the antagonist of the novel. He assaulted Kim when she was drunk at a party when they were teens. He controls Kim by harassing her for talking to people in Marralee. Kim notes how his “calm stillness [...] had eroded since Zoe’s birth into something so brooding and distant” (306). His personality contrasts with Charlie, who is far less stoic and often acts rashly. Rohan and Charlie are foils, standing in contrast as Kim’s partners.

Kim Gillespie is the subject of the main mystery. She was 39 years old when she disappeared. At this point, her daughter, Zoe, was six weeks old. Zoe resembles Kim, who had “similar coloring to Charlie and the rest of them” (243). This coincidence causes Rohan to believe that Charlie is Zoe’s father, which leads to him murdering Kim. For most of the novel, people believe Kim died by suicide due to the evidence Rohan planted. Falk never met Kim and thinks he saw her twice, “once on a phone screen and once from a distance” (17), but the second time was a misperception. No one saw her at the festival because she was already dead.

Gemma Tozer is Falk’s romantic interest and a resident of Marralee. She works as the festival director there but met Falk in Melbourne. Gemma is between Raco and Falk in age. She left Marralee to work in Silicon Valley and traveled for a while after that before coming back to Marralee and marrying Dean. Gemma thus became Joel Tozer’s stepmom and continued to raise him after Dean’s death. Joel was 12 when his dad died. By the time of Falk’s investigation into Kim’s murder, Joel is 18 and preparing to attend a university in another city. He works at the first-aid post at the festival.

Dean Tozer is the subject of the second mystery in Exiles. Falk looks into the hit-and-run accident that killed him after becoming interested in Gemma. Dean worked as an accountant in an office next to Kim’s office in Marralee, which caused some people (such as Dwyer) to suspect that Dean and Kim had an affair. Charlie and other residents supported Dean’s business. Dean and Gemma met in London after Gemma left California. The hit-and-run occurred near the reservoir, which connects it to Kim’s disappearance, as people thought she died there. At the end of the book, Falk discovers that Dwyer’s daughter killed Dean while driving drunk, and Dwyer covered up her crime.