Harper moves to Pan Macmillan with 'heart pounding' new novel

Crime author Jane Harper is moving to Pan Macmillan from Little, Brown with a "heart pounding" new Aaron Falk novel. 

Lucy Hale, publisher, and Vicki Mellor, fiction publishing director, negotiated UK and Commonwealth rights for Exiles from Gordon Wise at Curtis Brown, who represents UK and translation rights on behalf of Fiona Inglis at Curtis Brown Australia.  

Exiles will be published in hardback in spring 2023 with a mass-market paperback in the autumn. The book will be published internationally by Pan Macmillan in Australia and Flatiron in the US, Harper’s long-standing publishers. 

The book sees the return of Aaron Falk as he investigates what happened to a mother who disappeared at a festival and the devastation wrought on her family. First Falk novel The Dry (Little, Brown) is now a major film starring Eric Bana and was followed by Force of Nature. Harper has since written two standalone novels: The Lost Man and the recent Richard & Judy Book Club pick The Survivors, also published by Little, Brown. 

Mellor said: “I have long admired Jane and am beyond thrilled to be working with her to bring Aaron Falk back to readers with this exceptional new novel. Exiles is astounding, heart pounding and brilliantly constructed and clearly demonstrates Jane’s talent with its clever and insightful exploration of both characters and setting. Jane will become one of our lead brand authors and we can’t wait to bring this publication to readers alongside our international colleagues.” 

Hale added: “Jane brings something unique in her taut and intense storytelling, and her vivid portrayals of people living in quietly extraordinary Australian settings. Traveling to Australia is going to be hard for most of us for a long time, but visiting Jane’s Australia in the pages of the new novel will be a fine alternative.” 

Harper said: “I’ve loved writing Exiles and I’m thrilled that it will be published by Pan Macmillan. Aaron Falk has always been a very special character for me, so it was a lot of fun to revisit him in this latest mystery and take him to a part of Australia that I’ve always been drawn to. I’m so excited to see Exiles brought to readers through the great team at Pan Macmillan.” 

Wise also commented: “Jane rapidly became an established writer of superbly atmospheric crime novels with her outstanding debut The Dry, which many point towards as the foundation stone for the genre of ‘Outback noir’. Her hallmark interplay between the presence of a distinctive environment, characters with a past and a seemingly unsolvable crime is reunited in Exiles with the very welcome return of Aaron Falk to take this story to its surprising conclusion.”