One Step Too Far: A Novel
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Gardner, a chilling thriller about a young man gone missing in the wilderness of Wyoming…and the secrets uncovered by the desperate effort to find him
Timothy O’Day knew the woods. Yet he disappeared on the first night of a bachelor party camping trip without a trace, breaking his parents’ hearts, driving the other groomsmen mad with guilt, and leaving behind a pile of clues that won’t add up.
Frankie Elkin doesn’t know the woods, but she does know how to find people. When Timothy’s father organizes one last search, she heads to the mountains of Wyoming to join the rescue team, only to find that someone out there is willing to do anything to stop them. Soon, they’re running out of time and up against the worst man and nature have to offer, discovering the evil that awaits those who go one step too far…
Timothy O’Day knew the woods. Yet he disappeared on the first night of a bachelor party camping trip without a trace, breaking his parents’ hearts, driving the other groomsmen mad with guilt, and leaving behind a pile of clues that won’t add up.
Frankie Elkin doesn’t know the woods, but she does know how to find people. When Timothy’s father organizes one last search, she heads to the mountains of Wyoming to join the rescue team, only to find that someone out there is willing to do anything to stop them. Soon, they’re running out of time and up against the worst man and nature have to offer, discovering the evil that awaits those who go one step too far…
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Community Reviews
I loved this book! It captured the feeling of being watched, creeping me out and keeping me up at night to see what happened next. Once again I loved the complex characters. Planning to read the next book!
Frankie Elkin, the ordinary but strong woman with a troubled past and a mission to find missing persons, was introduced by bestselling author Lisa Gardner in Before She Disappeared. Gardner was inspired to create the character when she happened upon an article about Lissa Yellowbird-Chase, a woman who gave up everything in order to pursue cold cases because of her belief that too many missing children of color are forgotten and the mysteries surrounding their disappearances never solved. Gardner found Yellowbird-Chase’s work "inspiring" and "a bit mesmerizing." She wondered, "What would that look like?" and decided to explore the question via Frankie's fictional journeys.
“I tried real life once. There was a house, a job, even a man who loved me enough to hold my hand as I fought my way to sober,” Frankie explains. But there is no longer a place Frankie calls home. Ten years ago, a woman in an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting shared that the police showed little interest in her daughter’s disappearance. “I became intrigued, started asking questions, and the next thing I knew, I’d found the daughter.” In the years since, Frankie has traveled wherever the cases lead her, volunteering her services. She learns about missing persons in online forums and chat rooms by using computers in local libraries. She decides which cases to pursue solely by gut instinct. Frankie is searching for missing people, as well as something else. Gardner believes Frankie is “searching for herself. She's obsessed. She's looking for the why of it.” Frankie confesses, “I don’t always know why I choose the cases I do.” But “it works” for Frankie, who is an addict and an outsider wherever she goes.
In One Step Too Far, she pursues the case of Timothy O’Day, who went missing five years ago, in large part because Tim’s mother is dying and “just wants to be buried next to her son.” Frankie planned to go to Idaho to help search for an eight-year-old boy who vanished sixteen months ago. But when she learned that Tim’s father has been organizing annual expeditions to search for his son’s remains and has planned one final attempt to locate and bring his boy’s body home in order to grant his wife’s dying wish, Frankie just knows that she has to be part of the search team despite the fact that she is not ready for the harsh conditions she will encounter in the Popo Agie Wilderness. For one thing, she lacks the requisite clothing, equipment, and supplies, as well as the funds to purchase the items she will need. She is not an experienced hiker. And when she arrives, the members of the team are assembling and strategizing, but they do not readily welcome the outsider into their midst.
None of them expect to miraculously find Tim alive. Rather, the searchers will be accompanied by a cadaver dog because, if they are lucky, they will retrieve Tim’s bones so they can be buried next to his mother. Frankie knows well that the kind of search on which she and the other members of the team are about to embark is about “gaining closure.” Perhaps his parents can find some peace by finding tangible remnants such as bones or personal effects. Perhaps it will help them to simply understand, at long last, what exactly happened to Tim and caused his demise.
Tim was an experienced hiker and outdoorsman, having been taught by his father to survive in the wilderness. So he was the acknowledged leader of the group of five young college friends who decided a camping trip would be the perfect way to celebrate Tim’s upcoming nuptials. It was to be their last weekend get-away before the end of Tim’s bachelorhood. Tim, Scott, Neil, Josh, and Miguel set up camp. But after an evening of heavy drinking, Scott disappeared in the middle of the night and Tim ventured out to find him. Unfortunately, he never returned. He disappeared without a trace. Although hundreds of volunteers combed the woods for weeks after he vanished, none of his equipment (backpack, headlamp, clothing, etc.) was even found. Scott resurfaced, claiming to have no memory of what happened on that fateful night.
Eventually, Frankie convinces the group to let her join them, and she, along with an experienced resident, Tim’s grief-hardened father, Tim's four friends, a Bigfoot hunter, and a search-dog handler all head up the mountain. Frankie is well aware that the greatest danger “comes from the eight humans who just hiked” into the wilderness, and although she does not yet understand why it ultimately matters, she knows that she must get to know her companions.
In Before She Disappeared, Gardner established Frankie as an endearingly complicated and puzzling protagonist who must constantly safeguard her sobriety. Gardner revealed part of Frankie’s troubled history and permitted her to develop feelings for Dan Lotham, the lead detective on the case she worked in Boston. She was tempted to remain there and attempt to maintain a stable relationship with him but knew herself well enough to know that she had to continue her quest to find the missing. Gardner evocatively depicts Frankie’s longing for love and desire to run back to Boston and let herself fall into Lotham’s strong arms. “Except then it will be morning. There’s always morning.” Gardner says Frankie has to keep moving because if she stays in one place, she will drink.
Gardner ramps up the dramatic tension as Frankie learns about the histories of the other members of the search party. Details about their relationships, long-held secrets, and resentments come to light. Gardner surrounds Frankie with a compelling cast of supporting characters which includes her setting. The vastly beautiful but perilous wilderness area in which the search is being conducted serves as an additional character, providing context and heightening the intrigue. Gardner injects the tale with authenticity, in part because she is an avid hiker who lives in the mountains of New Hampshire. She relates that penning the book was one of her most enjoyable writing endeavors because hiking is an integral part of her writing process. When she finds herself stuck or in need of inspiration, she goes out on a trek. She spent more time in the outdoors when the world shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic, taking longer and more adventurous hikes in areas beyond cell phone coverage or the reach of rescuers. She describes it as "isolating, exhilarating, terrifying.”
Gardner understands perfectly why Frankie has “struck a chord” with readers. “She is empathetic. . . . Frankie is not a crack investigator, she is not a hacker, she does not have superpowers. However, she is an excellent listener. And she cares. She’s an alcoholic and has done all sorts of bad things. Her family was imperfect. She does not judge. She is genuinely interested in people, in hearing their stories, and in providing that kind of balm she inevitably gets the information necessary to bring things together. I think she’s both fascinating and vulnerable, but soothing in a world where everyone wants to be hurt but nobody cares to listen anymore.”
Still, Gardner finds it challenging to write Frankie’s first-person narrative. “I am her and she is us. She is a proxy for the everyday, average person.” What sets her apart is her obsession with finding people who have gone missing. Frankie is adept at asking questions and the key to her success is the fact that she is an outsider rather than a trained member of law enforcement She can ask questions and employ techniques that are unavailable to professionals.
But in this story, Frankie is in the wild, isolated with a group of people she quickly discovers are not really a cohesive group at all, but they will have to rely on each other in order to survive. Frankie can’t simply pursue interviews with neighbors and friends of the missing person. She has access only to the members of the search party who Gardner gradually reveals to be untrustworthy. Equipment and supplies go missing. There is a strong sense of being watched. Soon bodies begin piling up. Someone is intent on sabotaging the expedition. But who? And why? Frankie soon regrets her decision to pursue the case as the group proceeds further into the wild and her lack of survival skills becomes increasingly apparent and potentially lethal. She has to figure out her companions’ alliances, as well as their motivations for revenge and the bases for their efforts prevent the truth from finally coming to light. If she fails to carry out her mission, she may not emerge from the woods at all. So Frankie has to bring something unique “to the table” in order to solve the case. “Her superpower is people – listening, learning, adapting.” Gardner poses the question of whether the result will be survival of the fittest or the most adaptable. Gardner propels the story forward at an unrelenting pace as Frankie, who “is not the fittest,” proves how adaptable she is. Adaptability is a skill that many people had to acquire during the pandemic, Gardner observes. And it proves to be the key to Frankie’s ability to solve the case and live to relate to readers how she accomplishes her goal.
One Step Too Far is yet another engrossing, propulsive, cleverly-plotted, and unpredictable mystery from a master storyteller who again demonstrates that she is at the top of her form with this series. Gardner says, "I read for character, character and character. I’m looking to see the world through someone else’s eyes and in doing so, having my own eyes opened to fresh experiences, issues and ideas." The series succeeds because it is, at its core, an intriguing exploration of Frankie's psyche. In her second outing, Frankie’s quest to discover what happened to Tim is an emotionally resonant examination of the grief of loss, guilt, and the tenuous bonds of friendship. Readers will find themselves further enamored with the irascible, stubborn, but compassionate woman who is compelled to keeping moving from place to place, and clamoring for the next volume, anxious to see what case Frankie next pursues . . . and if she will find what she is looking for.
Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book.
“I tried real life once. There was a house, a job, even a man who loved me enough to hold my hand as I fought my way to sober,” Frankie explains. But there is no longer a place Frankie calls home. Ten years ago, a woman in an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting shared that the police showed little interest in her daughter’s disappearance. “I became intrigued, started asking questions, and the next thing I knew, I’d found the daughter.” In the years since, Frankie has traveled wherever the cases lead her, volunteering her services. She learns about missing persons in online forums and chat rooms by using computers in local libraries. She decides which cases to pursue solely by gut instinct. Frankie is searching for missing people, as well as something else. Gardner believes Frankie is “searching for herself. She's obsessed. She's looking for the why of it.” Frankie confesses, “I don’t always know why I choose the cases I do.” But “it works” for Frankie, who is an addict and an outsider wherever she goes.
In One Step Too Far, she pursues the case of Timothy O’Day, who went missing five years ago, in large part because Tim’s mother is dying and “just wants to be buried next to her son.” Frankie planned to go to Idaho to help search for an eight-year-old boy who vanished sixteen months ago. But when she learned that Tim’s father has been organizing annual expeditions to search for his son’s remains and has planned one final attempt to locate and bring his boy’s body home in order to grant his wife’s dying wish, Frankie just knows that she has to be part of the search team despite the fact that she is not ready for the harsh conditions she will encounter in the Popo Agie Wilderness. For one thing, she lacks the requisite clothing, equipment, and supplies, as well as the funds to purchase the items she will need. She is not an experienced hiker. And when she arrives, the members of the team are assembling and strategizing, but they do not readily welcome the outsider into their midst.
None of them expect to miraculously find Tim alive. Rather, the searchers will be accompanied by a cadaver dog because, if they are lucky, they will retrieve Tim’s bones so they can be buried next to his mother. Frankie knows well that the kind of search on which she and the other members of the team are about to embark is about “gaining closure.” Perhaps his parents can find some peace by finding tangible remnants such as bones or personal effects. Perhaps it will help them to simply understand, at long last, what exactly happened to Tim and caused his demise.
Tim was an experienced hiker and outdoorsman, having been taught by his father to survive in the wilderness. So he was the acknowledged leader of the group of five young college friends who decided a camping trip would be the perfect way to celebrate Tim’s upcoming nuptials. It was to be their last weekend get-away before the end of Tim’s bachelorhood. Tim, Scott, Neil, Josh, and Miguel set up camp. But after an evening of heavy drinking, Scott disappeared in the middle of the night and Tim ventured out to find him. Unfortunately, he never returned. He disappeared without a trace. Although hundreds of volunteers combed the woods for weeks after he vanished, none of his equipment (backpack, headlamp, clothing, etc.) was even found. Scott resurfaced, claiming to have no memory of what happened on that fateful night.
Eventually, Frankie convinces the group to let her join them, and she, along with an experienced resident, Tim’s grief-hardened father, Tim's four friends, a Bigfoot hunter, and a search-dog handler all head up the mountain. Frankie is well aware that the greatest danger “comes from the eight humans who just hiked” into the wilderness, and although she does not yet understand why it ultimately matters, she knows that she must get to know her companions.
In Before She Disappeared, Gardner established Frankie as an endearingly complicated and puzzling protagonist who must constantly safeguard her sobriety. Gardner revealed part of Frankie’s troubled history and permitted her to develop feelings for Dan Lotham, the lead detective on the case she worked in Boston. She was tempted to remain there and attempt to maintain a stable relationship with him but knew herself well enough to know that she had to continue her quest to find the missing. Gardner evocatively depicts Frankie’s longing for love and desire to run back to Boston and let herself fall into Lotham’s strong arms. “Except then it will be morning. There’s always morning.” Gardner says Frankie has to keep moving because if she stays in one place, she will drink.
Gardner ramps up the dramatic tension as Frankie learns about the histories of the other members of the search party. Details about their relationships, long-held secrets, and resentments come to light. Gardner surrounds Frankie with a compelling cast of supporting characters which includes her setting. The vastly beautiful but perilous wilderness area in which the search is being conducted serves as an additional character, providing context and heightening the intrigue. Gardner injects the tale with authenticity, in part because she is an avid hiker who lives in the mountains of New Hampshire. She relates that penning the book was one of her most enjoyable writing endeavors because hiking is an integral part of her writing process. When she finds herself stuck or in need of inspiration, she goes out on a trek. She spent more time in the outdoors when the world shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic, taking longer and more adventurous hikes in areas beyond cell phone coverage or the reach of rescuers. She describes it as "isolating, exhilarating, terrifying.”
Gardner understands perfectly why Frankie has “struck a chord” with readers. “She is empathetic. . . . Frankie is not a crack investigator, she is not a hacker, she does not have superpowers. However, she is an excellent listener. And she cares. She’s an alcoholic and has done all sorts of bad things. Her family was imperfect. She does not judge. She is genuinely interested in people, in hearing their stories, and in providing that kind of balm she inevitably gets the information necessary to bring things together. I think she’s both fascinating and vulnerable, but soothing in a world where everyone wants to be hurt but nobody cares to listen anymore.”
Still, Gardner finds it challenging to write Frankie’s first-person narrative. “I am her and she is us. She is a proxy for the everyday, average person.” What sets her apart is her obsession with finding people who have gone missing. Frankie is adept at asking questions and the key to her success is the fact that she is an outsider rather than a trained member of law enforcement She can ask questions and employ techniques that are unavailable to professionals.
But in this story, Frankie is in the wild, isolated with a group of people she quickly discovers are not really a cohesive group at all, but they will have to rely on each other in order to survive. Frankie can’t simply pursue interviews with neighbors and friends of the missing person. She has access only to the members of the search party who Gardner gradually reveals to be untrustworthy. Equipment and supplies go missing. There is a strong sense of being watched. Soon bodies begin piling up. Someone is intent on sabotaging the expedition. But who? And why? Frankie soon regrets her decision to pursue the case as the group proceeds further into the wild and her lack of survival skills becomes increasingly apparent and potentially lethal. She has to figure out her companions’ alliances, as well as their motivations for revenge and the bases for their efforts prevent the truth from finally coming to light. If she fails to carry out her mission, she may not emerge from the woods at all. So Frankie has to bring something unique “to the table” in order to solve the case. “Her superpower is people – listening, learning, adapting.” Gardner poses the question of whether the result will be survival of the fittest or the most adaptable. Gardner propels the story forward at an unrelenting pace as Frankie, who “is not the fittest,” proves how adaptable she is. Adaptability is a skill that many people had to acquire during the pandemic, Gardner observes. And it proves to be the key to Frankie’s ability to solve the case and live to relate to readers how she accomplishes her goal.
One Step Too Far is yet another engrossing, propulsive, cleverly-plotted, and unpredictable mystery from a master storyteller who again demonstrates that she is at the top of her form with this series. Gardner says, "I read for character, character and character. I’m looking to see the world through someone else’s eyes and in doing so, having my own eyes opened to fresh experiences, issues and ideas." The series succeeds because it is, at its core, an intriguing exploration of Frankie's psyche. In her second outing, Frankie’s quest to discover what happened to Tim is an emotionally resonant examination of the grief of loss, guilt, and the tenuous bonds of friendship. Readers will find themselves further enamored with the irascible, stubborn, but compassionate woman who is compelled to keeping moving from place to place, and clamoring for the next volume, anxious to see what case Frankie next pursues . . . and if she will find what she is looking for.
Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book.
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