One Step Too Far by Lisa Gardner – a Review

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Description:
Frankie Elkin, who readers first met in Before She Disappeared, learns of a young man who has gone missing in a national forest. Law enforcement has abandoned the search, but a crew of people led by the young man’s father are still looking. Sensing a father’s desperation, Frankie agrees to help–but soon sees that a missing person isn’t all that’s wrong here. And when more people start to vanish, Frankie realizes she’s up against something very dark–and she’s running out of time.

Review:

One Step Too Far by Lisa Gardner is the 2^nd book in her Frankie Elkin series.  I have read a few series by Gardner, and I think she is one of the best authors who write suspense thrillers, as I have loved all her books. 

Frankie Elkin, our heroine, is the star of this series; she is a recovering alcoholic, who devotes all of her time to find missing people that are cold cases. Over the years she has found 15 people, with the majority not found alive.  When she reads about a woman who is dying, and wants to be buried next to her presumed dead son, Tim, who disappeared 5 years ago; she learns that a group is planning to do another search, and Frankie decides to join them.  The experienced group consists of the missing boy’s father, the four boys who went camping together 5 years ago, a woman and her cadaver dog, the local wilderness expert, and a bigfoot expert.   When Frankie approaches them, at first, they do not want her, even if one tells them she does find missing people; but one of the boys gets sick, they allow Frankie to become part of the search.

The difficult trek into the woods has them all exhausted, but Martin, the father, pushes them to keep going.  In a short time, things change, as overnight they are being sabotaged (food stolen, camp in disarray, etc.); and they realized that someone is out to stop them from continuing the journey. The story was set in the Shoshone National Forest, which became creepy each passing day, especially after they learn many more people were missing over the years. 

I loved Daisy, who was the perfect search and rescue dog, and her handler, Luciana; with Frankie becoming closer to them.  Frankie is a great heroine, as she is tough, street savvy, smart and tenacious. She makes sure to talk and question all the other members of the group, to get her feel of what really happened, as well as being concerned by who is now hunting them.   

The last half of the book was a tense, scary, exciting thriller that kept me glued to my kindle, especially with everyone fighting for survival, and the danger escalates as slowly one by one they fall.  Who will survive?  Who is the villain?

What follows is an amazing, action-packed, exciting & intense thriller, where Frankie finds herself in some dangerous situations, as she desperately tries to survive in the wilderness. As we get closer to the end, there are a number of surprises and twists, which had me on the edge of my seat.  

Once again, Lisa Gardner gives us a fabulous intense exciting story, that was very well written. As noted previously, you can never go wrong reading Lisa Gardner, who always writes fantastic suspense psychological thrillers.  I suggest you read One Step Too Far, which was a fantastic story.

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher