Call number
MYST GAR
Collection
Genres
Series
Publication
Dutton (2022), 416 pages
Description
Fiction. Mystery. Suspense. Thriller. HTML: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 Oâ??Day knew the woods. Yet when he disappeared on the first night of a bachelor party camping trip with his best friends in the world, he didnâ??t leave a trace. What he did leave behind were two heartbroken parents, a crew of guilt-ridden groomsmen, and a pile of clues that donâ??t add up. Frankie Elkin doesnâ??t know the woods, but she knows how to find people. So when she reads that Timothyâ??s father is organizing one last search, she heads to Wyoming. Despite the rescue teamâ??s reluctance, she joins them. But as they hike into the mountains, it becomes clear that thereâ??s something dangerous at work in the woods . . . or someone who is willing to do anything to stop them from going any farther. Running out of time and up against the worst man and nature have to offer, Frankie and the search party will discover what evil awaits those who go o… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member Bookmarque
So this thoroughly urban woman is going to undertake a search in rural Wyoming? She is catastrophically unprepared both mentally, physically and experience-wise. She can't ride, doesn't have any gear or the first idea about what being away from a sidewalk really means.
LibraryThing member pgchuis
This started out well for me and I liked Frankie and was interested in what she was uncovering about the missing man and his four groomsmen. I even found the middle section with its descriptions of the terrain and the issues of camping and hiking realistic and informative. However, the last third
SPOILERS
Tim's disappearance turned out to have nothing to do with any of the potential suspects in his life, but was instead perpetrated by a 'mad' woman and her presumably equally mad partner (who dresses as a tree) for no discernible motive. And.. they had murdered 7 other hikers and hidden their bodies in an air space behind a styrofoam door made to look like a boulder. It was like an episode of Scooby Doo.
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was a big disappointment: SPOILERS
Tim's disappearance turned out to have nothing to do with any of the potential suspects in his life, but was instead perpetrated by a 'mad' woman and her presumably equally mad partner (who dresses as a tree) for no discernible motive. And.. they had murdered 7 other hikers and hidden their bodies in an air space behind a styrofoam door made to look like a boulder. It was like an episode of Scooby Doo.
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LibraryThing member Dianekeenoy
Second book with Frankie Elkin who knows how to find people. I literally read this book straight through with one quick break! Just as good as Before She Disappeared. Highly recommended!
LibraryThing member EdGoldberg
Frankie Elkin has traded in the suburbs of Boston from her last book to the wilds of Wyoming where Martin O’Day is searching for his missing son, Tim. It’s an annual trek since Tim disappeared 5 years ago under uncertain circumstances on his drunken bachelor party camping weekend. Along with
It is a ragtag group that heads out into the forests of the Popo Agie Wilderness in the Shoshone National Forest. The search and rescue seemed doomed from the start. Prior to starting out Martin had received threats, trying to scare him off of the mission. The first night some food goes missing and group members get hurt. But, if nothing else, Martin is determined. He refuses to give up, despite the adverse conditions.
But things continue to go down-hill and the week-long sojourn has to be shortened to four days. Frankie may be an inexperienced hiker, but she’s good at ferreting out information and sensing things, and she senses more is going on that meets the eye.
As the group gets closer to its destination, their lives are put in danger and secrets emerge.
In One Step Too Far we learn more about Frankie’s past and present, her battle with alcohol and her inability to stay in any one place for too long. Frankie has not only become a character in a book; she’s also become a friend. It shows how good a writer Gardner is.
The book is a combination of murder mystery and wilderness adventure; a cross between police procedural and a John Krakauer outdoor adventure story. Authors writing mysteries set in the outdoors include Peter Heller, Jane Harper, C.J. Box and Craig Johnson.
One reviewer said that “…Frankie is one of crime fiction’s most intriguing new sleuths.” Another said that “Gardner is incredibly skilled at developing tension and suspense; she’s equally skilled at slowly revealing complex characters and their secrets…[The book is…] terrifying, primal, and very, very tense.”
Gardner has created great characters, a tense plot and perfect pacing in order to keep readers at the edge of their seats wanting more. I hope Frankie Elkin appears in more books.
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Martin are 4 of Tim’s groomsmen-to-be who were with him on that fateful day, cadaver dog handler Luciana and Daisy, woodsman and pack leader Nemeth and Bob, Sasquatch tracker and private investigator.It is a ragtag group that heads out into the forests of the Popo Agie Wilderness in the Shoshone National Forest. The search and rescue seemed doomed from the start. Prior to starting out Martin had received threats, trying to scare him off of the mission. The first night some food goes missing and group members get hurt. But, if nothing else, Martin is determined. He refuses to give up, despite the adverse conditions.
But things continue to go down-hill and the week-long sojourn has to be shortened to four days. Frankie may be an inexperienced hiker, but she’s good at ferreting out information and sensing things, and she senses more is going on that meets the eye.
As the group gets closer to its destination, their lives are put in danger and secrets emerge.
In One Step Too Far we learn more about Frankie’s past and present, her battle with alcohol and her inability to stay in any one place for too long. Frankie has not only become a character in a book; she’s also become a friend. It shows how good a writer Gardner is.
The book is a combination of murder mystery and wilderness adventure; a cross between police procedural and a John Krakauer outdoor adventure story. Authors writing mysteries set in the outdoors include Peter Heller, Jane Harper, C.J. Box and Craig Johnson.
One reviewer said that “…Frankie is one of crime fiction’s most intriguing new sleuths.” Another said that “Gardner is incredibly skilled at developing tension and suspense; she’s equally skilled at slowly revealing complex characters and their secrets…[The book is…] terrifying, primal, and very, very tense.”
Gardner has created great characters, a tense plot and perfect pacing in order to keep readers at the edge of their seats wanting more. I hope Frankie Elkin appears in more books.
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LibraryThing member brangwinn
Wilderness camping takes on a whole new layer of dangers in this story of five young men who celebrate the last days of Tim Oday’s bachelorhood with a camping trip in the wilderness of the Wyoming mountains. Tim disappears and for five years, his father has brought the four remaining men together
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in a search for Tim’s body. Lisa Gardner has introduced us to the main character, Frankie Elkin in Before She Disappeared. Frankie, a free-spirited recovering alcoholic, sees it as her mission to find missing persons. Unasked she shows up in the small Wyoming town and manages to get included in the mission despite having no experience in black country hiking and camping. The hunt is tense and terrifying as the search party find themselves targets of an unknown assassin. When Frankie finally finds the killer, its even more terrifying in who she uncovers. I really enjoyed the details about back country camping and how cadaver dogs are used in search and rescue, but at times the story seemed to drag a little with the detail. Show Less
LibraryThing member Beamis12
This is the second in series and I didn't read the first. Frankie Elkin is an interesting character, a woman whose past is touched on lightly in this book a woman fighting her own demons by looking for the missing. Five years previous a young man camping with the other members of his bachelor party
It moves quickly, fraught with danger, as the group moves closer to solving the mystery, definitely keeps the pages turning. It was also, a tad too much, stretching credibility, at least mine. A good escapist novel though, if one doesn't over think the implausabilitiy which obviously I did. Loved Daisy the dog. Star of the show.
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goes missing in the Shashone National Park in Wyoming. His father has never stopped searching for him, even a trace and by now a body. This is the group Frankie, who has never camped, has joined.It moves quickly, fraught with danger, as the group moves closer to solving the mystery, definitely keeps the pages turning. It was also, a tad too much, stretching credibility, at least mine. A good escapist novel though, if one doesn't over think the implausabilitiy which obviously I did. Loved Daisy the dog. Star of the show.
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LibraryThing member rmarcin
Frankie Elkin returns in book 2 of this series of a recovering alcoholic and wanderer. Frankie is an expert at finding missing persons, so when she finds herself in a town with a search party ready to go on a search for a man who has been missing for 5 years. As Frankie inserts herself into the
When the group is out on the search, things begin happening to sabotage the group, and push them to abandon the search. As many injuries mount, the human toll becomes costly. Can Frankie solve the mystery around the disappearance in time? Will she and the other members of the party make it home safely.
The scenes of the crew hiking in the rugged trails of the forest, and racing to escape the killer, are chilling. Another great story from Lisa Gardner!
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group, she works to gain the trust of the members, but also to find out the truth about what happened when Tim went missing.When the group is out on the search, things begin happening to sabotage the group, and push them to abandon the search. As many injuries mount, the human toll becomes costly. Can Frankie solve the mystery around the disappearance in time? Will she and the other members of the party make it home safely.
The scenes of the crew hiking in the rugged trails of the forest, and racing to escape the killer, are chilling. Another great story from Lisa Gardner!
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LibraryThing member nyiper
Just plain GREAT!! Talk about escaping into the wilderness---that's what Gardner provides the reader with an ability to do. Picking up this book put me right in there with Frankie as she described what was happening. Definitely worth reading for a step by step story that pulls you right in!
LibraryThing member Carol420
Frankie Elkin is incredibly talented at finding missing persons. This time sees her searching for a man who wandered into the wilderness five years ago and was never seen again. Frankie arrives in Ramsey, Wyoming, having been drawn in by the story of the hiker Timothy O’Day. Since Timothy had
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been missing for five years, this search is a last-gasp effort of his father, Martin, hoping to at least find his sons' body. Frankie manages to talk her way into joining the search party. Along with Frankie the team is composed of a mixture of well trained and often successful searchers. In addition to Frankie and Tim's father, Martin, the remainder of the team is composed of a local guide; a search-and-rescue dog and her handler; a Bigfoot expert; and some of Tim’s friends who were in the woods with him when he went missing. In the years since, they’ve moved on with their lives, but they have always carried guilt and secrets about the night Tim disappeared. As they start into the wilderness, it very soon becomes apparent that someone is extremely threatened by this search effort to find Tim’s body. Frankie tries to draw the truth from each member of the search party, but no one needs to tell her that she's way in over her head. She's a searcher but she's also inexperienced with wilderness searches. Questions are now building up. Is Tim still alive and looking for revenge? Is there something more dangerous among the search team? Or is there a secret that someone would kill, or perhaps has already killed to protect? Lisa Gardner is incredibly skilled at producing a story of tension and suspense. She’s also a master at ever so slowly revealing the complex characters and all their secrets. Both these qualities are in on high levels in this story. Frankie isn't the only one "out of her element"...so was I for a great deal of the story. It’s not often that a book so clearly takes us into the darkness of both nature and the human heart that this one does. It's terrifying, it's primal, and it's very, very tense, and one of the best thrillers that I have read this year. Show Less
LibraryThing member CasSprout
Great, great book! It has everything-plot, characters, actions. Every single character is well developed. Every bit of action is real and believable. Beautifully written.
LibraryThing member SheriAWilkinson
One Step Too Far by Lisa Gardner
Five years ago Timothy O'Day and his friends go on a Bachelor Party hiking trip, only to have Tim disappear. Frankie Elkin joins a search team to find him. Soon their lives are in danger as they fight for survival as someone wants them dead....
The story moves at a
Frankie is very likable, flawed but striving to do good. I completely fell in love with Daisy the SAR dog, she really brought a sparkle to the story. Overall I found One Step Too Far very enjoyable. A must read for fans of Lisa Gardner .
Five years ago Timothy O'Day and his friends go on a Bachelor Party hiking trip, only to have Tim disappear. Frankie Elkin joins a search team to find him. Soon their lives are in danger as they fight for survival as someone wants them dead....
The story moves at a
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steady pace (with) well developed characters, suspense, tension and spine tingling chilling events. I was hooked from the first page.Frankie is very likable, flawed but striving to do good. I completely fell in love with Daisy the SAR dog, she really brought a sparkle to the story. Overall I found One Step Too Far very enjoyable. A must read for fans of Lisa Gardner .
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LibraryThing member lhaines56
As always, suspenseful and exciting.
LibraryThing member srms.reads
4.5/5
“Five guys went into the woods. One has never been seen again. And the other four . . . they are not who they used to be either. Life is like that.”
Haunted by her past, Frankie Elkin is “an average, middle-aged white woman, short on belongings, long on regret” who specializes in cold
“Eight people head into the woods. A grieving father, a hiking guide, three college friends, and three semiprofessional searchers. On the surface, it makes sense. So why do I have a feeling eight of us won’t be coming back out.”
The group faces injury, sabotage, harsh terrain and internal conflict wherein it is revealed that there was more to the events of that fateful night five years ago than was initially reported. Added to this is the fact that Tim is not the only person to have disappeared in the area. There have been reports of several hikers gone missing over the years. When the group makes a shocking discovery and one of them is severely injured, hidden secrets and agendas come to the surface. Is someone in their midst playing games or are they being followed by someone who knows what happened to Tim? Cut off from any outside assistance, it ultimately boils down to who between themselves can be trusted and how they can survive when being hunted by someone who obviously wants them out the way. What begins as a search for a missing person soon becomes a fight for their own survival.
Taut and twisty with an ending that I did not see coming, One Step Too Far is a gripping thriller that will keep you hooked till the very last page. The descriptions of the landscape add to the dark and atmospheric tone of the novel. Lisa Gardner is brilliant in crafting thrillers that keep you on the edge of your seat. In Frankie Elkin, the author portrays an admirable protagonist. She is an intelligent and strong woman battling her own demons, who goes above and beyond to bring justice for those who have been marginalized and whose calls for help have fallen on deaf ears. Even though she prefers to be a drifter, she is not indifferent to the people around her and does establish emotional connections with people she meets on her journey. I’ve enjoyed both books in Lisa Gardner’s Frankie Elkin series and hope for more in the future.
“Five guys went into the woods. One has never been seen again. And the other four . . . they are not who they used to be either. Life is like that.”
Haunted by her past, Frankie Elkin is “an average, middle-aged white woman, short on belongings, long on regret” who specializes in cold
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cases mostly involving the “underserved” in the community. While on the way to Idaho, where she plans to take up the case of an eight-year-old boy who has been missing for sixteen months, she comes across an article about thirty-three-year-old Timothy O’Day who disappeared while on a bachelors’ camping trip with his college friends in the Popo Agie Wilderness on the edge of Ramsey, Wyoming five years ago. Tim’s father has been searching for any clues about his son’s fate for the last five years and is about to venture out on his next trip into the wilderness where Tim was last seen. Frankie changes her plans and joins the search, motivated by her desire to bring closure to the family of a missing young man whose mother is dying of cancer. Even though Frankie has no experience of hiking or search and rescue in the wilderness she joins the group who, though skeptical of Frankie’s ability to hold her own in the rough conditions , reluctantly agrees when one of Tim’s friends has to drop out.“Eight people head into the woods. A grieving father, a hiking guide, three college friends, and three semiprofessional searchers. On the surface, it makes sense. So why do I have a feeling eight of us won’t be coming back out.”
The group faces injury, sabotage, harsh terrain and internal conflict wherein it is revealed that there was more to the events of that fateful night five years ago than was initially reported. Added to this is the fact that Tim is not the only person to have disappeared in the area. There have been reports of several hikers gone missing over the years. When the group makes a shocking discovery and one of them is severely injured, hidden secrets and agendas come to the surface. Is someone in their midst playing games or are they being followed by someone who knows what happened to Tim? Cut off from any outside assistance, it ultimately boils down to who between themselves can be trusted and how they can survive when being hunted by someone who obviously wants them out the way. What begins as a search for a missing person soon becomes a fight for their own survival.
Taut and twisty with an ending that I did not see coming, One Step Too Far is a gripping thriller that will keep you hooked till the very last page. The descriptions of the landscape add to the dark and atmospheric tone of the novel. Lisa Gardner is brilliant in crafting thrillers that keep you on the edge of your seat. In Frankie Elkin, the author portrays an admirable protagonist. She is an intelligent and strong woman battling her own demons, who goes above and beyond to bring justice for those who have been marginalized and whose calls for help have fallen on deaf ears. Even though she prefers to be a drifter, she is not indifferent to the people around her and does establish emotional connections with people she meets on her journey. I’ve enjoyed both books in Lisa Gardner’s Frankie Elkin series and hope for more in the future.
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LibraryThing member Madison_Fairbanks
One Step Too Far by Lisa Gardner
Frankie Elkin series #2. Thriller, mystery. Can be read as a stand-alone.
Law enforcement has abandoned the search of a young man in the national forest. Frankie Elkin decides this will be her next search and joins the party hiking in to the forest to search for
Tense and hair-raising. Edge-of-your-seat mystery as Frankie tries to figure a killer.
4.5
Frankie Elkin series #2. Thriller, mystery. Can be read as a stand-alone.
Law enforcement has abandoned the search of a young man in the national forest. Frankie Elkin decides this will be her next search and joins the party hiking in to the forest to search for
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clues. But the deeper into the forest they hike, the more Frankie realizes there is more going on with the group. When people start to vanish, Frankie fears she’s running out of time herself to make it out of the forest. Tense and hair-raising. Edge-of-your-seat mystery as Frankie tries to figure a killer.
4.5
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Pages
416
ISBN
0593185412 / 9780593185414