Book review: Frankie Elkin back on the trail in wilderness thriller

"One Step Too Far"

Author: Lisa Gardner

Dutton, 416 pages, $27

In best-selling thriller writer Lisa Gardner’s sequel to “Before She Disappeared,” Frankie Elkin, a self-described “average, middle-aged white woman, short on belongings, long on regret,” is back on the trail of another person who has been lost. This time Elkin is literally on a trail searching for a missing hiker in Wyoming’s Shoshone National Forest, some of the roughest outdoors in the land.

“One Step Too Far” has Elkin joining up with a group led by the missing hiker’s father. He has been searching for his son for five years and is attempting one more time because his now dying wife wants to be buried next to her son. The group he has organized for this trip includes a local guide and former forest ranger, a Sasquatch hunter, a cadaver dog named Daisy and her search and rescue handler, and the four friends of his son who were with him when he went missing. Fanatic Frankie soon finagles her way onto the team taking the spot and the gear of one of the friends who is sick.

Despite her lack of skill with the outdoors, Elkin is a determined fast learner.

“They seem to know what they’re doing, so I follow their lead, stepping out of the van, dumping my gear on the ground, then, belatedly, digging out the insect repellent. The others are spraying it on heavily. Even Daisy is subject to some minty-smelling, canine-friendly mosquito napalm. Once that’s completed, everyone pulls on their packs. Again Daisy fits right in, adorned in a red vest with bulging pouches and a single water bottle.

“If a dog can do this, I tell myself, then I can, too.

“Of course, the dog has had way more training.”

As with the previous Elkin adventure, author Gardner, an avid outdoorswoman, has done her homework researching the locale, giving us a real feel for this rough-and-tumble portion of Americana. And, as is her trademark, the thrills grow and the storyline gets more complex as the group goes farther into the wilderness.

Gardner has another winning series to keep us up at night.

Tim O’Connell lives in Ponte Vedra Beach.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Book review: 'One Step Too Far' by Lisa Gardner