One Step Too Far
Timothy O’Day knew the woods, yet he vanished without a trace on the first night of a bachelor party camping trip. The wilderness he called home became a silent accomplice to a chilling mystery, leaving behind heartbroken parents, guilt-ridden groomsmen, and baffling clues that refuse to add up.
Enter Frankie Elkin, a woman who doesn't know the wild but instinctively knows how to find the lost. When Timothy’s desperate father mounts one last search, Frankie answers the call, venturing deep into the unforgiving mountains. But something sinister lurks beyond the harsh landscape. Someone is determined to stop them, and as time runs out, Frankie and the team discover that the wilderness holds secrets far more dangerous than just its natural perils. Prepare for a desperate race against man and nature, where one step too far could be your last.
- Frankie - Protagonist
- Jim Kelley - Sheriff
- Nemeth - Local guide
- Neil - Tim’s friend
- Josh - Tim’s friend
- Miguel (Miggy) - Tim’s friend
- Scott - Tim’s friend
- Tim - Latisha’s former fiancé
- Latisha - Tim’s former fiancee, Scott’s wife
- Luciana - Daisy’s handler
- Daisy - Cadaver dog
- Bob - Bigfoot hunter, private investigator
- Martin - Tim’s father
- Patrice - Tim’s mother
- Marge - Nemeth’s girlfriend
- Julianna - Josh’s younger sister
- Five years ago: Scott disappears in the middle of the night while on a hike with his friends.
- Tim hikes out to get help.
- When morning comes, Neil, Josh and Miguel hike out of the woods and discover Tim never made it out.
- Scott is located wandering in the woods with no memory of what happened to him. He has a history of sleepwalking.
- Present: Martin is going into the woods on his last attempt to locate Tim’s body.
- Six other hikers have gone missing in the Popo Agie Wilderness and were never found.
- Frankie joins Martin, Luciana, Nemeth, Neil, Miguel, Scott and Bob on the search for Tim’s body.
- Josh is forced to stay behind because he is very sick from alcohol withdrawal.
- Scott married Latisha and she’s pregnant with his child.
- The group spends the day hiking into the woods to Devil’s Canyon before setting up camp.
- Someone or something rips open the bags of food and a lot of it is missing.
- The group arrives at a cliff face where there are dozens of caves that could have served as possible shelters for Tim.
- Scott finds Neil with his head split open, but Neil doesn’t know what happened.
- Scott, Neil and Miguel admit that during the bachelor trip, Josh attacked Tim after Tim admitted he was the one who got Julianna pregnant during her sophomore year of college, prompting Tim to storm off.
- In the morning Luciana, Daisy and Nemeth hike out to send a chopper for Neil.
- Bob admits that he is a private investigator hired by Martin after a series of disturbing incidents: someone broke into his house and stole his hiking gear, sent threatening e-mails telling him to stay away from the town, and poured bleach into his gas tank.
- Martin, Bob and Frankie return to continue searching the caves.
- Frankie finds a large piece of styrofoam painted to look like stone.
- Behind the fake stone door are eight sets of human remains.
- As Frankie explains what she found, someone shoots Martin.
- Believing Martin is dead, Bob and Frankie make it back to the campsite.
- Frankie, Miguel, Scott, Bob and Neil start hiking out of the woods.
- Frankie finds a bloodstained piece of Daisy’s vest.
- The group lies in wait by the piece of Daisy’s vest so they can ambush the killer when he tracks them there.
- The killer shoots and kills Bob.
- The killer shoots Scott, injures Neil and then disappears.
- Frankie and Miggy hide Scott and Neil and run to find help for them.
- The killer attacks Frankie and Miggy, but Martin comes out of nowhere and pushes the killer over the edge, going over the edge with him.
- Luciana and Daisy find Frankie and Miggy, and another team finds Scott and Neil.
- The killer had attacked Luciana and Nemeth, but they both managed to escape.
- Frankie finds a vial of pseudo-corpse scent in Nemeth’s hiking pack and realizes he had it to throw Daisy off, meaning he must be linked to the murders.
- Marge’s sister, Jessica, was the first person to go missing in Popo Agie. Marge killed her during a hunting trip, and Nemeth gave her the idea to hide Jessica’s body in Devil’s Canyon.
- Marge and Nemeth have been killing hikers who got too close to Devil’s Canyon to keep them from discovering Jessica’s body.
- Nemeth is the person Martin pushed over the edge, and he somehow survived the fall.
- Epilogue: Neil, Miggy and Scott all recover from their injuries.
- The missing hikers’ IDs are found in Marge’s hunting cabin.
- Nemeth goes into cardiac arrest and dies.
- Marge is in jail awaiting trial.
- Frankie goes in search of her next missing person.
The mystery of what happened to Tim in One Step Too Far really pulled me in. I enjoyed trying to piece together the clues, especially with all the secrets and suspicious behavior that kept me questioning what was really going on. The remote woods setting added another layer of danger, and there was plenty of action to keep things moving.
I did find some aspects frustrating, though. Frankie is a flawed character, which I don’t mind, but the frequent references to her past relationships and her struggles with alcoholism got repetitive when they didn’t feel particularly relevant to the current mystery. I also think readers who haven’t read the first book in the series may feel a little lost when those references come up. The chapters were long, but I remained invested in the mystery, and I was surprised by the final twist. Unfortunately, I wasn’t completely sold on the motive behind it, which took some of the impact away from the reveal.
If you like wilderness mysteries, missing-person cases and twisty suspense, then you will enjoy this book.
- Tim - Dead - Killed by Nemeth
- Martin - Dead - Falls off a cliff
- Luciana - Alive - Survived the ordeal in the woods
- Daisy - Alive - Survived the ordeal in the woods
- Nemeth - Dead - Succumbed to his injuries
- Marge - Alive - In jail awaiting trial
- Bob - Dead - Shot by Nemeth
- Neil - Alive - Survived the ordeal in the woods
- Miggy - Alive - Survived the ordeal in the woods
- Scott - Alive - Survived the ordeal in the woods
- Frankie - Alive - On to help locate another missing person
- Alcoholism
- Car accident
- Loss of parents
- Cancer
- Abortion
- Murder
ISBN: 9780593185438
Publication Date: July 19, 2022
Note: Details are for the original edition. Other formats, editions, and audiobook versions may be available.
