One Step Too Far: A Novel

Written by Lisa Gardner

Narrated by Hillary Huber

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 when he disappeared on the first night of a bachelor party camping trip with his best friends in the world, he didn’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 don’t add up.

Frankie Elkin doesn’t know the woods, but she knows how to find people. So when she reads that Timothy’s father is organizing one last search, she heads to Wyoming. Despite the rescue team’s reluctance, she joins them. But as they hike into the mountains, it becomes clear that there’s something dangerous at work in the woods…or someone who is willing to do anything to stop them from going any further.

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 one step too far…

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: Jan 18, 2022
• ISBN: 9781721387618

Lisa Gardner

Lisa Gardner is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of twenty novels, including Look for Me, Right Behind You, Find Her, Crash & Burn, Fear Nothing, Touch & Go, Catch Me, and The Neighbor, which won the International Thriller of the Year Award. She lives with her family in New England.

Reviews for One Step Too Far

[candyadams03 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Lisa Gardner is a great storyteller and she always has you thinking about what's really going on Love her stories.

[Julie Booth · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Is a fun entertaining series. I like the characters and I'm looking forward to the 3rd book in the series.

[Jennifer Evans · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Such a good book. I loved it so much. Made me cry and laugh. Can't wait to read the next Frankie book

[NNEAMAKA PAYNE · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It has been one big, twined ride for the team of eight who went into the wilderness of recovered the body of a lost friend. Who wandered out by himself and never made it home. Now after so many years and his mother sick with cancer and near death. The father made his wife a promise to bring their boy's body home. For the final rites before the mother past with the cancer she has been battling for many years now.
The task was a bad one from the beginning with one member of their team subitizing the teams plans and stealing their food. Including gunning for each member one by one. All this is to stop them from uncovering the truth about an old murder of a missing girl and this young man who is their friend. With intellect one of the investigators was able to follow alone getting to know each individual learn the truth from each person. Also, she was able to discover the secrets of the killers and that Truely put all of them in more danger than before.
After this the game and hurt began they were all becomes a target for these two killers who has been killing in the wide for a long time trying to hide their first kill. At the same time killing more people with search team members they were able to bite the killers by their games.

[Tira Hall · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I absolutely loved this book. This is one of my favorites. I love the mystery.

[Isa Owens · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The twists in this book are amazing. The fight, the gut feeling you think you know who it is, but then not at the same time. Nicely written. Keeps you intrigued

[Lesa · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

When the Father of the son reappears and he has his closure!

[apetrescu2554 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The 2nd in the Frankie series, this is top notch! Not only is it a good mystery, but it has a fascinating location (boy, you learn a lot about wilderness survival!).

Highly recommend!

[Carol Kost Oettle · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

When is the next one? I hope she does amother

[Lyn Decker · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Not the best in my opinion xx xx xx xx

[lhaines56 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

As always, suspenseful and exciting.

[sheriawilkinson · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

One Step Too Far by Lisa GardnerFive 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 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 .

[cassprout · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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.

[carol420 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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 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.

[thepageladies · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I don't know about you guys but I am a huge Lisa Gardner fan! There are very few of her books that I haven't read!

In One Step Too Far we follow Frankie Elkin as she helps search for a missing man in the national forest. Even though the police have given up a group of people including the man's father hasn't. And Frankie being who she is can't turn them away. It doesn't take long for her to figure out that there is something a lot darker going on.

Such a thrilling suspenseful ride! A thriller that gives you the chills but also has humor and heart is such a wonderful mix! I really couldn't read this fast enough! I love Frankie Elkin. She is far from perfect but she is still a good person but I also enjoyed getting to know Frankie a little better. But honestly every single one of the characters are wonderful. Each one has something that makes you want to get to know them better. The setting of this story is the dark and huge woods of the national park, perfect setting for a thriller! I wonder what the next adventure Lisa Gardner has planned for us in the next Frankie Elkin series!

Eight people went into the woods. How many will come out?

Thank you Dutton Books for sharing this wonderful mystery with me!

[nyiper · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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!

[rmarcin-630843 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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 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!

[beamis12 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

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 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.

[pgchuis · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

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 was a big disappointment: SPOILERSTim'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.

[brangwinn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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 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.

[edgoldberg · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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 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.

[dianekeenoy · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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!