One Step Too Far is the second installment in author Lisa Gardner's Frankie Elkin series. This story takes place mostly in Shoshone National Forest, Wyoming. Frankie Elkin is an average middle-aged woman, a recovering alcoholic with more regrets than belongings. She spends her life doing what no one else will—searching for missing people the world has stopped looking for. When the police have given up, when the public no longer remembers, when the media has never paid attention, Frankie starts looking. Frankie been successful in bringing home the lost over a dozen times.

Five years ago, 5 college friends got together for a drunken bachelor party weekend which turned into a nightmare when one of the party, Timothy O’ Day, disappeared without a trace while another, Scott, stumbled back into town not having any memory of what happened. Five years later, Frankie Elkin hears the story of a young man who disappeared in a national forest during a drunken bachelor party weekend and decides that she will join a search party because finding people is what she does best. Thanks to one of the group getting sick, Frankie is allowed to join.

The search party includes three of the missing mans friends, Neil, Miggy, & Scott, Tim's father Martin, who promised to bring his son home to his dying mother, a search and rescue specialist, Luciana and her dog Daisy, a man named Bob who claims to belong to a group known as the North American Bigfoot Society, as well as a former Shoshone National Forest district ranger, now local guide Nemeth. Even though the hike through the woods is particularly tough going for Frankie, and sleeping out in the woods in freezing temperatures makes it even more unbearable, Frankie begins to piece together the real truth of what happened 5 years ago.

She learns that Martin has been getting threatening messages that seem to be designed to get him to call off these yearly searches, but dad is not going to stop looking for his son until he finds his body. Especially with his wife on the verge of going home. The three former college friends all have baggage, and when the hike to the area where this years search is to take place, they reveal some highly stunning things about what really happened. Frankie's only real friend on this mission seems to be Luciana and her dog Daisy who is an air scent dog specializing in cadavers.

I adore search and rescue dogs and give them all the props in the world for everything they did on 9/11 to find the missing among the fallen towers. The author, as usual, adds a bit of her own research to this story. There are approximately 1600 people who remain missing in National Parklands every year. They seemingly vanish into thin air, some of them return and some are never to been seen or heard from again. Even though this is a standalone with a beginning and an end, it seems as though Frankie's job will continue. I'd suggest reading Before She Disappeared to get a better understanding of who Frankie is and what's he's dealt with over the past 10 years.

ᴡʜʏ ᴅᴏ ɪ ᴅᴏ ᴡʜᴀᴛ ɪ ᴅᴏ? ʙᴇᴄᴀᴜꜱᴇ ᴀᴛ ᴛʜᴇ ᴇɴᴅ ᴏꜰ ᴛʜᴇ ᴅᴀʏ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘᴇᴏᴘʟᴇ ʟᴇꜰᴛ ʙᴇʜɪɴᴅ ᴍᴀᴛᴛᴇʀ ᴊᴜꜱᴛ ᴀꜱ ᴍᴜᴄʜ ᴀꜱ ᴛʜᴇ ᴏɴᴇꜱ ᴡʜᴏ ᴀʀᴇ ᴍɪꜱꜱɪɴɢ.

I say this all the time but I’ll say it again NOTHING good comes from going camping! One Step Too Far is the gripping second book in the Frankie Elkin series. I was ecstatic when I found out Frankie was getting a sequel because after reading Before She Disappeared I was totally hooked on this everyday, stubborn, recovering alcoholic who is dedicated to finding missing people. In general I also love these light banter, whodunnit series because they could be read as standalones, very much like the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich.

Frankie takes the case of a young man who went missing on his bachelor party camping trip. Five years later and countless searches and there is still no sign of him. Frankie takes the case hoping to help the man’s dying mother get her final wish, to see her son laid to rest, but she might be in way over her head. Sure her cases have taken her all over the country to inner cities and small communities, but never to the vast and powerful wilderness. Danger doesn’t just lie in the journey through the mountains but what’s lurking inside. I was sweaty, tried, and hungry just reading Frankie hike up the mountains, not to mention being in the middle of nowhere with 7 total strangers. What could go wrong?

The eerie woods creates a heart pounding, terrifying setting and once things start to go wrong, people getting attacked, and food going missing, the tension and paranoia sets in. This is a character driven thriller which is great because people hold the most secrets. From the start this is a unpredictable and twisty read that I couldn’t put down until I knew whodunnit. It had a noble ending and teed up the next book so well. Can’t wait for Frankie to find a missing 8 year old.

Read if you like:
- Missing person
- Whodunit
- Character Driven Thriller
- Eerie woods setting
- Cute dog (working SAR dog which is soo cool!)

Lisa Gardner has done it again! Her second mystery featuring Frankie Elkin, a recovering alcoholic with a knack for finding missing people, is a propulsive and intense page turner. Five years ago, Timothy O’Day went on a bachelors’ weekend camping trip with his friends in the Wyoming wilderness and he never returned. Frankie who is determined to make finding the missing her life’s work, joins the search party which will hunt for his remains. What follows is a taught, tense and action packed thrill ride full of twists and turns that leaves one unable to put this book down. A varied and interesting group of characters, creepy and dangerous atmosphere, chilling isolation of survival in the wilderness and constant lurking danger result in a brilliant suspense thriller that will keep you riveted. Highly recommend.
Thanks to NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

One Step Too Far is the second book in Lisa Gardner’s Frankie Elkin series. You don’t have to read the first novel (Before She Disappeared) to follow this one, but it does contain spoliers for the previous book.

As wild bachelor parties go, it wasn’t much of one. Just some guys, some brews, some tents and a whole lot of the Wyoming wilderness. But sometime in the night, one of the groomsmen wanders off and groom-to-be Tim O’Day, the only experienced woodsman in the group, sets off to find him – and disappears himself. Search parties go out, the original missing man is found – but five years later Tim is still missing without a trace.

Frankie Elkin looks for missing people. When the search parties have stopped, when the police budget doesn’t allow for more man hours – that’s when Frankie steps in. She reads in the paper that Tim’s mother is dying, that her only wish is to be buried near her son, that his father Martin is launching one final search to bring his boy back, and Frankie makes a snap decision to join the recovery party to find Tim’s remains. She jumps on the next bus headed toward Ramsey, Wyoming. She doesn’t have much wilderness experience but she’s darn good at locating misplaced humans.

Frankie’s journey begins on an ominous note. Hitching a ride from the bus station to the diner where the search is being launched, she learns from the local giving her a lift that a lot of people go missing in those particular woods. Be careful, she is advised. Be wary. There is an unnamed danger stalking the area.

It isn’t long before Frankie can give first hand testimony to that fact. Once they head out, their party faces obstacle after obstacle until it is all too clear that theirs is an ill fated expedition. The question now isn’t whether or not they will find Tim’s remains. It is whether or not they themselves will become the subjects of a missing person search – and if so, will it be down to bad luck or is someone deliberately sabotaging the team?.

Ms. Gardner, as always, does a fabulous job with her pacing, moving us along so briskly in the story that it is an almost non-stop adrenaline ride. Moments where she gets bogged down by the difficulties of roughing it in the Wyoming mountains/woods can slow the story down on occasion but the action is so addictive the reader can power through those easily even if they, like me, aren’t that fond of survival in the wild-style details.

The secondary characters are brilliantly handled. Frankie is part of a search party of eight – three of the original bachelor party (Scott, Miguel and Neil), Martin, Luciana and her cadaver dog Daisy, Bob (a bigfoot hunter who is more at home in nature than the city) and guide Nemeth. Each has a unique, well-drawn personality and the author does a fabulous job of utilizing the situation they are in to show us who they are, help us see how they fit together and let that knowledge influence how we see the events unfolding. We are attached to them and worried for them as the unknown danger stalks them along their journey, but we are also suspicious of them, especially the three friends from the original camping trip. Is one of them the reason Tim didn’t come home? And if so, why?

Frankie is her usual irascible, tenacious self. She solves crimes by being methodical but also by a near magical gift of being able to tell when people are lying to her and manuvering them into a position where they want to tell her the truth. The setting of rough, dangerous terrain and forced intimacy due to being the only eight people for miles and miles plus the natural tensions in the group set Frankie up for some natural – and very enlightening – tête-à-têtes.

My only complaint with the story is the believability factor regarding the finale. I obviously can’t go into details about the ending but I could only think as I finished the book that it was completely unrealistic and unbelievable. Completely. I didn’t even have to take a moment to think about it – as I read it, I was thinking, “Nope.”

Fortunately, that’s just the last few pages. For the large bulk of the book One Step Too Far is a fascinating, engrossing, thrilling and chilling mystery that will keep you reading late into the wee hours. I recommend it to fans of the author as well as anyone who enjoys a good suspense story.

This book was even better than the first "Frankie Elkin" book!!!!!!! This one is filled with twists and turns that will make your head spin!!!!

Frankie Elkin learns of a man missing in a national forest. The search has been abandoned by law enforcement, but the man’s father continues and Frankie decides to offer her services. But when Frankie sees that a missing person isn’t all that’s wrong here, she realizes she’s up against something very dark.

This is the second book in the Frankie Elkin series but can definitely be read as a standalone. I loved Before She Disappeared but One Step Too Far was even better! If you’re looking for an intense and twisted thriller, you have to read this book. There were a few slow moments throughout the book but they never lasted too long before the next twist! I love hiking and the mountains so this setting really added to my enjoyment of the book. The ending was bittersweet but definitely has you looking forward to Frankie’s next case!

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and Dutton Books for my E-ARC!

One step too far is an exciting recent novel by a favourite author now.

Frankie Elkin has a gift at finding missing persons long after their cases went cold and they always turn to be more interesting than expected.

A man went missing in a national forest while camping with another three colleagues and since then his father hasn't stopped, searching each year because he wants to find the body so he can a peace of mind for everything that happened.

The hunt has lots of difficulties as there are characters that will be very helpful and interested in joining forces, but there are others that see everything as a time lost and are reluctant to help.

It's heartbreaking and thrilling, a story that will make you feel bad for each one of them, but it also brings closure and a great ending.

Very grateful to the publisher for my review copy through NetGalley

4.5/5 stars

One Step Too Far is the second book in the Frankie Elkin mystery/thriller series.

Lisa Gardner is one of my favorite authors. She is the queen of thriller series. And this one is great.

The narrator is Frankie (1st person POV). She is such an interesting heroine. She is a recovering alcoholic who solves cases of missing people. She is tough and so blunt. And I love how she talks to people!

The question many people will want to know is can this book be read as a standalone? The simple answer is yes. The mystery is self-contained in this book. However, some of the case from the first book is mentioned here. The author does try to fill new readers in on a lot of what they missed in book one. However, I personally would recommend reading this series in order. I absolutely loved Before She Disappeared. And you learn so much more about Frankie. I feel like you would be missing out on a lot of character development if you skip that book. And some parts re: a certain character won't have the same impact if you don't know the context.

I really enjoyed One Step Too Far. However it had a completely different feel to the first book. This book is set in Wyoming. And a lot of it is set in the woods, which is such a creepy backdrop for a book.

The story was interesting. However it wasn't until the last third that I was completely on the edge of my seat. The last chapters of this book were mesmerizing and brilliant. And I could not put it down. There was one small thing toward the end that disappointed me. But other than that this was another great book by a fantastic author!

Happy Pub Day! 🥳🎉

Fun fact- One Step Too Far is the 17th Lisa Gardner book I’ve read! 😍📚

I’m always game for a good mystery/thriller and Lisa Gardner is one of my go-to authors. Her stories have always grabbed my attention from the very beginning and the execution is consistent perfection down to every last detail of each crime scene.

One Step Too Far was no different. A bachelor party gone wrong in the dark woods of the national forest- (talk about chills 🥶) One Step Too Far is out TODAY!

Thank you to @duttonbooks (#partner) for my finished copy!

Thank you NetGalley for providing this book for an honest review. I do love ready books by Lisa Gardner. She is an amazing writer and I have enjoyed everything I have read by her. But I have to say that I absolutely love this series with Frankie Elkin. She is a quirky character that you can't help but love. This adventure of Frankie's takes a different turn with the search in the wilderness. I enjoyed the fact that Frankie was honest about her inexperience with camping and hiking. I enjoyed reading her take on the situation as well as the mystery involved. Each of the team is hiding something but who knows more about this rescue than they are letting on. I was intrigued until the very end and even surprised by the final twist. You will love this book!!

Lisa Gardner is a powerhouse and once again she delivers a strong mystery. I was glad to read another Frankie Elkin book after Before She Disappeared and this one did not disappoint. I really enjoyed the small town gossip & secrets that were peppered throughout this story. I do wish I had the lack of self-preservation of Frankie that allows her to help others. It also puts her in these dangerous situations so I’m probably better off on my couch. Stay out of the woods - best advice you’ll receive!

Holy cow! This book is phenomenal. I know you are probably thinking I am biased because I usually love Lisa Gardner’s books, but she has definitely done it again. If possible, she went up a notch. Or maybe it’s like a belt where you have to puncture a new hole on your own because there were no more notches left? It’s that good.

One Step Too Far follows Frankie Elkin on another trip as she looks for a missing man that disappeared in a national forest. I have to say, this is far off what Lisa Gardner typically writes about when it comes to setting. Only once before that I can remember did we end up in the wild on a hunt. Of course, this is the second time we are seeing Frankie Elkin, and her cases of missing people are bound to take her to some weird places.

With that said, I have to tell you how much I love Frankie Elkin. While she is closed off and tries to not build ties to any one place, she is very relatable to a lot of people and I feel like we got to see that side of her in this story. I also came to love a lot of the characters as well. Nemeth was that interesting, dad-type. He was in charge, but he would pay respect where respect was do. Bob was probably one of my favorites along side the human/dog duo. Who doesn’t like an adorable dog? All the characters had so many layers and Gardner did a fantastic job of letting us peel those back piece by piece. This slow build of characters and their backgrounds really added to the story. I was suspect of everyone from the beginning. Slowly I started weeding people out as I got to know them. But… I NEVER SAW THE ENDING COMING. Complete shocker.

This story is a jaw clenching, cover your face, one eye open type of suspense. So many times I was devouring the pages, but also trying to look away because I was scared of what was going to happen. Think jump scare but in book form. How does someone even do that? Well, the thriller writer Queen, Lisa Gardner, figured it out. I was on the edge of my seat. Constant suspense, even in the “quiet” moments of the story. I was constantly questioning and trying to figure out who was doing what. I could not put this book down. I’m usually good at figuring things out along the way, but I was even convinced everyone would die in the end because I had no idea how people were going to survive this. I contemplated ghostly involvement at one point. Gardner had me stumped.

So basically if you are a living, breathing human, you should read this book. It doesn’t matter if you don’t typically like suspense or thrillers. This book is SO good. I’m a big fan of Detective D.D. Warren from Gardner’s books, but Frankie Elkin has won my heart! I cannot wait for more Frankie. Here’s to hoping Lisa Gardner starts writing a few books a year to appease my thriller appetite! One Step Too Far is going on my favorites list. Possibly my favorite Gardner book of all time… so far.

I did not think it was possible to love a series more than the D. D. Warren series, but Lisa Gardner has truly proven me wrong. From the first book, I was absolutely hooked on the main character, Frankie.

The two books in this series could not possibly be more different. Book one takes place in an urban setting and book two takes place in the wilderness. Book one has cop vibes and book two has survival of the fittest vibes.

But the setting and vibes truly show that Frankie is capable of ANYTHING. Her addictive nature fuels her desire to find missing people and she doesn’t stop until she finds them - no matter what.

Frankie’s personality is what makes this series so great, but the stories behind the missing people are also excellent. The characters are all developed very well and the experience of this hiking trip will play out like a movie in your mind.

I HIGHLY recommend this series!!

Despite not reading the first book in the Frankie Elkin series, I didn't feel like I was out of the loop. (That being said, this can easily be read as a standalone if wanted.)

Frankie is a middle-aged recovering alcoholic who searches for missing people. In this novel, she's searching for a young man, Tim, who previously disappeared in a national forest in Wyoming. (Tim and his friends were having a bachelor party/camping trip in the woods when he disappeared after looking for another member in the party who was found.) Tim's father never gave up on finding him and Frankie joins his father, the rest of the groomsmen, and other local searchers to try and find Tim years after he disappeared.

The first part of the book was kind of slow but it definitely picked up the pace during the second half when Frankie begins to discover some troubling things. Will all the searchers make it out of the woods alive? Where is Tim? There were so many questions I had throughout the book and am glad that they were answered (although a little more detail would have made me happier).

All in all, I think this is a good book that doesn't necessarily have to be read in a series.

3.5 stars!
Frankie is back on the hunt for missing persons when she decides to take on the case of Tim. Time went missing on his bachelor party out in the wilderness years ago when they were camping. His father has never given up on finding him and every year, Tim’s dad and his groomsmen reunite to hike into the forest and search for his remains. Frankie tags along, totally unaware of what she is getting herself into.

I was disappointed in this sequel. I loved the first of this series, but found this installment to be repetitive. There was a lot of info about Frankie’s past which we know already, and the same details are repeated multiple times. I found the first 50% to be very slow, but I loved the second half as the amount of tension just skyrocketed as Frankie made some discoveries. There was a lot of focus on surviving in the wilderness which just doesn’t tickle my fancy. The final twist was great and I did not see it coming.

Loved reading another Frankie Elkin book! In this one, she is helping a father find his son who went missing a few years ago during a camping trip with friends. She, the father, the young man's few friends and some community members make the hike today to find the young man (or his body). I really enjoyed the array of characters in this novel. I found that it helped bring the story to life as all the characters were well developed. Like the first Frankie Elkin novel, this one is face-paced and will keep you guessing until the end.

One Step Too Far by Lisa Gardner
I give this book 4.25 stars

A young man disappears during a stag weekend in the woods. Years later his family & friends are still searching for him.
They hike deep into the wilderness,with them is missing person specialist Frankie Elkin.
What they don't know is that they are putting their own lives in terrifying danger, and may not come back alive . . .

This is book 2 but can be read as a standalone.
Frankie is a character l have taken to my heart,she is a recovering alcoholic and has suffered a lot in her past,she lives out of a suitcase and is complex,flawed,determined and strong.
The author does a great job of creating a tense,scary and dangerous atmosphere out in the wilds, lt was so lifelike l felt like l was hiking along with them.Combine this with a varied and interesting group of characters who end up fighting for survival and you have a breathtaking read full of suspicion and twists.Who is sabotaging the mission,……..who is hiding secrets?
(I won’t be going hiking/camping anytime in the future after reading this)

3.5 rounded up

Thanks for the ARC @netgalley! This atmospheric thriller was quite the page turner. NetGalley didn’t mention this was the second in the Frankie Ellis series when I requested it. It can be read as a stand alone as I did, but I look forward to reading the first book for some background on Frankie and some depth to a few things mentioned throughout the book.

Frankie is a drifter who is obsessed with solving cold cases and bringing closure to the loved ones of the kissing. Tim went missing five years ago on a bachelor party backcountry camping trip in Wyoming. Tim’s friends and father want to know what happened and find his body and Frankie is just the woman to help them. The group ranges from expert hikers to complete beginners on this difficult trek and the group is quickly in over their heads.

This is my first thriller by Gardner (I know I know!) and I really enjoyed her writing style. She so vividly captures the rough and beautiful terrain of Wyoming. She also writes such a flawed and realistic people, I really cared about and connected with this whole group of searchers.

The only reason this lost some stars for me was because once the reader got answers towards the end of the book, things were wrapped up really quickly. I definitely wanted a little more explanation to tie some loose ends up. But I can’t wait to read the rest of this series!

⚠️Trigger Warning: Missing Person, Violence, Alcoholism, Cancer, Abortion, Blood, Death

✨Themes: Survival

I loooved Before She Disappeared, Lisa Gardner’s first novel led by Frankie Elkin, the amateur searcher for missing people. That one was set in Boston, in an underserved Haitian community. The author created a whole raft of great characters and I was looking forward to spending more time with them, but, in an audacious move (and maybe a little bit like Jack Reacher), Frankie has not only left Boston, her newest case is in the wilderness of Wyoming. But rest assured, there’s a whole new raft of intriguing and well-developed characters and a thrilling and tense mystery for Frankie to solve.

Five years ago, Tim O’Day disappeared into the Popo Agi Wilderness after his bachelor party camping trip broke up in disarray. There have been multiple searches since, but now as Tim’s mother lies dying of cancer, there is one last push. A search party is set up, a mix of outdoor professionals, the remains of the bachelor party, and by a twist, Frankie whose only experience of camping is an aborted backyard one with her alcoholic father.

Once out in big nature, it gradually becomes apparent that a) pretty much everybody is hiding something and b) somebody is unhappy about the search party’s presence. The tension ratchets way up when the party arrives in Devil’s Canyon and it becomes violently clear that somebody does not want them there.

I was gripped the whole way through but I did feel a little let down by the tidiness of the resolution, which the more I thought about it didn’t quite add up. There’s been a few 3am “but why did x person do that?” and “why didn’t x person do that?” sessions while I threshed through the plot.

Nonetheless I hugely enjoyed my time with Frankie and co and look forward to her next adventure.

Thanks to Dutton and Netgalley for the digital review copy.

Absolutely incredible book from Lisa Gardner with a bit of a different feel since it all takes place outdoors. I wasn’t sure what to expect but I’ve heard Gardner talk about hiking several times and it’s absolutely clear that she knows her stuff, and I loved it all from the characters to the descriptions, the hiking and wilderness knowledge, down to figuring out how far a parent would go to recover their child and the character development for Frankie.

Publisher description: “From #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Gardner, a thrilling new novel that sends missing persons expert Frankie Elkin into a national forest in Wyoming looking for a young man who disappeared without a trace. But when the search team encounters immediate threats to their survival, Frankie realizes she’s up against something very dark—and she’s running out of time.”

Look, there will never be a day that I don’t jump at the chance to read a Gardner book. She is an absolute masterful storyteller and thriller writer, and I’m already looking forward to the next one.

This is a five star must read novel, and thriller lovers are going to gobble this up.

**Many, many thanks to NetGalley and Dutton publishing for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. My opinions, though gushing, are my own.**