Book Review: One Step Too Far- Lisa Gardner
and my personal hiking experience from a few weeks ago.
Frankie Elkin is a seeker of lost people. She is not a trained cop or an investigator. She is a recovering alcoholic who joins search parties across the country and helps people find their loved ones. This is the second book in the Frankie Elkin series written by Lisa Gardner.
'‘My name is Frankie Elkin and finding missing people is what I do. When the police have given up, when the public no longer remembers, when the media has never bothered to care, I start looking. For no money, no recognition, and most of the time, with no help…Why do I do what I do? Because at the end of the day, the people left behind matter as much as the ones who are missing.”
Five years ago, Tim, a seasoned hiker, decided to hike with his friends in the national forest in Wyoming. He goes missing during the trip. Every year since then, his father and his friends have gone on an annual search party to find him or his remains. Tim’s mother is dying, and his father hopes that she will get closure once they find Tim’s remains.
“We can walk his last steps. We can retrieve his bones to be laid to rest next to his mother’s. But we’ll still never know everything that happened to Tim. Sooner or later, his father and his friends will have to come to terms with that. That the quality of their future sleep won’t be determined by a visit to his grave, but by their ability to let go.”
Frankie, who has stumbled upon this story in a newsletter, decides to join them this year. This year, the search group also include a hiking expert who is familiar with the area, a Big Foot hunter and a cadaver dog and its handler. As the search progresses, Frankie realises there is more to this story than she initially thought. As the group hikes through the incredibly hard terrain, strange incidents start occurring, and she begins to wonder if she will return alive.
This was an edge-of-the-seat thriller and as the book progressed, I could feel my heart pounding. At first, we are introduced to a disparate group of people we know nothing about, and the author does a phenomenal job of developing these characters through the story. I felt a connection with each of the characters by the end. The setting is the national forest and mountains in Wyoming. The dangers lurking around the forest, the sudden and unpredictable weather change, and the hard terrain the group must traverse to find Tim- Gardner has described it all in vivid detail. Frankie, like most of the group, is an amateur hiker and you feel her pain as she goes through each section of the tough trail.
I downloaded this book on my kindle, for my long train journey, as I was heading for a hiking trip a few weeks ago. I am an amateur hiker, and after reading the first few pages, I wisely decided to read it on my return trip as my fertile imagination didn’t need more fodder on the dangers of hiking in the wilderness.
At the entrance of the Tatra National Park in Poland, there is signage warning about bears in the area. One of the warnings read “Never approach a bear if you see one” and another one read “Do not panic, bears do not hunt for people, just walk away calmly”. The person who wrote that either hasn’t come across a bear or hasn’t met chickens like me. I wanted to turn around and walk away calmly right then. That’s the kind of hiker I am. However, against my better judgement, I went into the national park. After a few miles of thinking up various scenarios in my head where a bear pounced at me from behind a tree or somersaulted or kung fu panda-ed its way to me, my brain was worn out. It was a tiring but wonderful experience. The hike I mean. No bear dared to cross my path.
However, if I had read this book before I went on the hike, bears would be the least of my concerns.
I thoroughly enjoyed this gripping read and cannot recommend it enough.
Have you read this book? Let me know in the comments if you have.
-Anju