One Step Too Far

Lisa Gardner's novel opens with backstory. Five years before the present action, five college friends went on a bachelor party camping trip in the remote Popo Agie Wilderness near Ramsey, Wyoming, to celebrate the upcoming wedding of Timothy O'Day, the future groom and most experienced outdoorsman of the group. After a night of heavy drinking, the men were roused by shrill screams and discovered that Scott had vanished from his tent. Tim set out alone before dawn to get help and was never seen again. Scott turned up hours later, disoriented and unharmed. A massive search led by Nemeth, a local guide and former district ranger, yielded nothing. Tim's father, Martin O'Day, a carpenter and seasoned outdoorsman, has continued searching every summer since. His wife, Patrice, a cancer survivor whose illness has returned, wants to be buried next to her son.

Frankie Elkin, the novel's first-person narrator, is a middle-aged woman recovering from alcohol addiction who has spent the past decade finding missing persons in cases the authorities have abandoned. She has no professional training and supports herself through part-time bartending. While riding a bus to a different case, she reads about Martin's planned final expedition and impulsively redirects to Ramsey, hitching a ride with Lisa Rowell, a local rancher who warns that at least five other people have vanished in these mountains over twenty years.

At Marge Santi's diner, Frankie finds the search party: Martin; Nemeth; Bob, a red-bearded man from the North American Bigfoot Society whom Frankie recognizes from missing persons forums; Luciana Rojas, a volunteer cadaver-dog handler, and her yellow Lab mix, Daisy; and Tim's four college friends, Scott, Neil, Miggy (Miguel), and Josh. When Josh collapses from severe alcohol withdrawal, Frankie takes his spot on the eight-person wilderness permit. Nemeth reluctantly agrees but doubts her qualifications. Luciana teaches Frankie survival basics, and Frankie borrows Josh's gear, which includes a serrated tactical knife.

The party hikes into Devil's Canyon the next morning. The group fractures along natural fault lines: Nemeth and Martin lead, the college friends form a silent cluster, and Frankie trails behind with Bob as sweeper. Martin shares memories of Tim, and Miggy erupts, accusing Martin of torturing them with yearly searches. Eerie screams echo through the canyon; Nemeth dismisses them as animal sounds, but Frankie catches a tense exchange among the leaders.

They establish base camp beside a vast lake. Martin outlines five days of systematic searching, beginning with caves at the far side of the canyon. That night, Frankie is jolted awake by screaming and finds Scott outside camp, bloodied and babbling that he saw Tim at the edge of the woods. Scott has deep gouges across his chest but no memory of how he got them. Bob discovers that two of three scentproof food bags have been shredded. No animal tracks surround the scene, and the suspension rope is intact, suggesting human tampering.

Over the following days, the expedition unravels. The party discovers a makeshift lean-to whose precision-cut branches convince Martin it was built by his engineer son. At a massive cliff face, Frankie spots something dark green on a high ledge, possibly Tim's windbreaker. Before she can investigate, Neil is found collapsed among boulders with a gash on the back of his skull, insisting he was struck from behind. A thunderstorm forces a retreat; the group hauls Neil out on a travois, a drag stretcher fashioned from branches and a tarp.

That night, the college friends confess their long-held lie. Tim had used the bachelor party to deliver drunken apologies for years of selfish behavior, including stealing Miggy's job interview, pursuing the woman Neil was dating, and secretly getting Josh's younger sister pregnant. Josh attacked Tim, and all four declared the friendship over. Tim grabbed his pack and stormed off into the woods drunk and beaten, not sober and purposeful as they told searchers. Their lie critically misled the original search. Bob then reveals Martin hired him as a private investigator after receiving threatening emails, a break-in, and sabotage to his car, all designed to prevent this expedition.

Luciana, Nemeth, and Daisy hike out to summon help. Frankie stays and follows Martin and Bob back to the cliff face. Martin confesses that Patrice is actively dying and that he left her bedside to fulfill her wish to bring Tim home. Near the cliff, Frankie discovers a concealed chamber behind a fake stone door made of painted Styrofoam. Inside, she finds eight mummified human remains stripped of clothing, with gunshot wounds and slit throats. The canyon has served as a serial killer's hunting ground for years.

A sniper opens fire from a distant bluff, hitting Martin in the shoulder. Martin bolts from cover waving his orange bandana, deliberately drawing fire so Bob and Frankie can escape. He is hit multiple times but keeps running. At base camp, they find someone has planted the stolen food around the site to attract bears, attempting to stage their deaths as an accident.

With no rescue arriving and a killer closing in, the group abandons camp. The next morning, Frankie finds Daisy's torn, bloodied vest on a log, evidence that those who hiked out were ambushed. She proposes using the vest as bait. The plan fails: The hunter, in full military camouflage, opens fire. Bob charges with bear spray and is shot dead; his final words are to tell his husband, Rob, that he loves him. Scott is also hit. Miggy wounds the hunter with a handgun, forcing a retreat. Frankie and Miggy hide the injured and flee downhill.

Cornered at a ravine, they face the hunter one last time. Martin, impossibly still alive despite his wounds, bursts from the woods. He tackles the hunter and drives them both over the edge, sacrificing his life. Frankie and Miggy huddle by a tiny fire as hypothermia sets in. Miggy offers Frankie a flask of bourbon, but she honors her sobriety and passes it back. They lose consciousness and are found by Daisy and Luciana, who survived: Luciana had been tied to a tree but freed herself using her paracord bracelet's built-in razor edge, reached civilization, and notified Sheriff Jim Kelley. A rescue helicopter brings them to the hospital.

Frankie pieces together the killers' identities. In Nemeth's pack, she finds synthetic cadaver scent, a substance whose only purpose would be to confuse Daisy's tracking. She deduces Nemeth was complicit in hiding the bodies, with his longtime romantic partner, Marge Santi, as his accomplice. Researching local archives, Frankie discovers that the first person to vanish in the area was Marge's sister, Jessica, nearly twenty years ago. Confronted, Marge confesses: She killed her sister, called Nemeth for help, and the two became lovers bonded by the secret, continuing to kill hikers who ventured too close to their burial chamber. Tim was among their victims. Sheriff Kelley arrests Marge; Nemeth later dies in the hospital.

During two weeks of recovery, Frankie watches her companions heal. Neil proposes to his girlfriend, Anna. Miguel is discharged. Scott stabilizes and is reunited with his wife, Latisha, who was Tim's fiancée before his disappearance. Josh begins his path toward sobriety. Police raid Marge's cabin and recover the victims' belongings, including Tim's handwritten letter of love and apology to his friends, ending with his plan to climb out of the canyon. Frankie delivers Bob's remains and final message to Rob. She and Luciana video-call Patrice, who receives the news with bittersweet peace, saying Martin kept his promise.

Her companions present Frankie with five thousand dollars and a paracord bracelet in gratitude. In the middle of the night, she slips out without waking Luciana. She reflects on what she is truly searching for, acknowledging she is not yet the person capable of staying and building connections, but resolving to keep moving forward. She sets out alone to find Eugene Santiago, the missing eight-year-old boy, affirming her purpose.