(Reviewed by Don Jung)
This debut novel by Elizabeth Lewes combines the present with the past in a chill-binding story. The descriptions are vivid and paint a picture of rural country living where everyone almost knows everyone else. The author contrasts the military life with the down-home country living and how it’s a struggle to adjust.
Camille Weresh leaves her military medic tour of duty in Afghanistan to come back to Eastern Washington after her parents die. She inherits a mini-mart with an apartment above it to live in and gets a job in the Country Assessor’s office. She also comes home to reunite with her estranged fifteen-year-old daughter, Sophie.
While performing a routine property inspection, Camille is shocked to discover a dead body that was tortured and hanged. Then her post-traumatic stress disorder sets in. She seems to almost lose her reality as her past haunts her everyday moves. I felt sorry for her struggles, yet I could see how she needed to open up to her friends, but she is reluctant to do so.
After reporting the death to the sheriff and the coroner’s office, she later discovers that the dead nineteen-year-old was Sophie’s boyfriend. She has an exceedingly difficult time talking to her daughter and realizes there is so much she does not know about her. She reports to the local law enforcement officers and starts to find bits and pieces of evidence on the case that go back to her days in Iraq and Afghanistan.
What makes the story so interesting is how the main character can weave in and out of each situation, like a jigsaw puzzle with a lot of missing pieces. As she gets closer to an answer, it’s like all of a sudden, all the evidence fits into one conclusion.
Little Falls is intense; it’s a little bizarre but it has you hastily reading the pages trying to see where it will go. You feel the tension build up to a surprise ending and it leaves you wanting to know more. Maybe a sequel, who knows, but you will find this murder mystery thriller is worth your time.
