LITTLE FALLS has a sense of urgency and a frenetic pace which will pull readers in from the beginning. A brutal crime occurs in a small town sending shock waves through the community. Sergeant Camille Waresch, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, is back home working as a property tax inspector when she comes across the corpse of the local teenage boy in a barn. The boy’s body shows signs of torture and Camille notices some eerie similarities in the torture methods. The methods are something she’s seen before when she was deployed. Furthermore, Camille’s fifteen-year-old daughter Sophie was dating the boy and won’t give her mother any details on his life. Sophie’s abandonment issues with her mother leads Sophie to defy and hide things from Camille. The more Camille tries to gain answers, the more Sophie pulls away.
As Camille starts investigating the similarities in the crimes, she delves into a dark underbelly of her town. Her truck is blown up, her business is broken into, and the deceased‘s brother and Camille’s half-brother are both acting suspiciously. As Camille gets closer to the truth, she puts Sophie’s life in more danger. Can she save her child and find justice for the dead teenager and his family?
This debut novel starts off strong and takes you on a suspenseful ride until the high stakes ending. Camille is a tortured character dealing with PTSD and a teenage daughter with a wild streak. She’s a single mother who missed most of her daughter’s childhood and is now trying to establish boundaries. Lewes does a good job of communicating Camille’s frantic pace, her racing mindset, and her inability to trust herself. Camille lacks emotional connection, but she has strong protective instincts and she steadfastly believes in justice.
I enjoyed Camille as a character and liked her physical strength and tenacity. Sophie was a little harder to digest as a fifteen-year-old immersed in a dark world with adults taking advantage of her. There were some parts of the novel I found confusing or disjointed as Camille’s racing mind intermingled events. Also, Camille’s inability to get a straight answer from anyone was a little frustrating. Overall, the characters are well-drawn and the plot is engaging. LITTLE FALLS does deliver on the entertainment and high stakes drama. A good debut with an ending that leaves it open for a sequel.
Sergeant Camille Waresch did everything she could to forget Iraq. She went home to Eastern Washington and got a quiet job. She connected with her daughter, Sophie, whom she had left as a baby. She got sober. But the ghosts of her past were never far behind.
While conducting a routine property tax inspection on an isolated ranch, Camille discovers a teenager's tortured corpse hanging in a dilapidated outbuilding. In a flash, her combat-related PTSD resurges--and in her dreams, the hanging boy merges with a young soldier whose eerily similar death still haunts her. The case hits home when Sophie reveals that the victim was her ex-boyfriend--and as Camille investigates, she uncovers a tangled trail that leads to his jealous younger brother and her own daughter, wild, defiant, and ensnared.
The closer Camille gets to the truth, the closer she is driven to the edge. Her home is broken into. Her truck is blown up. Evidence and witnesses she remembers clearly are erased. And when Sophie disappears, Camille's hunt for justice becomes a hunt for her child. At a remote compound where the terrifying truth is finally revealed, Camille has one last chance to save her daughter--and redeem her own shattered soul.
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