Into the Fall by Tamara L. Miller

Hey, it’s Diego.

Just about finished reading Into the Fall by Tamara L. Miller.

And this one left me scratching my head.

Let me give you my spoiler-free, unbiased review.

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Into the Fall by Tamara L. Miller – Review

Sarah’s family goes on a camping trip to the Canadian wilderness, and overnight, her husband disappears. Sarah and her two children, 8 and 5, barely make it back to civilization, where they start piecing together what happened to Matthew and how his past may play a role in his disappearance.

This book is a psychological thriller spanning multiple locations.

This is the debut book from Tamara L. Miller, and as such, the writing is subpar and full of issues. Similies are used to the extreme, taking the reader out of the experience (e.g. her vomit spilled out like bad milk from a carton), the points of view of characters shift inside the same chapters seemingly at random, the dialogue is clunky and riddled with clichés, and there seems to be an omnipresent voice that comes up from time to time to spoil what is to come (e.g. once she left the room, she missed how sad Matthew was.) However, the worst offender is how action and feelings are summarized most of the time, leaving very little for the reader to feel and experience with the characters. As such, it was hard to connect with Sarah at times.

We follow three points of view characters with flashback chapters intertwined, although most of the story is from Sarah’s point of view.

Despite the poor writing and the disconnect with the characters, I found myself enjoying the plot and wanted to find out what happened to Matthew. The plot revolves about discovering information and clues as we find out about Matthew’s and Sarah’s past and how that informs the present, which I’m a sucker for.

Sarah is a proactive character, which makes for an entertaining read. It also helped that the story picks up from the disappearance of Matthew, which meant the story moved quickly.

There is some romance as we explore the start of Sarah’s and Matthew’s relationship, but it’s quickly eclipsed by the bigger mystery. As such, there are no explicit scenes. There are no scenes of graphical violence, and it’s void of swearing and other harsh language. Unfortunately, there are also very few thrills.

So, what about the ending? (No spoilers obviously)

Although the ending wraps up the mystery, the resolution lacked the payoff I was hoping for. We then get a long denouement, maybe the longest I’ve read this year, where we learn about what happens to each of the characters.

If you are willing to get past the issues with the writing, Into the Fall is a great popcorn thriller that will keep you distracted for a couple of days.

Similar Books to Into the Fall?

• The Killing Plains by Sherry Rankin

• Gravewater Lake by A. M. Strong

Check This Out

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That’s all for this week.

See you next time.

— Diego Dunne

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