Mysteries can be understood as narratives of the external. The protagonist is seen as they try to discover what is going on around them. As Little Falls by Elizabeth Lewes begins, Camille Waresch is certainly enmeshed just such a problem. A veteran of our two most recent wars, she’s now a county tax inspector in bucolic Little Falls, Washington, when she’s the discovers the body of a young man rotting in an isolated building. It looks like suicide, but Camille has seen enough to know he was tortured before he died. When her fifteen year-old daughter Sophie tells Camille the victim was her boyfriend, Camille begins to follow a trail that reaches into her past and casts shadows into her future.
Even as she is immersed in ever-complicating events that threaten her and those around her, it quickly becomes clear that Camille is a mystery both to herself and the reader. There’s a lot to unpack in Little Falls, and it’s a compelling, crispy, complicated good time doing so. Lewes doesn’t waste words and she’s an expert at involving us in Camille’s first person perspective. As a female veteran herself, Lewes is able to invest Camille with an authentic and gritty voice. The goings-on around her are both low-key and authentically awful, excellent stepping stones for her journey of self-understanding. The storytelling is tight, a tense plot mixing crime and vengeance. Lewes knows well how to keep the pages turning at a brisk pace, while making sure the action is invested in emotions.
Little Falls is exactly the sort of quiet-but-gripping mystery that readers love to discover. Everything plays out with the ring of truth, most notably the mysteries of Camille herself. It’s a fully satisfying reading experience, and, one hopes, the first of many to follow. Camille is not a puzzle you solve the first time. She’s an enigma you hope is brought to bear on questions you’ve yet to ask with answers you’d prefer to hear in her own words.
Elizabeth Lewes is every bit as interesting as her character. You can download our conversation, or listen now, before this document disappears.
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