She Treads Softly: Long Way Down

Sunday, October 5, 2025

Long Way Down

Long Way Down by Lisa Kusel
10/21/25; 320 pages
Crooked Lane Books

Long Way Down by Lisa Kusel is a highly recommended mystery/domestic drama and light procedural.

Deni Rydell is engaged to Cal Cooper Jr., who works for the family mining business. The family is having a dinner to welcome Cal's brother Grant back home after a stint in rehab and he has brought his girlfriend Erika with him. When their contentious, controlling parents pass away Cal and Grant will be heirs to a massive California mining fortune. In what was supposed to be a short trip, Cal and his parents perish in a small plane crash, leaving Deni devastated and Grant the only surviving heir, along with Erika who immediately takes advantage of his new found wealth.

Detective Robyn Torres is investigating a murder that appears to be drug related. What she initially thought would be a straight forward case soon becomes much more complicated. Torres uncovers clues, lies, and secrets that seem connected to the Cooper family. Deni is also uncovering some disturbing secrets Cal kept from her.

This is a well-written, even paced drama with short chapters that keep the new information and discoveries coming. There isn't a lot of tension or suspense in the first half of the novel but this does pick up toward the end with additional discoveries. The plot and subsequent twists are mostly rather predictable. Even so, it held my attention throughout, if only to see if I was correct in the direction things were going to take, and the short chapters helped by keeping things moving along.

The characters are a mixed bag of complex relationships. Deni's relationship with Cal never felt completely realistic and it unravels as she uncovers secrets he was keeping. Grant is a sympathetic character and Erika is clearly trouble right from the start. Parents, Calvin Sr. and Jeannette (Jean) are depicted as narcissistic, self-involved, and pretentious. They are immediately dislikable. Robyn Torres is an interesting character and the investigation clearly challenges her abilities to the max.

Long Way Down is a good choice for those who like mysteries/domestic dramas that involved complex relationships. Thanks to Crooked Lane Books for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

No comments:

Post a Comment

John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.