It has been five years since Andrew Gross has seen fit to add to his Ty Hauck canon. Last seen in 2010’s RECKLESS, Ty seemed to have been consigned to that “gone but not forgotten” limbo to which all too many popular fiction characters (and series) find themselves consigned. Therefore, ONE MILE UNDER is a very welcome surprise, reintroducing Ty while pitting him against his most powerful and dangerous adversary to date.

Gross takes his time bringing Ty into ONE MILE UNDER. The book opens in a setting that is more rural and rustic than his usual literary backdrop. Dani Whalen is a whitewater guide for a company just outside of Aspen, Colorado. While she could be making much more money elsewhere, there is something about this job that sings to her soul. The scenery, the way that each trip is the same yet a bit different, and the personalities of the folks who charter her excursions make it all worthwhile. She gets a horrible shock, though, when, during the middle of an otherwise uneventful trip down the rapids, she and her passengers come upon a dead body.

"While all of Gross’ trademark strengths --- short chapters, interesting locales, painstaking attention to detail --- are on full display in ONE MILE UNDER, it is his ongoing willingness to attempt new things while tinkering with tried-and-true formulas that makes the book much more than your average thriller."

Trey Watkins is the unfortunate victim. He has been a close friend of Dani in the past, and while he is known to be a bit of a hot dog, he is also demonstrably a very smart one, having only recently created a wildly successful method of custom mounting action cameras on ski helmets. In any event, Trey had settled down considerably after marrying and raising a family, so engaging in reckless activity that would lead to his death seems out of character for the “new” Trey.

Wade Dunn, the local police chief, is nonetheless ready to quickly write off Trey’s death as an accidental misadventure. Dani is not an investigator, but even a cursory examination of the scene and Trey’s body makes it clear that he did not die accidentally. Interestingly enough, a local, somewhat unreliable witness has stated publicly that Trey was not alone when he died. Ron “Rooster” Kessler has made a career of climbing on and falling off the wagon and is not highly regarded in the area, but his knowledge of the specifics of the death scene give his words at least an echo of truth for Dani. However, when Rooster dies horrifically as well, Dani is convinced that both deaths are related. Wade dismisses Rooster’s death as an accident as well, and warns Dani off of any do-it-yourself investigation. Dani’s relationship with Wade is a prickly one --- he was her stepfather --- so she is in somewhat of a precarious position in any event. Accordingly, Dani...

Well, hold on. I did say this was a Ty Hauck novel. I also mentioned that it took a minute or two for Ty to come on the scene. Indeed, he makes his re-introductory appearance about a fifth of the way through the book. Ty, who has been quietly resting and recuperating after a particularly hazardous case, is brought back into the world when a friend calls in a marker and asks him to help Dani. He drops everything and heads to Aspen, where he and Dani renew old acquaintances and begin investigating Trey’s death. At first it seems to be a 50/50 proposition, not only because of a lack of hard evidence that Trey was actually murdered, but also because of a lack of “why.” Trey was truly one of those people who didn’t have any enemies. At least that seemed to be the case, anyway.

However, as Ty and Dani persist, they discover that they have rattled the bars on a particularly large cage that houses a powerful and dangerous enemy who is very single-minded and goal-driven in accomplishing what he needs to do. Ty, somewhat the worse for wear and not at peak condition, may have met his match. Or not. Getting to the end of the book and finding out makes the discovery worthwhile.

While all of Gross’ trademark strengths --- short chapters, interesting locales, painstaking attention to detail --- are on full display in ONE MILE UNDER, it is his ongoing willingness to attempt new things while tinkering with tried-and-true formulas that makes the book much more than your average thriller. And if the conclusion is any indication, we can look forward to more from Ty Hauck in the future. Let’s just hope that we don’t have to wait another five years for the experience.