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A Novel
by Gin Phillips
Book Reviewed by:A tense, claustrophobic historical mystery set almost entirely underground at the onset of the Great Depression about the discovery of a 150-foot waterfall in the middle of a mountain, the unthinkable crime that happens in its caves, and a woman who's never felt more alive.
In 1928, a Chattanooga man disappears down a hole in the ground and discovers a 150-foot waterfall in the middle of a mountain that he names after his wife: Ruby Falls. Within months, visitors can buy tickets to see the falls for themselves. Ada Smith has been sneaking into the caves at night, entranced by the natural wonders around her and the freedom granted by this new underground world.
But it's tough timing for a natural wonder. As the country flounders in the Great Depression, a shrewd public relations ploy seems like the only way to save Ruby Falls. A famous mind reader and mystic agrees to launch himself into the Ruby Falls caverns where he will attempt to locate a hidden hatpin using only his psychic abilities. He'll be joined by five others: his manager, his wife, a guide, a Chattanooga businessman, and a reporter from the Chicago Times. But they're not alone in the caverns. Ada and another guide, Quinton, have been asked to follow the mind reader's party at a distance, staying out of sight. They are a safety net, in case of a broken leg or busted flashlights.
One of them will be dead before the end of the day.
Faced with a corpse and the stark reality that one of the people in her midst is a killer, Ada needs to get everyone—the murderer and the innocents—back aboveground before their light runs out.
Ruby Falls is both a unique twist on the locked-room mystery and an exploration of loss and what it means to start over. It's a heart-racing story of survival and a testament to the threads that bind strangers together. Set against the true story of the discovery of Ruby Falls, the novel also draws on the memoirs of Katie Stabler, a female guide at Wind Caves in South Dakota.
Excerpt
Ruby Falls
She's at least a mile from the authorized passages: she's ventured deeper ever since she realized that the staff at the castle cleans up for an hour after the dancing stops. Since no one cleans near the elevator, no one has noticed a woman hurrying back to the parking lot in the middle of the night. She has other time constraints, though: this cartridge of carbide will run out in less than two hours. The two flashlights in her pockets are less predictable: the batteries could last several hours or they might sputter out after a few minutes.
Her sleeve rips, and her elbow stings. She suspects she's bleeding, but she doesn't stop to check. If she bleeds on this rock, will the blood ever come out? In a thousand years, will it still be here?
She sees a widening ahead and lunges forward into a small chamber. A strong draft is coming from an opening in the floor, and she angles her light to get a view of the uneven ground below. She lets herself down slowly through the hole,...
Leo Lambert has discovered a waterfall, secreted away deep within a mountain cave. Leo calls it Ruby Falls after his wife, and turns it into a tourist attraction. In less than two years, it's drawing in visitors from across the country, and while Ada Smith, Ruby's best friend, appreciates the beauty of the falls, she prefers to explore the surrounding, unmapped caverns, reveling in the beauty of this world hidden beneath the ground. When the Great Depression strikes a few years later, Leo comes up with a unique publicity stunt to increase attendance: Professor Jeremiah Hagathorn, a self-proclaimed mind reader, will travel with a small group into the caves to find a hidden hatpin. Although Ruby Falls is billed as a historical murder mystery, the murder doesn't happen until more than halfway through the book. The pacing up to that point is slow, letting readers get to know the characters and the caves and building tension that is almost unbearable. After the murder, Ada and her partner Quinton, who have been quietly traveling behind the main group as the emergency rescue team, step in to lead everyone out of the caverns. The tension within the group is still there, but it's morphed. Now, they know they're traveling with a murderer, leading to pointed fingers, wild accusations, and a general sense of panic, especially as the headlamps begin to flicker out...continued
Full Review
(1052 words)
(Reviewed by Jordan Lynch).
J.T. Ellison, New York Times bestselling author of Last Seen
Clever, compelling, and utterly claustrophobic ... Ruby Falls is perfect for fans of Agatha Christie who are looking for a fresh take on the locked room mystery. Joshilyn Jackson, New York Times and USA Today bestselling novelist
Ada Smith—ethical, conflicted, bold—anchors a cast of layered characters whose agendas can only be brought to light in the black depths underground. As an intense and thrilling page-turner, Ruby Falls delivers, but it is Phillips's clear-eyed empathy for the frail, flawed humans trapped together in the dark that will make me put this on my keeper shelf and return to it again and again. This is Gin Phillips at her best, and I loved every word of it.
Gin Phillips's novel Ruby Falls is named after the famous underground waterfall in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The tallest (145 feet) and deepest (1,120 feet) underground waterfall open to the public in the United States is named after the wife of its discoverer, Leo Lambert, who turned it into a tourist attraction. In the novel, Leo's wife's best friend Ada falls in love with the beauty of the world underground. Despite Ada and the murder mystery in the book being fictional inventions, the history of Ruby Falls as told by Phillips is true. But there is so much more to this unique story that occurs beyond the timeframe in which Ruby Falls is set.
Ruby Falls Cave is part of Lookout Mountain, a mountain ridge that makes up part of the southern...
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