Grave Descend

A short, blitz of a thriller. There's nothing particularly new or unique about this book, and I suspect that was true when it was published back in 1970. But no one picks up a pulp thriller—which is essentially what this is—for the innovation. When you do find innovation in a pulp novel, it's a welcome surprise, and often a game-changer for the genre (looking at you, Jim Thompson). When there's nothing that's genre-shifting, the best you can hope for is to be entertained by some pure escapist fiction. And that's exactly what what the book is, and I enjoyed it because of that.