Hard Case Crime just added several early Michael Crichton novels to its canon, written between 1966 and 172 when Crichton was attending Harvard Medical School and moonlighting with these thrillers written under the pseudonym John Lange. And here’s a list of those titles:
Odds On (1966)
Scratch One (1967)
Easy Go (1968)
Zero Cool (1969)
The Venom Business (1970)
Drug of Choice (1970)
Grave Descend (1970
Binary (1972)
Zero Cool and Grave Descend are both re-issues for Hard Case Crime, while the other six titles are new to this publisher. Crichton was re-editing the Lange titles and preparing them for Hard Case Crime at the time of his death in 2008.
At 166 pages, Grave Descend is a slim thriller, a quick read that demands little from the reader and with very little down time. The story’s central figure is 39-year-old diver James McGregor who’s hired by a shady insurance company representative to dive off the coast of Jamaica, into hammerhead shark country, and retrieve a safe and a statue from a sunken yacht. The name of the yacht … Grave Descend.
McGregor, who’s lived in Kingston for 14 years, gets a call from a guest at the prestigious Plantation Inn located at Ocho Rios.
McGregor hated Ocho Rios. Once a beautiful and elegant strip of coastline, it was now a long succession of gaudy hotels, ratty nightclubs, stud services and steel-band discos, all patronized by hordes of vacous tourists who were seeking something a little more expensive but no different from Miami Beach.
I don’t know about you, but I always find it a bit creepy when tourists hang out in a luxury resort with guards posted at the entrance to keep out the natives. But it’s to this resort that McGregor drives in order to meet Mr. Wayne, an insurance representative who flew into Kingston following the news that the yacht Grave Descend sank with little warning near to a reef, three-quarters of a mile off-shore. Luckily the six crew members, and a female passenger, Monica Grant survived. The plot thickens with the news that Monica is the mistress of the yacht owner, Robert Wayne, the brother of the insurance company representative, and that the yacht, insured for over 2 million dollars, appeared to sink after an explosion.
A few simple questions lead McGregor to the conclusion that no-one is telling the truth, but curious and also happy to earn a generous finder’s fee, McGregor agrees to dive with his partner down to the yacht, right in hammerhead country….
With brief scenes of ratty bars and desperate middle-aged tourists looking to score at the island’s many tacky nightspots, the book does a nice job of showing the two worlds: sharks in the water and sharks above. Which way do you choose to go?
He waited a moment, the upended, kicking down, following the narrow beam of the flashlight, which was yellow near the source but faded to green and the blue as it went deeper. In the light of the lamp, the thousands of undersea microcreatures shone like dust beneath the water, scattering the light.
As he went down, the water turned colder; he checked his gauge; it was twenty-five feet. His beam had still not reached the bottom. He went down, with the receiver around his neck beeping louder and louder.
The ocean around him was noisy. It was something you noticed on a night dive–the sea was alive with night creatures, eating and clicking with a strange, almost mechanical sound, like a bank of electronic relays far off.
While it is undoubtedly a coup for the publisher to land these 8 titles, I would like to see Hard Case Crime return to crime–resurrected vintage or fresh, lean and mean. I’d put Grave Descend more into thriller territory than crime–although of course there are crimes aplenty here, but they’re surrounded by adventure, sharks, diving, explosions, double crossing, and a couple of bikini-clad babes.
Review copy.
His Futile Preoccupations ..... 
I did not know that Michael Crichton wrote these books. I had always thought of The Andromeda Strain as early Crichton.
I was surprised, Brian. Imagine working through medical school and finding time to write novels.
I didn’t know he had two lives as a writer, so to speak.
Guarded holiday resorts – very creepy. I agree.
This sounds rather Bond inspired. Could be a fun read for a wet afternoon type book?
Exactly. I polished this off in about 1 1/2 hours in one sitting
I’ve read some Crichton. He’s an efficient writer from what I’ve seen, stronger on ideas than style. Given that these don’t seem to have the ideas so much, the alien viruses and time travel and neanderthal remnants and whatever, I can’t see I’d bother.
Hard Case Crime do seem to be softening their focus, like the Sci Fi channel which became Syfy and started showing wrestling and general drama. I understand that wrestling gets bigger viewing figures than SF, but if you’re a dedicated SF channel that doesn’t show much SF I do start to wonder what the point of you is. Same thing here.
Terrible title.
The title is from a poem (as the book reveals). I enjoyed the book but I’m disappointed to see HCC taking this direction. There HAVE to be good young writers out there with suitable material…