The Descent

This book starts out strong and promises to be a truly terrifying story. That first chapter is sleep-with-the-lights-on, throw the book in the freezer, chilling. But then Long keeps broadening the scope so we're introduced to a Dan Brown DaVinci Code re-examination of history and secret cabals, Michael Crichton eco-terror with elements of sci-fi, and romance thrown in for good measure. What could have been a tight horror novel about the discovery of a savage race living far beneath the earth instead becomes a convoluted mess that is all the stories that still manages the occasional bright spots.