Fritz Peters is a writer new to me, perhaps to many, but now thanks to publisher Hirsch Giovanni five of his most acclaimed works have been republished. I’ve now read all five of them, and what a fascinating discovery it has turned out to be. This novel, The Descent, is the most conventional of his novels and is a very good one indeed. It tells the story of a group of disparate people whose destinies collide, quite literally, on a highway in New Mexico. We know from the beginning that there’s going to be an accident, but the suspense is maintained throughout because we don’t know exactly how it’s going to happen. The novel recounts the backstories of each character and explores how the killed and injured have created the conditions that have brought them to that particular road at that particular moment, and how chance decisions have affected the outcome. Very much set in its time and place, that is post-WWII America, the themes are nevertheless universal. We become involved with the characters, feel for them, and are carried along with them as drivers and passengers proceed to that fateful final encounter. I really enjoyed this novel. It’s well-written, expertly paced and demonstrates great insight into character and feelings, motivations and relationships, and the frequent failure of communication, not least because each of them is unhappy or dissatisfied in his or her own way, thus evoking our sympathy. A satisfying and engaging read.