Elevator Pitch: A Novel

It all begins on a Monday, when four people board an elevator in a Manhattan office tower. Each presses a button for their floor, but the elevator proceeds, nonstop, to the top. Once there, the doors don’t open. Instead, the elevator begins to descend floor by floor. Then it plummets. Right to the bottom of the shaft.

It appears to be a random accident. But on Tuesday, it happens again, in...