Every reader becomes a part of this story. Charles Benford is a very ordinary man who finds himself called upon to make the kind of choices he is not equipped to make, choices that nobody should ever have to make.

Read it and perhaps think how you would have done things better or just differently given the time scales involved. Or become one of any number of the people who occupy the centre stage of the book for a chapter or two. Perhaps it is a memorable character; someone easy to recognise as part of ourselves or someone we know. Experience their fears and emotions as they flit across the pages, enduring pain, grief and, for some, death. For others, there is a huge feeling of guilt, mixed oddly with love and happiness.

This book will leave you intrigued and will make you want answers. But most of all, it will make you think.