I loved this book! It reads like fiction and the subject matter is equally fascinating and terrifying. Great achievement for the author. I'd read from him again. Recommended for adventure non-fiction lovers.

They were out of their depth, out of breath, and out of time. It was 1973. Two men were trapped in a crippled submarine 1,700 feet below sea. They only had enough air to survive for two days. On the ocean’s surface there was a hastily assembled flotilla of rescue ships from both sides of the Atlantic. The world held its breath to await word of a rescue.

In a routine dive to fix the telecommunication cable that snakes along the Atlantic sea bed, their mission had gone badly wrong. There was a catastrophic fault on board the Pisces III, and Roger Chapman and Roger Mallinson’s mini-submarine went tumbling to the ocean bed almost half a mile below.

The crippled sub and its crew were trapped far beyond the depth of any previous sub-sea rescue. They had just two days’ worth of oxygen. However, on the surface the best estimates for a rescue of these men was a minimum of three days’ time. Phenomenal… I did not want to put it down. I was blown away by this book... brilliant. Phenomenal… I did not want to put it down. I was blown away by this book... brilliant.

This is a great story.... it is the story of Roger Chapman and Roger Mallinson who were working on a cable on the sea bed when an accident means they become stranded. The book is about surviving in their tiny pod while the rest of the world is trying to figure out a way to recover them.

There are so many things I enjoyed about this book - the two submariners both seem very nice and we learn about their lives to date to identify with them. We also get some technical information about their vehicle and the cable they were working on at an accessible level - you don't need to understand engineering to be able to understand the detail. These kinds of details aren't overly long or laboured, we soon get back to the two Rogers while understanding a bit more about why they in the position they are.

The book is broken down into days so the reader really gets a sense of how long Mallinson and Chapman were trapped for and just how difficult things were for them. At times, I could feel myself holding my breath with them!

This is a great book - it would make a great film! At so many points what could go wrong went wrong - it was unbelievable.... but we know its true. Well written, informative and with a great pace I really enjoyed reading this.

I was given a copy if this book from the publisher via Netgalley with no promise of a favourable review.

Stephen McGinty is living the dream (well, my dream at least) where he sits in a study, gathers disparate bits of information (newspaper articles, technical reports, enquiry papers, memoris etc.) then distills it down into a highly readable book that forces the reader to turn the pages with the avidity of a prime Lee Child book.

McGinty has the skill to tie all the threads together in a very compelling and interesting way. We get a potted history of the submarine, how the human processes oxygen and (more importantly for this story) what carbon dioxide and what it does to the human body, a very interesting history of cable-laying across the Atlantic Ocean and a brief history of the Vickers corporation.

These sidebar stories serve the main event, that of a two-man submersible that, due to a freak accident, sinks at the end of a dive to bury a transatlantic cable.

The race against time as the oxygen levels fall and the carbon dioxide levels rise in the tiny submersible really is heart racing stuff as ships and agencies from across the globe make all speed towards a piece of rough ocean off the west coast of Ireland.

This book is a perfect mix of cliffhangers, technical (but not too technical) info and a narrative that shoots from ship's bridge to the submersible to rescue craft etc.

Anyone with a passing interest in matters nautical will lap this up. McGinty really should be applauded for how well he has constructed this book and how readable it is.

A well deserved five stars.