A nervous young man with a security services gun acquired by happenstance holds as hostages a nursery school teacher, the school’s cleaner and two four year old pupils who’d been brought in early by their self-pitying father. The thirty-something teacher, Louise, arrived there from a high powered job in bank finance, the embittered cleaner hates her and everybody else, and the father fantasizes about Louise as a way of giving himself ‘life’. The Gun has a mystery to solve which requires the presence of a particular woman and a certain member of said security services. Although the bulk of the story emerges from the interactions within this small group closeted in one part of the school, key events unfold in parallel outside. Beyond the armed response unit, the press and the gawping onlookers there is a nasty piece of work by the name of Bad Sam Chapman digging and ferreting and trying to make sense of the merest hints of information. The title comes from the backstory, which centres on the so-called reconstruction work in the aftermath of the Iraq war. There are enough suspicions, twists and turns that the final chapter is both longed for and unwanted – I needed to know, but I didn’t want the journey to end. This is a superbly written, well-paced bit of story-telling from an author I like a lot (- can you tell?).