His girlfriend has left him, he’s fallen out with his sister, his Father has died and he’s been fired, by his best friend, from the job he loves.

I can’t really say much more without *spoilers* but obviously the storyline follows the desperate quest to stop James from doing what he’s about to do, whilst he obliviously sits on a train moving further away from everyone who loves him. For me this book was a little let down by its ending, even as I was reading I wasn't entirely sure what ending I was wanting. I just kept reading, and reading, turning the pages, as it's such an easy story to become invested in.

Still, I ended up liking it, despite having to put it down frequently to take a breather from the bleak situation portrayed here. The characters were interesting and the premise made me want to read it, but the story that unravelled was not worth my time. From then on, we delve into the thoughts and feelings of various people in James’ life – his ex girlfriend, ex best friend, flatmate, mother, sister… various people who once featured so importantly in James’ life but have drifted away or made contact with him less and less over the years.

I have to admit, I wasn’t completely satisfied with one particular part of the ending – it seemed a bit sudden and the person in question’s character seemed devastatingly brief, considering their part in it all. As a kid my family spent summers at the Edinburgh Fringe and I remember discovering Watson for the first time sometime in my teens. I knew this book would be emotionally heavy for me, but I found the plot so intriguing that I had to give it a go.

One of the things I love most about Mark Watson's work is how clearly it shows the ways in which humans connect, and how everyone has their own pain and problems. Edinburgh holds a special place in James’s heart, a place he visited regularly with his father Alan, prior to his death. It reflects a society where human contact is severely lacking for many, lives instead lived online in a virtual reality, loneliness a common problem. A few from his contacts are given a jolt - like his busy estranged sister, his out of touch mom, his repentent ex and his friend who cheated him.

And yes, it's great that James changed his mind in the end, or had it changed for him by circumstances, but he didn't really change his mind in the sense that he doesn't acknowledge how much of an ass he was and that he hasn't ruled out getting back to his plan in the future. He boards the overnight train to Edinburgh, a place that has significance to him, sends a goodbye text to his 158 phone contacts, switches his phone to flight mode, then settles in to endure his last night on earth in his little sleeper compartment. Update: I'm knocking off a star because now I have some distance, the first thing that springs to mind looking back is how crummy and unsatisfactory the ending was. Chapters jump between the people closest to him while they try to find a way to stop James carrying out his message.I found it to be poorly written, you think the paragraph is going one way then it meanders off somewhere else.