I read this novella the day after reading Graham Masterton's novel PLAGUE. Where the latter is wide-ranging, this story is very insular, focusing in on one family in Northwest England, a devoted mother, father, and four-year-old son. Again, the media and government try to conceal the extent of the plague, and drastic actions occur. Sufferers are boarded up in their homes, "escapees" are shot by the army. There's no medication, no hope. Liz, Johnny, and little Nathan are on their own in their boarded-over home. The story is very detailed and therefore gory, but the resilience and strength of the human spirit and will is truly amazing.