A phenomenal feat of journalism. . . . I tore through it like a novel but with the queasy knowledge that the whole damn thing is true. --Sebastian Junger author of The Perfect Storm and War Blending exclusive first-person interviews and penetrating investigative reporting oil rig captain John Konrad and veteran Washington Post writer Tom Shroder give the definitive white-knuckled account of the Deepwater Horizon explosion--as well as a riveting insider s view of the byzantine culture of offshore drilling that made the disaster inevitable. As the world continues to cope with the oil spill s grim aftermath--with environmental and economic consequences all the more dire in a region still rebuilding from Hurricane Katrina--Konrad and Schroder s real-time account of the disaster shows us just where things went wrong and points the way to a safer future for us all.