Lockdown

Notes

Lockdown by Peter May was written in 2005. When May submitted it to his publishers, they refused to entertain it.

“I was told by the literary establishment that it was a ludicrous idea to think that in modern times a capital city like London could be completely shut down by a virus.”

Fifteen years later, they were a little more enthusiastic.

Peter May’s take on a global pandemic is both surprisingly accurate and wide of the mark. An entertaining read.

Publisher’s Synopsis

‘They said that twenty-five per cent of the population would catch the flu. Between seventy and eighty per cent of them would die. He had been directly exposed to it, and the odds weren’t good.’

A CITY IN QUARANTINE

London, the epicentre of a global pandemic, is a city in lockdown. Violence and civil disorder simmer. Martial law has been imposed. No-one is safe from the deadly virus that has already claimed thousands of victims. Health and emergency services are overwhelmed.

A MURDERED CHILD

At a building site for a temporary hospital, construction workers find a bag containing the rendered bones of a murdered child. A remorseless killer has been unleashed on the city; his mission is to take all measures necessary to prevent the bones from being identified.

A POWERFUL CONSPIRACY

D.I. Jack MacNeil, counting down the hours on his final day with the Met, is sent to investigate. His career is in ruins, his marriage over and his own family touched by the virus. Sinister forces are tracking his every move, prepared to kill again to conceal the truth. Which will stop him first – the virus or the killers?

Written over fifteen years ago, this prescient, suspenseful thriller is set against a backdrop of a capital city in quarantine and explores human experience in the grip of a killer virus.

Read a full review of Lockdown by Peter May at the LA Times.