Who is the author of lockdown

Veterans of fruitless wars: Two Marine Corps memoirists share their gratitude and dismay. All Sections. About Us. B2B Publishing. Business Visionaries. Hot Property. Times Events. Times Store. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options. Between seventy and eight percent of them would die. He had been directly exposed to it, and the odds weren't good.

London, the epicenter 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. 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.

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. The Peter May Collection. By late evening I seek peace rummaging through the centuries for conversation, courage, wisdom, and the art of the long view.

I am drawn to thinkers who imagined a more democratic world despite the overwhelming antidemocratic powers of their time and often sacrificed to create something starkly new, brave, and lasting. The man saw straight into the future. He sacrificed his life to the completion of Nineteen Eighty-Four , because he was terrified of Anglo complacency toward the political dangers threatening democracy. And I often return to Walt Whitman. Usually I feel heartened by his pure, unflinching exuberance for American democracy, but sometimes I want to shout at him for too much categorical belief.

Perhaps because of my Guyanese heritage I have always been fascinated by rainforests, the pre-Columbian era and myths of Latin and South America. A fantastic epic following the story of Cora, a year-old slave who escapes from a plantation in Georgia. I read Sharks in the Time of Saviours by Kawai Strong Washburn on my last journey in March, and it adjusted my understanding of the world. It follows the lives of a young family growing up in and then leaving Hawaii, navigating hardship, tradition and ambition between cultures.

Generosity and critical thinking are better than escapism this year. That said, The Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett never fails to console; century coastal Maine, summer, the architecture of successful community. I have a bad feeling our collective knowledge will have several more opportunities to increase in the near future.

Detective Jack MacNeil is investigating some bones found in a satchel at a construction site. Normally, bones found in such circumstances are more the province of a archaeologist, but given the age of the satchel, it is clear this is a modern murder. He is on the verge of retirement, as yet not sure what a post-retirement world in a post-apocalyptic world will look like. It is the very worst of times without the reassurement from Dickens that these are also the very best of times.

With so many people dying, it seems almost ridiculous to be investigating the potential murder of one little girl. So my mild irritation with this subplot in the course of all the madness is ill-considered. A petite Asian woman, a forensic orthodontist bound to a wheelchair, who quickly becomes as immersed in the backstory of the bones as MacNeil. She is my favorite character in the book. The descriptions of the creative ways she has made her life as normal as possible despite her handicaps is truly inspiring.

The characters are struggling with many of the questions that we have been struggling with in recent months. As the quote to begin this review states, we have created the perfect means for destroying ourselves. Maybe we will discover that the speed of travel is not worth the risk. Maybe we will discover things that are more important to us than running around like chickens with our heads cut off. My grandmother had her own hand guillotine to behead the next contribution to her stew pot.

I still have hope that in this new world people will rediscover armchair traveling through the magical realm of books. Peter May, for one, will be happy to guide people through the Hebrides or to China or Italy or through a pandemic. View all 6 comments. Jul 28, Phrynne rated it liked it Shelves: It was an okay read but not as good as May's other books. There was a good story and many instances where the author was amazingly prescient regarding what would happen in a lockdown due to a virus.

I would have liked to have felt more towards the characters who were all a little superficial. The ending view spoiler [ where a man dying from severe burns is still able to scale the London Eye hide spoiler ] was totally unrealistic. Still a very readable book but not his best work. DI Jack MacNeil was told to check it out, much to the anger of the workers who were in a race to build a temporary hospital for the influx of pandemic sickness and deaths that continued to rise.

With the help of Amy, a specialist who could rebuild an image from the skull, they discovered the bones were from a young girl. MacNeil had only twenty four hours left in his job; his resignation on top of the pandemic and what it had done to his family left him wanting out.

But he was determined to find the killer of the young girl before he left the Met. Did he have anything to lose? Lockdown by Peter May was a phenomenal read! Confined to and set in London, Lockdown is a riveting thriller which left me breathless. Highly recommended. View all 8 comments.

Oh dear The forward says that when he wrote it before he was a published author, back in , and it was rejected by publishers as they thought it was unrealistic and that such a pandemic could never happen.

I think they Oh dear The distances travelled back-and-forth across London despite empty streets due to lockdown are unbelievable and in real life the poor hostage would have been toast several hours before our hero rocks up. My advice: keep clear; even two metres of social distancing is nowhere near enough. I bet it would make a very successful action-adventure movie, though!

View 2 comments. What if In this prescient thriller, London is the epicenter of a devastating pandemic a lethal flu. Confinement is general and mandatory, business is closed, the city is looted and a murderer is on the loose Between seventy and eight percent of them would die.

Because it was written not now, but in At the time, the manuscript was rejected for alleged lack of credibility. By exploring the spread of a pandemic virus to its ultimate consequences, Lockdown is both an exciting and disturbing reading, providing enough thinking material for a terrifying What If!

We are now facing a stage of pandemic aggravation! Lockdown is just one step ahead of our own reality Mankind is battling an invisible enemy!

May the best win! Make your bets! I did mine!!! Apr 13, Bill Lynas rated it it was amazing. Peter May has written some fine crime novels, including the excellent Lewis Trilogy.

However, 15 years ago he wrote a novel about a flu virus which leaves London in lockdown. The story begins with the discovery of hum Peter May has written some fine crime novels, including the excellent Lewis Trilogy. The story begins with the discovery of human bones during building work on a new hospital. This sets detective Jack MacNeil on an investigation that never lets up from the beginning of the novel to end. Apr 17, Michael Harling rated it did not like it.

This is a book by the author of the amazing Lewis Trilogy. It was not as good. I can see why his publishers passed on it when it was first sent to them in , and I can certainly see why they jumped on it now.

However, its numerous failings do not make up for its single, saleable feature: that it describes London in lockdown. The story is flawed by too many highly unbelievable coincidences put in place simply to move the plot forward. The action sequences read like they were written in a hurry, This is a book by the author of the amazing Lewis Trilogy. The action sequences read like they were written in a hurry, which I understand they were, and the ending is rubbish.

Apr 14, Maggie rated it liked it. I am a big Peter May fan and was looking forward to reading this book in light of the current lockdown situation. I was disappointed by it and can understand why publishers were not interested in it back in The idea that London should be in such a state of lockdown I found entirely realistic.

What was not realistic were the action scenes in the final section of the book. The idea that a man suffering such horrific burns as Pinkie could travel around collecting hostages was ridiculous. Also I am a big Peter May fan and was looking forward to reading this book in light of the current lockdown situation. Also ridiculous was the idea that our hero could climb the London Eye with burns to his hands. Nov 25, Adrienne rated it really liked it Shelves: thriller. What an amazing book.

May wrote this in the early '. His publisher felt this book would not be a commercial success; at the date. So May shelved it. This amazing story is about London in lockdown because of a pandemic! At the time of writing May had completed considerable research into a world wide pandemic.

Following from the Spanish Flu and the swine flu: he felt the odds of a other pandemic very high. Whether of natural or man made origins. Unputdownable What an amazing book. View all 4 comments. This book was written several years before the pandemic we are now in unpublished, the author says, because it was thought to be unrealistic.

The tired-out detective having already resigned is on the last day of the job. He gets the case. All action takes p This book was written several years before the pandemic we are now in unpublished, the author says, because it was thought to be unrealistic. All action takes place within a hour period.