A crime thriller set against a global pandemic

OPINION:

Peter May’s “Lockdown” (Mobius) is a suspenseful and interesting crime thriller set during a global pandemic. The novel might appear to have been written over the past few months, but it was actually written in 2005. The novel was universally rejected by publishers then, as the idea of a major city being locked down due to a global deadly virus seemed too farfetched. Of course, today we can identify easily with the notion.

I reached out to Peter May, a Scotsman living in France, and I asked him how he would describe the novel.

“‘Lockdown’ was always conceived as a fast-paced crime thriller set against the unique backdrop of a major Western Capital city in full lockdown because of a global pandemic that was killing millions. I chose London because it was a city I knew well. I almost picked Paris because I live in France and know that city almost as well,” Mr. May replied.

“I used research I had done for a previous book [looking] into the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918, as well as specific research carried out for this book — namely a Bird Flu pandemic, and the social consequences of the steps the government would be required to take to lockdown society to stop the spread of the virus.”

While researching his novel “Snakehead,” Mr. May visited the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) in Maryland. He was granted access to all four levels of laboratory security.  

In “Lockdown,” even with millions dying from the pandemic, London Detective Inspector Jack MacNeil is intent on investigating the death of a small child whose bones were discovered in a gym bag at a construction site.   

“MacNeil is a very ordinary guy who married in haste and repented at leisure — although in his case repentance has taken the form of marriage to his job,” Mr. May said. “But that has come at the expense of the relationship with his son, and he has now decided to remedy that by quitting the police to spend more time with him. He is an absolutely straight-talking, no-nonsense Highland Scot, with a very strong sense of justice, and right and wrong.  

“Throughout the 24 hours of this book before he quits the force, he is driven to more and more extreme measures in pursuit of his belief that he owes it to the dead child whose murder he is investigating.”

Adding to the woes of a deadly virus, the government lockdown and the murder of a child, there is a professional killer on MacNeil’s trail. The killer, who calls himself “Pinkie” after the hoodlum in Graham Greene’s “Brighten Rock,” is murdering witnesses as MacNeil closes in.

Mr. May always wanted to be a novelist. He began as an award-winning journalist in Glasgow, Scotland, in the 1970s, wrote his first novel, “The Reporter,” at the age of 26, and went on to become a TV screenwriter and producer during the ’80s and ’90s. He left television in 1996 to become a full-time novelist. He has written 26 novels, including “Lockdown.”  

Mr. May said that since he works from home his way of life has changed very little during this crisis. He said he has a big house and a beautiful garden and swimming pool to escape to. But when he steps beyond the gates of his home, he becomes super cautious. He always wears a mask; always carries disinfectant gel and he avoids close contact with people. He has put on hold all of his travel and research plans for his next book and he is waiting for an effective vaccine to be found.

“I hope that readers will realize, and understand, that the lockdown we have all been living through because of coronavirus is not a one-off event. It happened before, in 1918, and it will happen again,” Mr. May explained. “Scientists have been warning for years that we were in an ‘inter-pandemic period.’ ” If it had, indeed, been Bird Flu, as in the book, the death toll would have been catastrophic, so maybe we should feel that in a sense we have been let off lightly.

“Hygiene, and an understanding of how viruses and microbes are spread, are the things I hope we will all take, both from the book and from actual events.”

Mr. May said that he donated the money from the advance he received for “Lockdown” to various charitable organizations involved with supporting health workers and victims of COVID-19.

“When I originally wrote “Lockdown” in 2005, no matter how well-researched or accurate the dystopian picture it painted, no one could identify with it. Now everyone can,” Mr. May said. “It is our common experience.”

• Paul Davis’ On Crime column covers true crime, crime fiction, mysteries and thrillers.