Lockdown By Peter May

Baba

London is Point Zero of a global Bird-Flu epidemic, constantly under lockdown with armed troops managing the streets of London. As the Government seeks to create extra bed-space in the centre of London by digging up green spaces a child's bones and skull are found dumped in the newly set foundations. When the bones are identified as being 'fresh' and recently de-fleshed one of the few remaining CID police D.I. Jack MacNeil is called in. MacNeil, suffering from the Pandemic's impact on his family, has already decided to resign his posy at the day's end, but decides that he must seek justice for the murdered child, if it's the last thing he does... and all this in the highly restrictive environment of a London under Martial Law and lockdown!

This book was written years before the COVID-19 Pandemic, and refused publication at the time, alleged (by the writer) for the unlikelihood of the event0; this lockdowm conspiracy thriller was then finally green-lit for opportunistic publication in 2020. After reading this very average thriller that made so little of the Pandemic and altered way of life; which was set around a pretty obvious Pandemic conspiracy and chock full of crime investigation tropes, I can see what I feel is the real reason why it was initially rejected when first presented! 4 out of 12. Although it must be said with our lived experience of a killer flu pandemic it easy to judge this book so harshly with hindsight.

2021 read

Ceecee

I’m not sure what possessed me to want to read Lockdown in the middle of lockdown but this is Peter May, so let’s say it’s curiosity rather than madness! This was written in 2005 when H5N1 avian flu posed a threat but was rejected by publishers as unrealistic - little did we know. This is a conspiracy thriller set in London at the epicentre of pandemic. Workmen at Archbishops Park uncover a bag containing a child’s bones which unleashes a chain of events that sinister forces lethally attempt to cover up. DI Jack MacNeil in his final hours as a working police officer is charged with identifying the child and who killed her and why. Jack is helped in his investigation by forensic officer Tom Bennet and Amy who is a forensic odontologist. The story is told from the perspectives of Jack, Amy and Pinkie who is hired by the mysterious Mr Smith to shut down the enquiry by any means.

The story is very well written, there are some scary scenes throughout the drama and a very exciting conclusion with London providing an atmospheric backdrop. The characters are really good especially Jack MacNeil who has his own tragedy to deal with. He is a complex character as he keeps a lot of emotion hidden as befits his Highland Presbyterian upbringing but there is much more to him than meets the eye. He’s brave and prepared to do what it takes to get to the truth. There is some powerful imagery especially towards the end and the section that features the London Eye was especially good. Some of the actions of Pinkie towards the end stretch credulity but did make for compelling reading.

Overall, an interesting plot which is different in many ways to our current scenario and an exciting thriller from the excellent Peter May.

Labijose

Una conversación imaginada, en el año 2005:

-“¿Un argumento en el que Londres está siendo arrasada por una pandemia que está aniquilando a miles de ciudadanos, donde se han tenido que cerrar todos los locales y obligado a la gente a permanecer encerrada en sus casas bajo severo control militar?????? ¿Es que te has vuelto loco, Peter? ¡Esto no es un thriller, es una distopía, y, además, disparatada! ¡ESTO NO SE PUEDE PUBLICAR! Anda, ¡tómate un año sabático y vuelve a escribir sobre cosas que sí puedan ocurrir!

Y así es como este magnífico autor, de cuya trilogía de Lewis guardo un muy grato recuerdo, se vio obligado a guardar en un cajón el manuscrito, por fantasioso…. Hasta que 15 años después, ya como autor consagrado, alguien le pidió que escribiera algo sobre el tema.

-“¡Pero si ya lo hice, y me lo rechazásteis por fantasioso e increíble! ¡Se llama “Lockdown” (Confinamiento), y lo tengo criando polvo desde hace tres lustros!”
-“Pues pelillos a la mar. ¡Tráelo pacá, que te lo publicamos en un pis pás y te convertimos en el autor más visionario del siglo!”

Y así, imagino, salió finalmente lanzada al estrellato la novela de la que tanto se oye hablar estos días. Un auténtico best seller, más por su argumento que por su desarrollo, y que además está sirviendo para recaudar fondos para diversas organizaciones en su lucha contra la pandemia.

De la novela en sí, diré que me ha parecido correcta, a secas. Desde luego, no es el mejor Peter May, ni de lejos. Pero la he leído con interés. En otras circunstancias le hubiese puesto tres estrellas, sobre todo por ese final, pero me siento obligado a otorgarle por lo menos cuatro. Hay descripciones del Londres apocalíptico que, hace 15 años, hubiesen hecho sonreír a más de uno, pero, vistas las imágenes actuales, tanto de esa como de tantas otras ciudades en el planeta, no cabe más que asombrarse y exclamar “¡Pero si es exactamente así!”. La trama es casi lo de menos. Lo que me ha impactado es la precisión con la que el autor ha sabido anticipar qué pasaría en una gran ciudad si algo así de inimaginable ocurriera. Y lo peor es que ocurrió.

Creo que “Lockdown” sale traducida al castellano a principios de octubre. Esperemos que, para esas fechas, podamos comprarla libremente en las librerías y disfrutar de su lectura en parques y jardines, o mientras tomamos un sabroso café en alguna de nuestras añoradas terrazas y bares.

#KeepSafe!

Jeffrey Keeten

”You don’t have to be very smart to figure that it only takes one infected individual from Vietnam, or Thailand, or Cambodia, to fly into London, New York, or Paris, and you’ve sown the seed. In this modern age of air travel, we really do live in a global village. And we’ve created the perfect incubators for breeding and passing on infection, in the buses and planes and underground trains we travel on. We were a human disaster waiting to happen.”

What makes this novel compelling to me more than anything else isn’t the fact that it is about a pandemic, but because it was turned down by publishers in 2005 because the premise of a London locked down due to a virus was inconceivable to the publishers. The idea was improbable...nay impossible.

In 2005, Peter May was not the bestselling author we know today, but a fledgling novel writer, trying to make the transition from screenwriting to full-time fiction writing. He was baffled that, despite the extensive research he could share with them showing that a pandemic could happen on the scale that is depicted in his novel, publishers simply refused to believe it was possible.

This is rather amusing considering the fact that, as I write my thoughts on this novel, we are all in various stages of quarantine.

May’s conception of the future is not improbable or impossible, but very much a presentiment of a very real future that has become our present reality.

I did struggle at first with the book, maybe because we have all become some level of experts on pandemics. 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. MacNeil’s marriage has disintegrated. He is on the verge of retirement, as yet not sure what a post-retirement world in a post-apocalyptic world will look like. 25% of people are getting the virus, and upwards of 80% are dying from it. 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. It reminds me of the TV series Foyle’s War; millions are dying from the ravages of war, and yet here is this man in England investigating Agatha Christie-type murders in a world gone mad.

This large Scotsman has an improbable secret relationship with Amy Wu. 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.

”’We shouldn’t do this,’ he said. ‘I might give you the flu. I’m more exposed than you are.’

‘Then we might as well stop living now, because we’ll die anyway.’ Amy gazed up at him. ‘And if we don’t live life while we can, then we’ll die without ever having lived.’”

Just like the creative ways that Amy has made her life better despite circumstances beyond her control, we, too, have to figure out how to live our lives as fully as we can without endangering our lives and the lives of others. I’ve seen a lot of impatience for things to return to normal, but things may never be normal again, or Covid-19 might disappear like the influenza epidemic in 1917, but regardless, we have to understand that this epidemic might only be a dress rehearsal for something nastier. 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. (Yes, I’ve seen that phenomena first hand. 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.

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Phrynne

This turned out to be a murder/mystery set against a background of London locked down because of a type of virulant flu. 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 was totally unrealistic.

Still a very readable book but not his best work.

Brenda

When the construction workers discovered a bag at the bottom of a trench about to be filled by concrete, they didn’t expect it to be filled with human bones. 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. Within a matter of hours, he and the forensic people had handed the site back to them – and DI MacNeil’s work began.

With the help of Amy, a specialist who could rebuild an image from the skull, they discovered the bones were from a young girl. The horror was that she hadn’t been dead long; what had been done to her was unimaginable. 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.

But there was danger of a kind he’d never imagined. The virus and the FluKill they’d all been issued with; or a killer who was equally determined MacNeil wouldn’t solve the murder. Did he have anything to lose?

Lockdown by Peter May was a phenomenal read! Written fifteen years ago and not published as it was declared too “out there”, now with our current COVID19 controlling the world, the time was right for a novel which parallels what we are facing. But thank goodness COVID isn’t as bad! Confined to and set in London, Lockdown is a riveting thriller which left me breathless. Highly recommended.

With thanks to Hachette AU for my ARC to read in exchange for an honest review.

Maria Espadinha

E Se...

Neste thriller presciente, Londres é epicentro duma pandemia devastadora. O confinamento é geral e obrigatório, o comércio está encerrado, a cidade está a saque e anda um assassino à solta...

“Prevê-se que 25% da população venha a contrair a doença. Dos contaminados, a percentagem de mortes irá situar-se entre os 70 e 80%.”

E presciente porquê?

Porque foi escrito não agora, mas em 2005. Na altura, a história foi considerada irrealista, e o manuscrito rejeitado. Porém, 15 anos depois... a irrealidade realiza-se — embora em proporções (ainda?!) não tão alarmantes, está uma pandemia a acontecer AQUI e AGORA

Ao explorar até às últimas consequências a propagação dum vírus pandémico, Lockdown é uma leitura simultaneamente empolgante e perturbante, que nos leva a matutar num inquietante E Se.

Neste período de forte agravamento da pandemia, Lockdown está apenas um passo à frente da nossa realidade.
Estamos a batalhar um inimigo invisível!
Resta-nos apostar no plano de contenção, e... que vençam os melhores — NÓS!!!

Ian

Oh dear...

I thought: ‘How prescient of Peter May to have written a book about a viral pandemic 15 years ago. Now it’s a number 1 best-seller I’d better read it.’

I’ve enjoyed some of Peter May’s novels set in Lewis and thought I was in for a treat. But it was quite awful, I’m afraid. The forward says that when he wrote it before he was a published author, back in 2005, and it was rejected by publishers as they thought it was unrealistic and that such a pandemic could never happen. (I think they didn’t publish it because it is so dreadful).

It is a who-dunnit/thriller set against the backdrop of an avian flu epidemic in London. Not a single cliché of that genre is omitted: the evil criminal mastermind; the psychopathic enforcer; the damsel in distress; and the exciting suspense-filled race against time to get to said damsel before the evil criminal mastermind does away with her.

It is set over the course of 24 hours in the life of a jaded cop on his last day on the job (no, really, I’m not making this up). There’s lots of frantic moving around town and irritatingly, he seems to list the name of just about every street that the characters drive though like some sort of dramatised A-Z guide. 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!)

Lost In My Own World Of Books

Um livro que se inspirou na pandemia que estamos a viver. Um livro que relaciona uma pandemia com um thriller numa obra de arte inesquecível.

Com este livro vivi momentos angustiantes, momentos que me provocaram ansiedade pela semelhança com o presente nos acontecimentos que se passam no decorrer da pandemia.

Londres enfrenta uma pandemia, um vírus mortal que ameaça destruir famílias e tudo o que conheciam até agora. Que apela a uma mudança de rotinas, de planos, de hábitos.

Para além deste vírus assassino, há outros assassinos que não se deixam parar por um vírus. E também ameaçam destruir tudo.

O inspetor Jack, ao mesmo tempo que vai procurar pistas para os assassinatos que estão a ocorrer, vai ter de enfrentar desafios que o vírus impôs na sua vida.

Com tempo limitado e a correr contra o tempo terá de encontrar o assassino ao mesmo tempo que enfrenta um dilema pessoal por causa do vírus. O seu filho foi infetado.

Será que Jack conseguirá gerir ambas as situações? Será que tudo irá correr bem? Ou será que o destino tem outra coisa planeada?

E, para além desta sucessão de acontecimento, Jack ainda fica com coisas para resolver acerca da sua vida amorosa. Como será que vai ficar depois de um acontecimento desastroso abalar por completo a sua vida?

Como é que o autor conseguiu consolidar o tema de pandemia com um thriller? Foi simplesmente incrível e impressionante.

Um thriller imperdível que vai deixar todos os leitores com sentimentos intensos. Um thriller que não se vão esquecer.

Maria Espadinha

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 ...

“They said that twenty-five percent of the population would catch the flu. Between seventy and eight percent of them would die.”

And why prescient?

Because it was written not now, but in 2005. At the time, the manuscript was rejected for alleged lack of credibility. But ... 15 years later, the INCREDIBILITY happens — although in not (yet?!) such alarming proportions, a pandemic virus is HERE and NOW !!!

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!!! 😉

Bill

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. Despite his research publishers rejected it as too implausible & it remained unpublished until today.
Although Lockdown has become in places a strangely prophetic novel it is first & foremost a crime story. May (as always) gives the reader a great plot & some fine characterisation. 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.
There are many parallels between the current real life crisis & May's fictional one, from deserted London streets to the Prime Minister being admitted to St Thomas Hospital having contracted the flu virus. However, there are many differences too & there's enough of them to make this work as a highly enjoyable piece of fiction.
There are a few plot holes here & there, but it's easy to forgive these because it's not only a great novel it's one of the best things Peter May has ever written.

Michael Harling

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 2005, 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, which I understand they were, and the ending is rubbish.

Overall, it is a totally unsatisfactory story but, that said, it’s worth the .99 cents as a download, if only because it will provide a short diversion and, in times like these, any diversion is welcome.

Morgan

This book was written several years before the pandemic we are now in (unpublished, the author says, because it was thought to be unrealistic).

Pg. 73 – “Anyone who did not belong here [certain parts of the city], anyone who might be a carrier of the virus, would be shot on sight.”

As it turns out this is a murder mystery which happens to have taken place during a pandemic in London.

The tired-out detective having already resigned is on the last day of the job. He gets the case. All action takes place within a 24-hour period.

Personally I could have done without the detail of every street and road, every building of note in London.
It was like a guided tour of London which only added to the number of words in the book – added nothing to the story.

There is something to be learned about a pandemic – how it may have started and such, but this was much more about the murder and the investigation and the detective.

Gary

A standalone novel by author Peter May that I have been putting off reading for sometime now due to our own lockdown situation. This is quite an old novel by this author that was reissued at a time when it was quite poignant.

A killer virus is raging in London and predictions are that the death rate could be as high as eighty percent. London is a city running scared, stuck in lockdown with violence and civil disorder running amok. Martial law has been imposed and no one is immune to this deadly virus that has already claimed thousands of victims.

While hospitals are overloaded and struggling to cope construction workers find a bag containing the rendered bones of a murdered child. To add to the city’s problems a killer is now loose on the streets. He appears to be going out of his way to keep the body from been identified. D.I. Jack MacNeil is identified to investigate the case, an officer who is looking forward to leaving the police following the destruction of his marriage and career. The killer is planning to kill again to hide the truth.

This is a well written story that made fascinating reading.

Maggie

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 2005. 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 ridiculous was the idea that our hero could climb the London Eye with burns to his hands.

Adrienne

What an amazing book. May wrote this in the early 2000'. 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 1918 Spanish Flu and the swine flu: he felt the odds of a other pandemic very high. Whether of natural or man made origins.
Unputdownable

George K.

Από ψυχολογικής απόψεως, ίσως δεν είναι και ό,τι καλύτερο να διαβάζεις ένα τέτοιο θρίλερ εν μέσω πανδημίας και όλης αυτής της παράνοιας που επικρατεί τους τελευταίους μήνες, γιατί αν μη τι άλλο γίνονται κάποιες αναπόφευκτες συγκρίσεις. Όμως εγώ δεν κολλάω σε κάτι τέτοια, ήθελα να διαβάσω ένα εθιστικό και αγωνιώδες θρίλερ, και το "Lockdown" ήταν ακριβώς αυτό. Η πλάκα είναι ότι ο Πίτερ Μέι έγραψε αυτό το βιβλίο πριν από πολλά χρ��νια, αλλά μόλις τώρα κατάφερε να το εκδώσει, αφού στο μεταξύ απέκτησε και μια κάποια φήμη σαν συγγραφέας στον χώρο της αστυνομικής λογοτεχνίας. Βλέπετε, οι εκδότες δεν είχαν πειστεί από την εικόνα ενός Λονδίνου που πολιορκείται από έναν θανατηφόρο ιό. Πού να ήξεραν... Λοιπόν, σαν θρίλερ είναι πολύ εθιστικό και ιντριγκαδόρικο, προσωπικά με δυσκολία το άφηνα στην άκρη για να κάνω κάτι άλλο. Από τη μια η πλοκή που κρύβει μυστήριο, ένταση και αγωνία, από την άλλη το σχεδόν μετά-αποκαλυπτικό σκηνικό ενός Λονδίνου χτυπημένου από έναν άκρως φονικό ιό (με όλα τα επακόλουθα στην οικονομική και κοινωνική ζωή των κατοίκων του), είναι στοιχεία που εύκολα μπορούν να συνθέσουν ένα δυνατό θρίλερ. Σίγουρα κάποια πράγματα δεν πείθουν απόλυτα, υπάρχουν ίσως κάποιες υπερβολές και ευκολίες για να προχωρήσει η πλοκή, όμως το συνολικό αποτέλεσμα είναι αρκούντως ικανοποιητικό: Ξεκινάει από την εύρεση κάποιών οστών σε ένα εργοτάξιο και καταλήγει σε κάτι το απόλυτα τρομακτικό. Και η γραφή είναι πολύ καλή, με γλαφυρές περιγραφές που αγχώνουν και που κρατάνε τον αναγνώστη στην τσίτα. Περιττό να πω ότι η ατμόσφαιρα είναι αρκετά σκοτεινή και σε σημεία μάλλον κλειστοφοβική.

Kriste

I would say it was ok, but nothing great. Fully understand why it wasn't published earlier.

Murder investigation in lockdown London. The detective MacNeil has 24 hours before he retires to resolve murder of girl. However the murder does not sleep and follows his every step.

Also, I agree with other reviewers that all these places being driven around London in 24 hours is unrealistic.

I am seeing now, new books being written about pandemics, lockdowns etc....not sure I will read many of them. Feels like new hype, like WWII and holocaust have been for some years now.

Vicky Ziliaskopoulou

Ένα αστυνομικό μυθιστόρημα που αν είχε κυκλοφορήσει πριν λίγα χρόνια θα λέγαμε ότι έχει στοιχεία δυστοπίας. Θα δυσκολευόμασταν να πιστέψουμε ότι σε μια σύγχρονη ευρωπαϊκή μεγαλούπολη ο κόσμος πεθαίνει μαζικά από έναν ιό γρίπης, το κράτος δεν μπορεί να προστατέψει τους πολίτες του, έχει επιβληθεί απαγόρευση κυκλοφορίας και ο έλεγχος γίνεται από το στρατό. Σήμερα, αυτό δεν αποτελεί έκπληξη: ίσως μόνο τα οδοφράγματα που έχει στήσει ο στρατός στους δρόμους του Λονδίνου προκειμένου να ελέγχει όσους κυκλοφορούν.

Οι συνθήκες ζωής ωστόσο των πολιτών και οι επιπτώσεις της πανδημίας είναι δευτερεύον ζήτημα στο βιβλίο, αφού αυτό όσον αφορά την πλοκή του είναι καθαρόαιμο αστυνομικό. Μου άρεσε που την υπόθεση διερεύνησης της δολοφονίας ενός μικρού παιδιού αναλαμβάνει μια ομάδα από επαγγελματίες διαφορετικών ειδικοτήτων. Εκτός από τον αστυνομικό, έχουμε και μια ειδικό στην ταυτοποίηση των οστών, ερευνητές στα εργαστήρια και άλλες ειδικότητες, που όλοι συνεργάζονται μεταξύ τους και ανταλλάσσουν τα δεδομένα που προκύπτουν από την εργασία τους. Έχει επίσης αρκετή βία αλλά σε καμία περίπτωση δεν φτάνει στα επίπεδα των σκανδιναβικών αστυνομικών μυθιστορημάτων.

Γενικά όλοι οι πρωταγωνιστές μου ήταν συμπαθείς, κατά κάποιον μυστήριο τρόπο συμπάθησα ακόμη και κάποιον από τους κακούς. Μου άρεσαν και οι αναφορές στο παρελθόν τους που εξηγούσαν την εξέλιξη του χαρακτήρα τους., Επίσης, μου άρεσε η εξήγηση και οι πληροφορίες που δίνει σχετικά με τους ιούς και τις μεταλλάξεις τους, το βρήκα πολύ επίκαιρο.

Προσωπικά και επειδή αγαπώ πολύ τα μυθιστορήματα που ασχολούνται με ιατρικά θέματα θα προτιμούσα να είχε δώσει μεγαλύτερη έκταση στις περιγραφές της νόσου και της ζωής των πολιτών κι ας μην είναι απαραίτητες για την πλοκή και τη ροή της ιστορίας. Αν και βασικό μέρος της πλοκής ήταν βασισμένο στην ασθένεια δεν υπήρχαν εκτενείς περιγραφές των ασθενών ,παρά μόνο συνοπτικές αναφορές του πώς διαχειρίστηκαν την κρίση και τους νεκρούς. Νομίζω ότι θα μπορούσε επίσης να δώσει περισσότερη έκταση στις περιγραφές των συναισθημάτων των ηρώων. Επίσης στο τέλος το βρήκα λίγο τραβηγμένο ως προς τις ικανότητες ενός από τους πρωταγωνιστές, ο οποίος φέρεται θα έλεγα υπεράνθρωπα χωρίς να γίνει καμία προσπάθεια αιτιολόγησης.

Διαβάζεται γρήγορα, εύκολα και ευχάριστα, η ιστορία ρέει όμορφα και γενικά είναι μια πολύ καλή παρέα. Είναι ένα σύγχρονο αστυνομικό που έχει δόσεις αληθοφάνειας βασισμένες στον παραλογισμό της κατάστασης που ζούμε.

https://thematofylakes.gr/

https://kiallovivlio.blogspot.com/

Charles

Thriller/Brit Police Procedural/Pandemic Pr0n mashup.

Firstly, I'm a fan of the author. This previously rejected, pandemic-based, early novel was languishing in a drawer of the author's desk for 15-years when the current, pandemic flared. It should have stayed in that drawer.

The story was written pre-BREXIT, when Blair was PM. Its set in a London during a virulent, modern, flu pandemic.

The story was overly trite, despite the pandemic background. Actually, May gets many of the aspects of the pandemic eerily correct. However, that can't save the book. Its one trope too many. Most annoying was an inept use of the Race Against the Clock trope. The protagonist DI Jack MacNeil, a Scot (naturally) has to solve a child murder in 24-hours. This skewed the story's pacing into something grotesquely frenetic. Despite the manpower problems of the pandemic, MacNeil does this without backup, while taking physical punishment that would killed a rhinoceros, and emotional trauma that would make a statue cry.

Because the epidemiology is soundly done, there had to be an inept use of Deus ex Machina to explain it to the reader. (We've all long since become armchair epidemiologists.) The 'Explainer' took the form of the American Dr. Sara Castell. She's from a real, health agency, although I've never heard of it. Her appearance is very late in the story and almost magical. She links the child murder with the pandemic and a Corporate Conspiracy for MacNeil. (That's two (2) more lame trope usages.)

Finally there is a Psycho for Hire hit man stalking McNeal and his Disabled Love Interest. (An additional, two lame tropes.) That she was Asian, didn't mitigate the trope. The hit man, likewise was nearly invulnerable. (Five (5) lame tropes.)

The story's firearms violence was distinctly un-British. Gun play was likely only second to the ravages of the story's pandemic in decimating London's population.

It was also clear that May is unfamiliar with London. He wrote about it like a tourist. Somehow he managed to work all his Guidebook's fave central London tourist 'hot spots' into the story. There were also problems with the details of civil defense and the domestic deployment of the Army to maintain order during the pandemic. For example, I cringed at the May's use of "jeep", for what had to be some Rover Defender variant-- Wolf or Snatch.

Fifteen years ago, some editor made the sound decision not to publish this crap. Since then May has matured as an author. He should have resisted the easy money of going right to print with this topical, but sophomoric novel. At best, this book really should have been re-written before being re-issued.

Viktor Stoyanov

Пророчески за карантин��та и недодялан за основния сюжет.

Авторът признава, че го е написал за 6 седмици (ако не ме лъже паметта) и си личи. Някъде след средата съвсем не ме държеше криминалната нишка за разплитане на случая, може би, защото предположението ми още от първите страници се оказа на прав път.

Добре е, че цялото действие се развива за около 24 часа. Абсурдно е всичко, което се случва за това време - изолиране на щамове от начинаещ лаборант, рекокструиране на лицето по череп, пълно обгоряване на злодея и въпреки това той като въглен продължава да пакости ... дискотеки, секс с колежка в инвалидна количка, хоспитализиране и смъртта на детето му от птичия грип ... и какво ли още не.

Май единствено ми допаднаха няколкото препратки към викториански Лондон и опитът за също така мрачна готическа картина на фона на съвременната борба с пандемията.

Развръзката е най-голямото клише. Дори Resident evil, която пуцах усилено като юноша бледен е мисля преди романа създадена и по-добра откъм история с T-вируса, и откъм екшън.

Така и така е седял ръкописът под дебел слой "електронен прах" 15 г. - можеше да я поизпипа за това време.

Dolf Patijn

The author says he wrote this book in 2005 and the publisher didn't want to publish it because it was considered to be too unrealistic at the time. After reading, a little voice inside my head says that they probably just thought the book wasn't that good overall. Of course, they've published it now because a book set in London during a pandemic lockdown, written 15 years ago, would get a lot of readers just because of the novelty factor, which was also why I read it.

The story is mildly entertaining but the characters are not fleshed out properly (here I should say: pardon the pun but you would only understand that when you've read the book). The pandemic and lockdown aren't all that unbelievable, especially when read from a 2020 perspective, but he fails to create a palpable atmosphere that draws you in. There is no news from what is happening in the rest of the world, the shops have been looted and there are still gangs around but you don't really connect with the whole situation. The story is action-driven but the action isn't all that exciting and the build-up not that great. In the end, the way one of the bad guys is able to continue on is totally unbelievable.

Normally a thriller this size would take me only a few days to read but I put this book down several times to read short stories in between. In my opinion this is a mediocre thriller with an added novelty factor but it is not a book I would recommend to others. There are far better thrillers out there, also with an added bio-thread. I recommend "The Andromeda Strain", a 1969 techno-thriller novel by Michael Crichton.

Paula

Although you would think that this would be more about the pandemic it is not, but still it was overall a good read not quite 5 stars but worth the read.

This is a different crime thriller of what solving a murder crime would be like in a pandemic where the army control every check point, curfews for the everyday survivers.

D. I MacNeil faces sinister forces tracking his every movement, killing to conceal the truth. A truth that is shocking a despicable, and quite unnerving.

Giorgos K

Μια χαρά αστυνομικό θρίλερ,με το ανθρωποκυνηγητό του,με τον μπάτσο και το (φυσικά) προσωπικό δράμα του και με πολλά πτώματα.. Ωραίες οι περιγραφές του έρημου Λονδίνου που έχει χτυπηθεί απο τον ιο.. Κάπου κάπου με κούρασαν λιγακι οι περιγραφές γι αυτο και βάζω 4 αστέρια...

Odette Brethouwer

Gisteren postte ik nog dat dit best een prima boek is. Toch DNF ik hem nu. Ik neem jullie even bij de hand in mijn omgang met dit boek van begin tot eind.

Ik hoorde voor het eerst over dit boek ergens via sociale media geloof ik, met
dit CNN-nieuwsbericht. Ik vond dit zeker interessant klinken en was benieuwd naar dit boek.

Zodra ik beslis dat ik een boek wil lezen, lees ik er verder niks meer over. Dat komt omdat een paar leeservaringen zijn verpest door spoilers over het verhaal op de achterflap. Halverwege het CNN artikel dacht ik dus 'ah die ga ik lezen, ergens na verschijnen de pub scoren en eens kijken'.

De epub bleek inderdaad niet duur te zijn online, helemaal fijn! En ik begon met lezen. Ik had een boek over de Lockdown verwacht, met wat politie-elementen. Ik kreeg het omgekeerde.

Dit is een dertien in een dozijn-politiethriller. Met als uitzondering dat de setting in Lockdown is. Nu ben ik niet zo van de politiethrillers. Zeker niet als ze niet denderend geschreven zijn. (Ja, ik weet het, dit boek is 15 jaar oud en door de redactierondes heen gejaagd. Dat is een excuus, maar dat betekent niet dat ik me er doorheen moet worstelen). En er zitten gewoon te weinig Lockdown-elementen in voor mij om mijn aandacht vast te houden.

Ik was al niet overdonderd, maar dacht gister nog 'oh wel aardig om te lezen bij ontbijt en lunch'. Vanochtend onder de douche, met zin in mijn ontbijt, dacht ik 'oh, met lockdown..' en dat was voor mij genoeg om te denken oké, next, so many books.. En dus niet per se omdat het slecht is.

Het is eigenlijk een gemiddeld boek, en dan een beetje afgeraffeld met publiceren, vandaar 2*. Wel logisch allemaal want je wilt dit zo snel mogelijk in de winkels hebben. Maar mijn inziens niet e meest succesvolle onderneming zo dit.

Cheryl Beaton

I was so intrigued to see a book written about a lockdown that I immediately ordered it and read it within a couple of days. When Peter May first wrote this book 15 years ago he could get no-one to publish it as they felt it was "too far fetched". Well obviously we now know it isn't. It is amazingly accurate in its detail although, as the army patrol with guns at the ready, it does show how things could also have been far worse than our current lockdown. This was the first time I have read anything by Peter May and I was delighted by the strong storyline and great characters. A very exciting conclusion too! A great book!

Mieczyslaw Kasprzyk

There comes a point where you decide that life is too short to read poorly written books.
The story is a cliche, the relationships are cliche...
So sad.

Γιώτα Παπαδημακοπούλου

Βρισκόμαστε εν μέσω του δεύτερου lockdown και ποια θα μπορούσε να είναι η πιο διεστραμμένη επιλογή βιβλίου από ένα που φέρει τον τίτλο της κατάστασης που βιώνουμε. Ξέρω, δεν ακούγεται και πολύ ελπιδοφόρο και ίσως να μην είναι το ιδανικό τονωτικό για την ψυχολογία μας, αλλά υπάρχει και η αντίστροφη λειτουργία αυτής και σε προσωπικό τουλάχιστον επίπεδο, ενήργησε ακριβώς έτσι. Γιατί δεν πρέπει να μένουμε μόνο στα αρνητικά μιας κατάστασης, αλλά να βλέπουμε πέρα από αυτά. Έτσι έκανε και ο συγγραφέας του εν λόγω βιβλίου, μάλιστα, αφού είχε απορριφθεί πολλές φορές στο παρελθόν, καθώς οι εκδότες το θεωρούσαν υπερβολικό, αλλά η ζωή κύκλους κάνει και να πως ήρθαν τα πράγματα.

Η υπόθεση της ιστορίας μας εξελίσσεται σε ένα δυστοπικό, σχεδόν μεταποκαλυπτικό Λονδίνο, το οποίο προσφέρεται ως το ιδανικό σκηνικό για ένα θρίλερ αυτού του είδους. Είναι εκ φύσεως μουντό, μελαγχολικό, ομιχλώδες και μυστηριακά γοητευτικό, οπότε όλα αυτά τα στοιχεία πολλαπλασιάζονται στο μέγιστο υπό το βάρος της απειλής ενός θανατηφόρου ιού που απειλεί ολόκληρο τον πλανήτη και που έχει θέσει μια τόσο μεγάλη μητρόπολη στο επίκεντρο, αλλά και σε ένα καθολικό lockdown που επιβλέπεται αυστηρά, υπό το καθεστώς του στρατιωτικού νόμου και που παρ' όλα ταύτα κανείς δεν μπορεί να εγγυηθεί για την ασφάλεια κανενός.

Όλα αυτά ίσως να ακούγονται κάπως αγχωτικά, αλλά θεωρώ πως αυτό ίσως να ίσχυε περισσότερο προ κορωνοϊού και όχι τόσο πολύ σήμερα, που λίγο πολύ έχουμε φάει την κρυάδα, που λέει και ο λαός, και απλά περιμένουμε τη λήξη αυτής της μακράς περιόδου που μας έχει τσακίσει το ηθικό και τα νεύρα. Περισσότερο, θα έλεγα, πως όλα αυτά είναι βιωματικά πλέον, και σύμφωνα με τις παρούσες συνθήκες, και πως μέσα από την ιστορία του May βιώνουμε μια ακόμα οπτικής της δικιάς μας ιστορίας, που δεν έχει μόνο επιπτώσεις σε προσωπικό και συναισθηματικό επίπεδο, αλλά και σε πολιτικό, κοινωνικό, οικονομικό, με όλα αυτά να συνδέονται άρρηκτα μεταξύ τους αποσκοπώντας και σε μια εκ βαθέων κριτική όλων μας, σε όποια θέση κι αν βρισκόμαστε, υπό ένα βάρος σαν κι αυτό.

Όπως προανέφερα το βιβλίο έχει γραφτεί πολλά χρόνια πριν, πιο συγκεκριμένα το 2005, όταν είχε εμφανιστεί ο ιός Η5Ν1, με τους εκδότες να το απορρίπτουν ως μη ρεαλιστικό. Σίγουρα, για να εξυπηρετηθεί η μυθιστορηματική πλοκή, η αφήγηση εμπεριέχει αρκετές υπερβολές στα σημεία, αλλά αυτό δεν είναι ενοχλητικό, όσον αφορά το τελικό αποτέλεσμα, ακριβώς επειδή δεν έχουμε μια ρεαλιστική καταγραφή γεγονότων, μα μια ιστορία γεννημένη από τα σπλάχνα της μυθοπλασίας, η οποία έτυχε να πραγματωθεί σε μεγάλο βαθμό. Αφήνοντας, λοιπόν, τις όποιες υπερβολές στην άκρη, η ιστορία είναι εξαιρετικά καλογραμμένη, έχει ένταση και δυναμική, η γλαφυρή περιγραφικότητ�� του May είναι εντυπωσιακή και μας γεννά ρεαλιστικές εικόνες, ενώ υπάρχει η απαραίτητη κορύφωση όπου είναι πραγματικά αναγκαία η ύπαρξή της, βοηθώντας στο να διατηρηθεί αμείωτο το ενδιαφέρον μας.

Η αφήγηση είναι μοιρασμένη ανάμεσα σε τρία διαφορετικά πρόσωπα, γεγονός που όχι μόνο την καθιστά πολυδιάστατη, αλλά και που μας επιτρέπει να ρίξουμε μια πιο διεισδυτική ματιά στο σύνολο των γεγονότων και να αναλύσουμε ακόμα και τα πιο μικρά στοιχεία και δεδομένα σε μεγαλύτερο βάθος. Η ατμόσφαιρα είναι πολύ δυναμική, απειλητική, ενώ το ότι μέσα σε όλη αυτή τη θύελλα εξελίσσεται και η δράση ενός παρανοϊκού δολοφόνου, είναι το αλατοπίπερο της δράση σε μια αλυσιδωτή πορεία γεγονότων που συνδέονται με τρόπους που δεν περιμένουμε και που μας ξαφνιάζουν ευχάριστα. Εν κατακλείδι, έχουμε να κάνουμε με ένα ένα έντονο ψυχολογικό θρίλερ με αστυνομικές προεκτάσεις, δυστοπική αισθητική, κλειστοφοβική διάθεση, που όσο μας αγχώνει και μας τρομοκρατεί, άλλο τόσο μας γοητεύει.

Title	:	Lockdown
Author	:	Peter May
Rating	:
ISBN	:	-
ISBN-10	:	9781529411683
Language	:	English
Format Type	:	ebook
Number of Pages	:	416
Publication	:	First published January 1, 2020

Lockdown by Peter May

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