Lockdown by Peter May

I bought this book while going through Reader's Block, so it took me a couple of months to get through the 398 pages. I listened to a lot of audiobooks during this time. My reading has returned in the meantime and I polished off the final hundred pages of Lockdown. 

It's a cop story set in the pandemic and we get a very bleak version of London's lockdown, this fictional one (published in 2020, but written fifteen years earlier). The army ensures no one without a pass is on the streets after a certain time. D.I. Jack MacNeil is on his last day on the force. Retirement looms, but he desperately wants to find the killer of a child and successfully finish off a ruined career. All the while, his son lies dying of the virus in a bed surrounded by thousands of others in the same situation. 

This book kicks off at a good pace but slows down a lot as the characters are fleshed out. And I feel a lot of time is spent on Amy and her need to put a face on the bones that were found. 

This book was written in 2005 and was unpublished. This was my introduction to Peter May. I bought three of his books in one hit. I hope this book isn't a hint of what is to come. Lockdown wandered, and in the end, D.I. MacNeil finds the answers to who the child is, what happened to her, and by whom. However, there are a lot of holes in this book, and all the threads used in this book are not fully resolved. And it comes across as a bit formulaic. 

It is an easy read, and I think Pinky was the perfect villain (and the star of the book. I loved his scenes).