Peter May wrote this sometime after 2005, long before the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. When he shopped the novel around, he couldn't find anyone to publish it. His own publisher thought the concept of London being under a lockdown due to a virus was 'unrealistic'.

May's story envisions London at the epicentre of a pandemic, where chaos reigns and military checkpoints are set up along the roads and highways.

A lethal strain of the bird flu -- H5N1 -- is killing its citizens. The hospitals and morgue are overflowing, the Prime Minister has died and the Deputy PM and Chancellor are jockeying for the seat.

When the bones and skull of a little girl are found in suitcase at a construction site, Dectective Jack MacNeil is called in. He's separated from his wife and is secretly seeing Amy, a disabled forensics officer working for the police.

The stub of a tube ticket found at the construction site leads MacNeil on the trail of the killer, through underground clubs, art studios, the slums. Eventually he traces the dead girl to a vacant house, followed all the while by a sinister criminal named Pinky.

Release to VanVBiohazard.