PETER MAY

When Shadows Fall – Alex Gray

The Englishman – David Gilman Hermit – S.R. White Blackwatertown – Paul Waters

Having been forced to cancel a trip to Spain in April and a research trip to the Arctic Circle in May, along with numerous promotional events and festivals, I really thought that this enforced lockdown was going to provide me with the time to read for pleasure that I hadn’t enjoyed in years.

Then out of the blue, an unpublished book that I wrote 15 years ago became a worldwide phenomenon. It was called Lockdown, a crime thriller set against the backdrop of a London locked down by a viral pandemic. There followed an endless succession of TV, radio and press interviews, and I saw my reading time start to slip away.

Fortunately I had some ‘homework’ that meant I was obliged to make time to read. Soon-to-be-published manuscripts – more than I could ever possibly digest – are frequently offered to me for comment and cover quotes, and there were four that I had promised to cast eyes over. They took me on an interesting world tour.

The first was an intriguing novel by Scottish crime writer Alex Gray, When Shadows Fall, a police procedural featuring one of Alex’s

regular characters, DCI Lorimer. This was a trip down memory lane for me, with its settings of Glasgow, rural Renfrewshire and Paisley – Glasgow where I was born, Renfrewshire where I grew up, and Paisley where I got my first job in newspapers. The hardback came out in March, and the paperback will appear in November, published by Sphere.

The second was a pulse-pounding thriller in the mould of the Terry Hayes bestseller, I Am Pilgrim. It was called The Englishman and is written by David Gilman. Much of the book centres on a brutal kidnapping in London, but reaches a gripping climax in the snowy wastes of Northern Russia. It is out on 9 July, published by Head of Zeus.

The third was a powerful psychological thriller called Hermit, a debut novel by Australian writer S.R. White that takes us through a series of interviews between a troubled investigating officer and the recalcitrant suspect in a puzzling small-town murder in Oz. An intense battle of wills and minds. The novel is published by Headline on 17 September.

The fourth was a complete departure, taking me back to my early twenties when I was deeply into Irish literature, reading such gems as Flan O’Brien’s The Third Policeman, and The Beastly Beatitudes of Balthazar B by JP Donleavy. Blackwatertown by Paul Waters, an Irish journalist, is an intriguing tale set in 1950s Ireland, and inspired by actual, near farcical, events that precipitated real tension between north and south.

Charmingly written, but with an underlying sense of menace that drives the narrative, Paul’s book had not yet found a publisher when he sent it to me. By the time I had read it and provided a quote, not only did it have a publisher, Unbound, but a publication date of 23 July.

Peter May’s latest – and most prescient – thriller, Lockdown, is out now.

Charmingly written, it has an underlying sense of menace