As COVID-19 brings the world to its knees, one woman's obsession threatens to upend a relationship in Lockdown Alpha, a thrilling new novel by Karl Shergill. When a blossoming romance is suddenly locked down alongside the rest of society, a would-be lover's all-consuming infatuation spirals into stalking. Isolated and impervious to rejection, she ensnares her desired partner in a web of escalating manipulation and control. Interlaced with scenes of the pandemic remaking familiar landscapes into ghost towns, this psychological page-turner explores the terror of individuals trying to connect in a fractured world. Skirting the line between insidious and insane, the stalker's disturbing yet magnetic presence permeates the story as both a fitting avatar for these unmoored times and an unsettling embodiment of them. Lockdown Alpha fuses interpersonal horror with societal collapse, while asking pressing questions about what happens when our handles on reality start to fray.