Interview: Ken McClure, author of 18th medical thriller novel,White Death

Dr Steven Dunbar is back for his seventh outing in the book, which asks: If terrorists embark upon a biological attack, can enough vaccine be produced in time to save lives?

Working for the Sci-Med Inspectorate, an elite government agency charged with investigating high-tech crime in the world of science and medicine, ex-Para Dunbar has previously been forced to go undercover at Medic Ecosse, a state-of-the-art new private hospital in Edinburgh; risk his life uncovering the secret of a West Lothian farm's genetically modified crop and investigate the bloody outbreak of a highly contagious ebola-type virus.

In White Death, he flies into Edinburgh to investigate the apparent suicide of a local GP -a death that may be a murder connected to his treatment of a young patient with an mysterious skin condition.

Explaining the origins of his 18th novel, McClure says, "At the moment, we are desperately short of vaccine in case of a biological attack. However, there has never been a worse time for pharmaceutical companies to be interested in designing them because the public are demanding 100 per cent safe vaccines and there is no such thing.

"Unfortunately, politicians back the public because they rely on their votes. They have strangled the pharmaceutical industry with red tape, regulations and trials. So the pharmaceutical companies don't want to make vaccines any more.

"When we do have a pandemic or an attack, there is going to be a desperate rush to find ways around all these rules and regulations. White Death is about what happens when you start to take short cuts developing vaccines."

Edinburgh-born McClure, whose novels have been translated into more than 20 languages, admits that he's pleasantly surprised that Dr Steven Dunbar has survived seven outings – although he did rest him for a couple of years after the 2007 novel, The Lazarus Strain, in which he took on al-Qaida operatives.

"I always intended to bring him back. So many people kept asking about him and asking if he was ever going to find a new love of his life – usually she dies around chapter 10," the 66-year-old says with a chuckle.

"I am delighted at how popular he has become, but it has caused problems." He pauses for a moment, before revealing sheepishly, "Certain women have fallen in love with Steven Dunbar and I have to answer his love mail when they e-mail the Ken McClure site."

But does he reply as Steven or Ken? Laughing, he insists, "Let's draw a veil over this - it's bizarre."

No sooner has Dunbar solved one case, however, than McClure has him embarking on his next.

Due for publication next summer, and provisionally titled A Fine And Private Place, it finds the author looking back into one of the deadliest periods of British history for his inspiration.

"At the moment there's a medical dispute about the cause of the Black Death in the 14th century. Everybody thinks it was bubonic plague, but there is quite a strong body of evidence to suggest that it wasn't a bacterium but a virus.

"Some scientists think it was smallpox virus others that it was a killer virus that died out at the time and hasn't been seen since. The problem of proving the case one way or another is that 700 years have passed and there aren't enough decent corpses to examine.

"So, in the next book, Steven is going to be caught up in this debate when it comes to light that there is a secret tomb of preserved bodies from that time under Dryburgh Abbey in the Scottish Borders."

So White Death could be followed by Black Death . . .

Is there be a new strain of novels developing?

White Death by Ken McClure is published this month by Polygon, priced 16.99

SMILING ASSASSIN: Ken McClure's 18th medical thriller novel, White Death, based in Edinburgh, is published this month

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