McDermid comes from a working-class family in Fife. She studied English at St Hilda's College, Oxford, [1] where she was the first student to be admitted from a Scottish state school. [2] Allie Burns had hoped that 1979 would allow her to get off on the right foot, but things were not looking too great. The year started with a massive blizzard and she was tasked with reporting it, as well as sundry other ‘light’ stories that her editor thought she might be able to handle. As an investigative journalist, Allie Burns had hoped to uncover the major stories in and around Glasgow, but she was relegated to the fluff, things that ‘women would want to read about’. While not as graphic nor dark as some of Mcdermid's work, 1979 is a compelling look at a time in the not so distant past, but a time that was very different to today. Women were still very much second class citizens, struggling to make their way in a man's world. There are no computers, no mobile phones. In the first episode, the detective is tasked with reopening a historical murder investigation that has been the subject of a provocative true crime podcast.

Although the book is full of references to pop music of the day, there is one unmentioned album of that year that ran through my head the entire time I was reading - the Kinks' Low Budget, particularly "Superman": McDermid herself was a journalist in 1979, and in this novel, she brings the newsroom to life. In 1979, she captures the atmospheric, dismal, and gray atmosphere of 1979 Scotland. Political strife, class struggles, sexism, and sexuality are some of the themes at the forefront of this novel. I know little of Scotland’s modern political history, and I learned much from reading this. a b Coreena Ford (29 December 2012). "Author Val McDermid assaulted at Sunderland book signing". Journal Live . Retrieved 11 January 2012.

First and foremost, a large thank you to NetGalley, Val McDermid, Grove Atlantic, and Atlantic Monthly Press for providing me with a copy of this publication, which allows me to provide you with an unbiased review. You introduce a garnish of Scots into Still Life – I learned thrawn means contrary and gallus cheeky. Which are you?

The debut of an intense new series, 1979 is an atmospheric journey into the past with intriguing insight into the present, from a Diamond Dagger winner and multiple Edgar Award finalist.

Valarie McDermid, FRSE , FRSL (born 4 June 1955) is a Scottish crime writer, best known for a series of novels featuring clinical psychologist Dr. Tony Hill, in a grim sub-genre known as Tartan Noir. Absolutely fantastic. I have been reading Val McDermid for twenty-five years, so I am really saying something when I tell you I enjoyed this novel the most." - Chris Brookmyre It is the first of a series of five books which will propel the redoubtable heroine almost bang up to date in 2019 by the time the pentalogy is complete. It is the winter of discontent, and reporter Allie Burns is chasing her first big scoop. There are few women in the newsroom and she needs something explosive for the boys’ club to take her seriously.

Val McDermid ends Raith Rovers support over David Goodwillie deal". BBC News. 1 February 2022 . Retrieved 1 February 2022. a b "Dr Val McDermid – English, 1972". St Hilda's College, Oxford. 29 January 2016 . Retrieved 29 May 2019. Val McDermid talks about the novels that have influenced her in the Guardian bookshop challenge, 7 June 2010. Allie has ambition. And talent. So when an opportunity arises to collaborate on a story that doesn't involve items for the women's desk, she jumps at the chance. Then, knowing that a reporter's reputation is only as good as her last story, she embarks on a dangerous exposé. McDermid is a radical feminist and socialist. [36] [29] She has incorporated feminism into some of her novels. [37] Works [ edit ] Lindsay Gordon series [ edit ]We read crime fiction for enjoyment, comfort and reassurance. McDermid provides all this . . . Still Life shows that she is still at the height of her powers; it is deeply enjoyable, one of her best.”— Scotsman (UK) on Still Life Throughout all of this, Allie has been able to keep her relationship with fellow journalist Rona a secret. As she puts it, she has stayed under the gaydar for years but knows this will change and feels the anti-gay resentment that the HIV/AIDS epidemic has created globally. The focus of her next story is the mass exodus of AIDS patients from Edinburgh to Great Britain and other parts of Europe so they can be treated. Edinburgh may be the AIDS hotbed of the area, but they are far from ably equipped to battle the disease. In terms of perspective and subject-matter, 1979 is a literary side-step from Val McDermid's two best-known crime series, one featuring Psychologist Dr. Tony Hill and D.C.I. Carol Jordan (adapted into the award-winning ITV series The Wire in the Blood), the other D.C.I. Karen Pirie. However, long-term fans like myself will recall her 1990s era Lindsay Gordan series, which also featured a female investigative journalist as the main protagonist. Then there’s a leap of 25 years when this cold case is reopened, along with the reopening of old wounds. Things are changing, and Alex can feel it. Two of his mates are murdered, and there is something going on, something sinister.

In a first for this reviewer, I also listened to 1979 as an audiobook and was impressed by the narration skills of Scottish actress Katie Leung, who deftly brought all of the characters to life – both male and female – and handled the changes of pace and tone well. McDermid is a vivid writer and her descriptive work shone in the hands of an expert narrator. I enjoyed this ‘double bubble’ experience and will definitely be doing it again!I never spook myself, says top Scots crime writer Val McDermid". Daily Record. 31 August 2016 . Retrieved 25 October 2016. The prolific crime writer Val McDermid begins a new series featuring an ambitious investigative journalist, Allie Burns, a Fife Cambridge graduate, a grunt reporter working for the Glasgow Daily Clarion in 1979. This is a particularly politically turbulent period of British history with its winter of discontent, the power cuts, the strikes, paving the way for the election of the Conservatives under the radical and divisive defining leadership of Maggie Thatcher. This book captures the time, with its culture, music, literature, films, the newspaper industry with its boys only culture which McDermid was a part of, lending an authenticity to her storytelling, with the social norms and attitudes of the era, the sexism and the misogyny, and the widespread prevalence of anti-gay attitudes that could ruin lives and careers. Overall. I can’t wait to see what Allie gets up to next and where her life and career journey takes her - this is the start of another good Val McDermid series in my opinion. I did like all the era-setting details - the first mobile phones, dial-up internet, the early clubbing scene, and having to go to a library when you wanted to know something, and the playlist at the end is superb - gosh I love 80s music, but for overall enjoyment I can stretch to 3 stars, no more, and doubt I’ll be continuing this series - I’m just hanging out for more Karen Pirie, & Tony and Carol books. Thanks to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for the ARC; I am posting this honest review voluntarily.