1979
1979
Having drafted an overview of information so far on my big study of the historic Jesus, (phew!!) my brain was spinning so I needed some light relief.
International bestseller queen of crime Val McDermid can usually be relied on to keep the pages turning, but in this case it was much more the story behind her writing 1979 than it was the fictional tale of journalist Alison Burns – a woman in a man’s world, chasing big scoops to make her name in the newsroom – that grabbed my attention.
When the pandemic struck the UK at the beginning of the decade and life as we know it ground to a halt, Val was writing this novel, relying on access to people and sources to keep the historical detail authentic. She had herself been a journalist, living and working in Glasgow in 1979, and she knew she needed to study the archives of the main newspapers of that era. A lesser writer would have succumbed to the temptation to put it all on hold; take a break. Not Val McDermid. She pays tribute to the many people who supplied the information she couldn’t get for herself, who helped her get the detail right, and to her partner, Jo Sharp, who kept her sane and motivated when writing seemed impossible in the face of all that was going on in real life.
The result is an unusual-for-her tale; I didn’t recognise her familar brilliant prose. Alison Burns teams up with a new colleague, Danny Sullivan, to deliver a baby, investigate a terrorist threat, and pursue a case of money laundering on an eye-watering scale. Along the way they make powerful enemies and uncover information that could wreck careers. All does not end well, but Allie Burns is established as a principal character in yet another series of McDermid crime series.