It is still January, and 1979 has already brought snowstorms, strikes, power outages, and political turmoil. For journalist Ali Burns, however, the bad news is her chance to escape the "women's issues" that her editors at the Scottish newspaper Daily Clarion continue to assign her.
Teaming up with the promising investigative journalist Danny Sullivan, they uncover a case of international tax fraud and an attempt by a group of ultra-nationalists to cause chaos in the country on the eve of the referendum for Scotland's separation from the United Kingdom. Their revelations will attract attention and create enemies for the two young, rising journalists.
As they get closer to the bloody edge of the truth, Ali and Danny will discover that their own lives hang by a thread. The first book in Val McDermid's new series, 1979 transports us to the smoke-filled newsroom of the Daily Clarion, resonating with the deafening noise of the printing presses and the frantic clatter of typewriters.
An atmospheric journey into the past that has much to say about the present, 1979 is the latest, gripping, intricately crafted addition to McDermid's noir pantheon. Val McDermid's best-selling novels, recognized by both audiences and critics as the queen of British crime fiction, continue to captivate readers around the world for over thirty years. In 1979, McDermid returns to the past with the story of Ali Burns, an investigative journalist whose topics lead her into a world of corruption, horror, and deadly crimes.
