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Val McDermid

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1979 (The Allie Burns Novels) Kindle Edition

by Val McDermid (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.1 9,047 ratings

Book 1 of 2: The Allie Burns Novels

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A Scottish journalist is drawn into a world of corruption, terror, and murder in the new novel by “one of crime fiction’s most eminent writers” (Entertainment Weekly).

The year started badly and only got worse—blizzards, strikes, power cuts, and political unrest were the norm. For investigative journalist Allie Burns, however, someone else’s bad news was the unmistakable sound of opportunity knocking, and 1979 is ripe with possibilities.

But Allie is a woman in what is still a man’s world. Desperate to get away from the “women's stories” the Glasgow desk keeps assigning her, she strikes up an alliance with wannabe investigative journalist Danny Sullivan. From the start, their stories create enemies. First an international tax fraud, then a potential Scottish terrorist group aiming to cause mayhem ahead of an impending referendum. And then Danny is found murdered in his flat. For Allie, investigative journalism just got personal.

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.

“The queen of psychological thrillers.” —Irish Independent

“There are few other crime writers in the same league.” —The Washington Post

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Praise for 1979:

A Seattle Times Pick for “Best Books of Fall 2021”
One of the UK Spectator’s Best Reviewed Books of the Week
A Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine Pick for Year’s Best 2021

“A delightful throwback . . . McDermid has always packed her stories with a streetwise humor and a fierce impatience with how most institutions still favor the rich, the White, the male. And, the straight . . . 1979 is as much a female bildungsroman as it is a suspense story.” —Maureen Corrigan, Washington Post“McDermid, a writer who can cast a character like few others, has created the perfect circumstances into which to introduce a woman of intelligence and ambition living in a world that works to push her into the kitchen . . . This book has everything one expects from McDermid but offers a bit more; some history, some politics, and a peek at what came before.”—Margaret Cannon, The Globe and Mail“Val McDermid is a legend in the crime fiction world . . . So, it might seem strange to say that she may be embarking on her magnum opus with the release of her latest novel 1979, and yet that might just be the reality . . .[1979] is so much more than a crime novel—it is a testament to its time-period, a snapshot view of our history.”–Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine“Doyenne of Scottish crime fiction . . . A standout in McDermid’s impressive body of work . . . The book is also a funny and affectionate farewell to the 70s, rendered so authentically it could have been written on a manual typewriter.” —Lisa Henricksson, Air Mail“Modern-day Queen of Crime . . . 1979 is classic Val McDermid and great fun from start to finish.” —Ray Palen, Book Reporter “[A] remarkably vivid picture of the tabloid newsprint culture of 40 years ago . . . McDermid can do edge-of-seat suspense better than most novelists. But what really lingers in the mind is the world she has created in 1979, long before the internet and the end of the Cold War. Among other things, she reminds us how much newspapers mattered in those days . . . enjoy this excellent opener to what promises to be an outstanding series.” —Andrew Taylor, The Spectator
“Masterful . . . 1979 is an enthralling novel and this series will, no doubt, be addictive.” —Oline H. Gogdill, South Florida Sun Sentinel “A sterling series launch from McDermid . . . McDermid does an excellent job capturing a time in Scotland’s history fraught with political unrest, IRA terrorism, and labor strikes that nearly paralyze the country. Fans will look forward to seeing more of the highly capable Allie.” —Publishers Weekly (Starred review)“[McDermid] does a great job of capturing the atmosphere of the time . . . She enlivens the narrative with much ‘tabloidese’ and her customary generous usage of Scottish idioms . . . This absorbing tale ends with the promise of more about Allie from one of the UK's masters of crime fiction.” —Jane Murphy, Booklist“News of a new novel from Val McDermid is always cause for celebration, and 1979 is a series starter with an intriguing hook.” —Vannessa Cronin, Amazon Book Review“McDermid does not hold back . . . With its retrospective feminist rage, its Glaswegian setting and a relatable central character, 1979 has all the ingredients for yet another successful McDermid series.” —Sue Turnbull, Sydney Morning Herald“A queen of the genre in Britain . . . The plot is engrossing, the period atmosphere brilliant, and who can ever get enough of the way Scottish people talk?” —Kirkus Reviews (Starred review) “Not content with having written four other excellent crime series . . . Val McDermid has spent lockdown formulating a fifth . . . A nail-biting account of the newsroom, and Allie is another character I’m looking forward to learning more about.” —Alison Flood, Guardian“[A] time-capsule of a novel.”—The Strand Magazine“A powerful portrayal by an author who has been revived by this first-rate series…One to enjoy.” —Jeremy Black, The Critic (UK)“If you're looking to hop into a series that's as new and fresh as it is heart-pounding, you'll want to jump onto this bandwagon now!”—Kelsey McConnell, Murder & Mayhem

Praise for Val McDermid:

"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

"McDermid remains unrivalled . . . brilliant."—Observer (UK) on How the Dead Speak

"McDermid is at the top of her game and readers will be highly rewarded for taking this new journey at her side."—Crime Reads

"Further evidence that her 'Queen of Crime' status will not be challenged."—Scotsman (UK) on How the Dead Speak

"There are few other crime writers in the same league as Val McDermid. Her stories are ingeniously plotted, moody . . . Absorbing . . . It's Karen's character that's the enduring draw of this series . . . Out of Bounds is another terrific and intricate suspense novel by a writer who has given us 30 of them. As I said, there are few other crime writers in the same league as Val McDermid."—Maureen Corrigan, Washington Post on Out of Bounds

"McDermid excels in putting the reader at the center of the action . . . When all is said and done, rough justice is achieved in The Skeleton Road, but my bones tell me we haven't seen the last of Inspector Pirie–or at least I hope not."—Janet Napolitano, Los Angeles Times

"McDermid's books are relentlessly excellent, with sympathetically flawed characters, well-crafted storylines, a clever twist or two, and crisp dialogue. It's no wonder she's considered the queen of Scottish crime fiction."—BookPage on Broken Ground

About the Author

VAL MCDERMID's best-selling novels have won the Los Angeles Times Book of the Year Award, and the Crime Writers' Association's Gold Dagger and Cartier Diamond Dagger Award for outstanding achievement. She is also a multiple finalist for the Edgar Award, including for the Fact Crime nominee Forensics.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B08YS2GZC4
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Atlantic Monthly Press (Oct. 5 2021)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 2402 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 375 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #100,914 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #348 in Noir Mysteries & Thrillers
- #1,574 in International Mystery & Crime (Books)
- #3,590 in Spy Thrillers

Customer Reviews:
4.1 9,047 ratings

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Val McDermid

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Val McDermid is a number one bestseller whose novels have been translated into more than forty languages, and have sold over eighteen million copies. She has won many awards internationally, including the CWA Gold Dagger for best crime novel of the year and the LA Times Book of the Year Award. She was inducted into the ITV3 Crime Thriller Awards Hall of Fame in 2009, was the recipient of the CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger in 2010 and received the Lambda Literary Foundation Pioneer Award in 2011. In 2016, Val received the Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction Award at the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival and in 2017 received the DIVA Literary Prize for Crime, and was elected a Fellow of both the Royal Society of Literature and the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Val has served as a judge for the Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Man Booker Prize, and was Chair of the Wellcome Book Prize in 2017. She is the recipient of six honorary doctorates and is an Honorary Fellow of St Hilda’s College, Oxford. She writes full-time and divides her time between Edinburgh and East Neuk of Fife.

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sheila mcculloch

Brand new series

Reviewed in Canada on September 29, 2023

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Really liked the new character. I have read almost all of Val McDermid’s books and have been a fan for many years. Enjoyed this one so much have already picked up the next one in the series.

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Matt Pechey

New Series, Same McDermid Intensity!

Reviewed in Canada on October 10, 2021

Whenever I see a piece by Val McDermid, I know it will be a rollercoaster ride through the world of thrills and mystery. This series debut was no exception, as McDermid not only introduces the reader to a gritty investigative journalist, but takes things back to a time before the technological breakthrough made journalism a 24/7 reporting game. Allie Burns is a well-balanced journalist, but has come to realise that working in Scotland in the late 1970s is not as easy as she would have hoped. It’s 1979 and she’s stuck writing about issues that are important to women, rather than getting bloody in the real issues of the day. When Allie meets fellow reporter, Danny Sullivan, they decide to take Glasgow by storm. Their work reveals some real winners, including a tax fraud scheme that is sure to rock the country. However, it is a political piece that could really make a difference, while putting them both in the crosshairs of some troublesome individuals. Allie soon faces a significant setback, but is determined not to let this derail her passion or gritty personality. An intriguing start to a new series for Val McDermid.

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’.

Danny Sullivan had issues of his own in 1979, but it was not a lack of action. Rather, he’d uncovered a major tax fraud scheme taking place, where businessmen could siphon off their money and invest it in an offshore bank on the other side of the world. What’s worse, Danny’s own brother was in the thick of it, making the story all the more delicate. Slow and steady, he told himself, all in the hopes of making the headline and earning a decent byline.

When Allie and Danny began working together, they proved to be unstoppable. Both full of grit and determination, the pair were able to turn up every stone and get to the heart of the matter, impressing editors and readers alike. While they worked on the tax story, news arose about something else in the lead up to the Scottish Referendum on Devolution. Danny made inroads with a group who sought to turn up the heat and bring a little violence to help things along.

Sitting on the story, both Danny and Allie knew they’d need to take action if there was any chance of catching the exclusive. Danny worked from the inside, befriending the group and discovering their ties to the IRA, while Allie used her superior writing skills to pen the story they’d present for publication. It was around this time that Allie learned another secret that Danny had been keeping, one that could really cause him grief. However, this was one story that Allie vowed to keep under her hat.

When the stories broke and the accolades came tumbling in, Allie set about to celebrate with Danny, only to discover that he’d been murdered in his flat. Who could have done such a thing and for what reason? While Allie was well aware that they had both made many enemies, she could not surmise who would want to take such drastic action. Donning her investigative hat, this was one story she’d have to write alone, fuelled by the need for answers and a truth that was hiding in the shadows. McDermid does well with this piece, keeping the reader hooked until the final page turn.

While I have long enjoyed the work of Val McDermid, I am usually arriving well after the series has started and playing catch-up. It was nice to get an early peek at this series and see that it is sure to pack quite a punch for the reader and anyone else who takes the time to enjoy it. McDermid has done well to develop the series and keep the reader on their toes throughout. I have high hopes for this novel and the series that is to come.

Allie Burns plays a strong protagonist throughout, though she dies share the limelight for most of the novel with Danny Sullivan. Both have great backstories and find the time to develop throughout this piece. Their connection is primarily with work, but there are personal moments that show a deeper and more meaningful linkage. Complemented by others who grace the pages of the book, McDermid adds characters who matter and whose placement provides a flavour for the narrative that keeps the story on track.

While there are many angles a thriller can take to deliver on crime and confrontation, McDemid always seems able to find a new approach. Readers can revel in that and find something that they can take away for themselves, finding a degree of excitement. The narrative flowed well throughout, keeping the story moving in a forward direction. Characters kept the piece exciting and intriguing, not least because of their Scottish slang that was peppered throughout. McDermid puts Scotland front and centre throughout, providing a treat for those who are not from the region. I quite enjoyed the grittiness that emerged as the story developed and cannot wait to see how Allie Burns will emerge into the 1980s, scarred but not broken.

Kudos, Madam McDermid, for another winner. You always seem to find a way to impress me with your writing.

2 people found this helpful

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S. Mitchell

Great story telling

Reviewed in Canada on January 9, 2022

Verified Purchase

Loved it, with lots of twists and turns. A must read. 5 stars for sure!

One person found this helpful

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jodom

Pages fly by

Reviewed in Canada on October 5, 2021

4.5 stars that I gladly rounded up to 5 as the ending left me wanting to read Book 2 in the Allie Burns Series.

It is 1979 and newspaper reporters Allie Burns and Danny Sullivan are on to what appears to be 2 of the biggest stories of their young career.

There is an element of danger and the book is so atmospheric I could hear the typewriter bells dinging and the carriage returning. You can almost smell the press room and the smoke in the office.

You could feel the cold from the blizzards and the danger in the air as Allie and Danny investigate

It was an interesting and dangerous time in Scotland as they were heading to a controversial vote.

I can't wait for Book 2 in the Allie Burns series and see how the characters develop. I will be first in line to get my copy.

Thanks to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic Atlantic Monthly Press for a mesmerizing read.

2 people found this helpful

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Stephen Downing

Terrible, the worst Val McDernit I have read & I’ve read many.

Reviewed in Canada on March 14, 2022

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The main character was uninteresting & the plot juvenile.

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Theresa Sholty

The book came in excellent condition

Reviewed in the United States on April 6, 2024

Verified Purchase

This book was exactly as described.
Was very pleased as to fast it arrived.

Anne Witzleben

Es zieht sich

Reviewed in Germany on August 11, 2023

Verified Purchase

Ich stelle wieder fest, dass Val McDermid sehr spannende und ziemlich unineteressante Bücher geschrieben hat. Nach einem Drittel habe ich angefangen, quer zu lesen, und nach der Hälfte habe ich aufgegeben. Ich habe dann, wie in solchen Fällen, noch die letzten 20 Seiten gelesen, und das reicht völlig. Praktischerweise stehen am Ende "Zeitungsartikel", in denen das Wichtigste zusammengefasst ist.

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Adrian Bailey

A Good Read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 8, 2022

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Val McDermid is highly skilled at what she does, and far more reliable than many crime writers. You could say the plot is thin, the characterisation weak - but you'd have to say that about any of the fiction and telly drama the vast majority of us enjoy. Still, in this novel largely set in a busy tabloid newsroom, McDermid is a wizard at slanting a few attributes to a character to make them come to life. The characterisation is spot on for the needs of the reader. It has also been said rightly that it is much harder to write a good tabloid piece than being able to ramble on like a high brow. The state of Scotland in 1979 is evinced well: its bigotry, its persecution of gay people, corruption and shady police procedures, the independence debates. Also pleasurable to be reminded of the music around at the time. Interesting that Allie, the central character, is berated once for her copy: 'You're not writing for the Guardian!' Like McDermid, herself a tabloid news editor at one time, Allie is an Oxbridge graduate. A good Saturday night for her is on the sofa with the latest Le Carre and a box of chocolates. The generational gap between traditional working class and the newly educated is brought out well. Class and gender identity, intense religious divisions, the space between the respectable or aspirational working classes and the harder ways of life that are needed just to survive. All this and Glasgow itself as a looming character, invariably dark and gloomy and riddled with alleys and places of ill repute where much drink is taken. It would be daft to complain that McDermid is not Le Carre. She satisfies the first demand which is to bring a pleasurable reading experience.

One person found this helpful

Kindle Customer

A Scotish Story

Reviewed in Australia on April 14, 2022

Verified Purchase

As someone who probably never visit the land of my ancestors I am eternally grateful to Val McDermid for giving me such beautifully written stories of Scotland that fire the imagination and put you into the story with all its sights, smells and surprises.

Amanda

Excellent read

Reviewed in the United States on January 6, 2024

Verified Purchase

As always, Val McDermid delivers an excellent read. Her writing, as always, is superb. I must admit that this book was not one of my favourites, it being slightly different from her previous books, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

The main character, being a journalist, gave a different angle on the subject of crime... which took me a while getting used to in the novel.

I loved the setting of the newspaper room and all the ins and outs of how it worked back in 1979, and also how society was back then, specifically in the journalistic environment.

1979 is very authentically written, which comes from Val's own personal experience as a journalist in Scotland, early on in her career. For me, that made the read all the more enjoyable 😀

I am looking forward to the next chapter of the story in 1989!

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1979 (The Allie Burns Novels) Kindle Edition

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