I've been reading books by Val McDermid for almost 20 years but she continues to surprise me with her plots. I listened to this one, narrated by Katie Leung, and loved the accents. They made the story seem so Scottish in a way that reading a book doesn't quite do.

It's the year 1979 and Allie Burns is a journalist working at the Clarion newspaper in Glasgow. On a train trip back from visiting her family in Edinburgh for Christmas she runs into her co-worker, Danny Sullivan. The train gets stopped by snow and then a woman goes into labour. Danny and Allie help deliver the baby and Allie writes up the story for the paper. Danny doesn't want his part in it mentioned because he's working on a big investigation about an insurance company fraud. The company is Paragon insurance and Danny's brother, Joseph, is involved up to his neck. Allie, who is the better writer of the two, drafts the article and she and Danny agree tokeep Joseph's name out of it. Despite this Joseph is fired and Danny's parents blame Danny, causing a huge rift between him and the rest of the family. Allie, meanwhile, has been following the Scottish Independence vote story and has heard some guys plotting to plant bombs like the IRA do. Unable to go undercover herself, she convinces Danny to do it and soon he is plotting to get bomb making materials with the other three. The paper's editor is closely supervising this and he gets a few other staffers involved. The crime beat reporter brings in a source who is with the secret police. When Danny sees him he almost has a heart attack. See, Danny is gay (remember this is 1979 and sex between people of the same gender is still illegal) and he has seen the source in gay bars. Lately, he saw this man "snogging" with another of the terrorism plotters. He tells Allie about this, which means coming out of the closet to her but Allie is fine with that. Since this is a mystery, you know someone is going to be killed but I'm not going to disclose who that is. Read the book yourself.

We are planning a trip to Scotland this summer and we have a few days in Glasgow so I'm trying to get a feel for the place through my reading choices. I think I'll have to read/listen to the follow-up before we go. ( )

Allie Burns is a new journalist for the Daily Clarion. She and another journalist, Danny Sullivan, help deliver a baby on a train ride. Although Danny did most of the delivery work, Allie is told to write it up as a sort of first-person splash. She and Danny begin collaborating on further articles. Both want to become investigative journalists.

Danny starts in on one about Paragon Investment Insurance, who are running a tax-dodging scheme. Danny's brother, Joseph, is at the center of the scheme, but they keep him out of the write up. None the less, once the big splash has come down, Joseph is implicated by the insurance company, if not the cops, and he loses his fancy job. This also creates a rift between Danny and his family.

Allie overhears some guys talking in a bar, and gets a feeling they are thinking of some kind of terrorist-style violence to nudge people toward voting for Scottish freedom from the U.K. Danny infiltrates the small group, eventually arranges things so that the group are captured, and the violence they'd planned, some bombings, are avoided. But, someone is unhappy, and Danny is murdered. So, is Allie now in trouble as well, given that she had been a close collaborator? Well, read the book yourself to find out.

This was a pretty interesting book. It was set in 1979, so the author worked hard to evoke that era. As nearly as I can remember those days myself (a few years after I settled in MA and became a Masshole), she did a find job of that.

For some weird reason, three people "liked" my review, even before I posted it. What's up with that? Oh, and I should also mention that the 3* rating deserves a , but for some reason, GoodReads don't allow half stars. Why is that?
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The best part of this crime novel was the vivid setting - Glasgow in 1979. McDermid deftly weaves contemporaneous cultural and societal and historical references into the narrative. And she's created an interesting character in Allie Burns, a rookie reporter at a daily newspaper.

What didn't work for me was the actual plot - it was both over-simplified and required a degree of suspension of disbelief that I couldn't muster. That said, this is the first in a series, and I would definitely give #2 a try.

3.5 stars ( )

This is the 1st book in the series starring Allie Burns a reporter from the Glasgow based Daily Clarion.
She is seen by the old Male hacks as a silly wee lassie, Newsrooms in those days were like old boys clubs and they spent lots of time in the Pub, but she teams up with a nice young colleague called Danny Sullivan they expose a major Tax fraud case that has turned Danny's family against him as his brother Joseph worked for this insurance company who was carrying out this fraud.
Allie move on to next big scoop that involves Scottish independence militants who want to cause havoc with a bombing spree. (1979 was a big year for Scotland the country was going through transition and the Nationalists for gaining a foothold in politics) The potential bombers buy explosives with the help of Danny's money.
They need to keep their investigation under wraps. They might some dodgy dangerous people along the way.
Danny is brutally murdered Ali who really liked him finds his body. Danny was in the closet as being Gay in Scotland in those days was a big shame.
Allie has a few suspects she thinks could have committed the murder but it turns out to be his brother Joseph as he was after Danny's money and life insurance from the newspaper.

I am looking forward to reading 1989 next book in this series. ( )

The start of what seems to be another great series from Val McDermid, this one set in the journalistic milieu of late 1970s Glasgow. Hard to put down and a very enjoyable read. ( )