1979

Set in 1979 amidst the blizzards and power cuts and struggles for Scottish independence and political unrest of the day, Cambridge graduate from Fife Allie Burns is working as a journalist for the Glasgow Daily Clarion. She runs into colleague Danny Sullivan on the train and they team up in an investigation into an international tax fraud which gets them noticed. Together they expose the criminal underbelly of respectable Scotland but risk making powerful enemies, but Allie won't stop there. She discovers a home-grown terrorist threat and comes up with a plan to infiltrate the group and make her name. But she is a female journalist in a man's world and putting a foot wrong could be fatal. With all the dark atmosphere of a rather gloomy Glasgow riddled with alleys and where much drink is taken, McDermid herself was a newshound at the time and it shows. This is her best book in years. 418pp in glamorous hardback with fairly large print.