2022-07-27
Scottish journalist Allie Burns reports on—and becomes entangled with—various gloomy events of 1989.
It was the year between the Lockerbie bombing and the fall of the Berlin Wall. It was a year of increasing AIDS deaths and no progress on treatment. A year when nearly a hundred fans were trampled at a football match in Sheffield. It was the year of many depressing developments, and McDermid has made poor Allie Burns slog through many of them, with very little of the suspense that made 1979 (2021), the first installment of her series, a page-turner. Back in '79, Allie met a lovely woman and realized that she was gay, which was fun. In '89, Allie and Rona are living together in cozy domesticity, eating a lot of rolls and processed cheese. The villain of this book, whose murder we see orchestrated in a prologue, is Allie's boss, media mogul Ace Lockhart. Lockhart has bought the news organization Allie works for and fired everyone but her, but this is only the least of his many crimes. This character is so uniformly bad that it's almost funny. "That evening, there was a letter from a philanthropist he’d met a few times, seeking a donation to his charity supporting Ethiopian Jews still recovering from the famine. Lockhart screwed it into a ball and tossed it in the bin. He was choosy about the charities he supported; he couldn’t see the point unless there was a way of finessing something in it for him." Of course he couldn't. He is a man who "seize[s] life by the throat," "snatch[es] opportunity from the jaws of defeat," and has many other clichés to embody, so don't waste his time with feckless famine victims. (The author will likely side with her character Rona here; when accused by Allie of mixing metaphors, she retorts "Oh, fuck off, Margaret Atwood.") The book's action climax takes place in East Germany, a setting so colorless and dull that two separate kidnappings can't raise the pulse of the narrative. Plodding mechanically and at undue length through her well-researched historical plot points, McDermid seems to have phoned this one in.
When the playlist at the end of the book is the highlight, you know you've got problems.
Praise for 1989:
“Stellar sequel . . . McDermid is writing at the top of her game.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review
“Ms. McDermid, a skillful plotter, thus builds the framework for an even more elaborate story. Sharp characterizations and startling revelations mark this outstanding work, which is by turns a murder mystery and a chilling tale of historical retribution.”—Tom Nolan, Wall Street Journal
“McDermid has fired up her time machine again and is taking us back to 1989 . . . A riveting look backward from Scotland’s Queen of Crime.”—Booklist (starred review)
"1989 is a great snapshot of a now-bygone era that is still eerily familiar. Allie Burns is a no-nonsense character, in much the same way as her creator, and the book pulls no punches whatsoever."—Ray Palen, Bookreporter
“Studded with a wealth of period detail . . . It whips along like bushfire.”―The Herald (UK)
“[McDermid is] subverting the crime genre to her own ends. How the remaining three volumes will turn out is anyone's guess.”―The Times (UK)
“Genius . . . It’s hard not to like a McDermid book, and she’s made Burns much more likeable and complex in this outing. Bring on 1989!”—CrimeReads
“There is a great deal to enjoy in this novel . . . McDermid remains a masterly setter of a scene and developer of a storyline.”―The Scotsman (UK)
“McDermid convincingly recreates the grim era of AIDS, Lockerbie and Hillsborough while providing several juicy mysteries for the reader to gnaw on.”―Daily Mirror (UK)
“One of Britain's most successful crime novelists . . . The novel evokes glorious nostalgia for those who recall mobile phones like house bricks and laptops the size of suitcases.”―The Sunday Times (UK)
“Readers are mired with Allie in the late ’80s, when mobile phones were the size of lunchboxes, when AIDS was ravaging the U.K., when a jetliner was bombed out of the sky over Lockerbie, Scotland, and when the Soviet Union was on the verge of collapse. All in all, not a time to be nostalgic for, and true to form, McDermid spins the tale without a whiff of sentimentality . . . You don’t need to read 1979 to hit the ground running with 1989, but you will want to have Wikipedia open to look up all the fascinating historical and cultural moments McDermid references along the way.”—BookPage
“Val McDermid’s ambitious project of chronicling each decade’s highlights, showing how big and small events relate to individuals, takes another leap forward with the enthralling 1989 … A playlist of McDermid's personal top 40 music enhances 1989, a novel that accentuates the decade's advances and failures.”—Oline H. Cogdill, Shelf Awareness
“Compelling, eye-opening, and utterly suspenseful, we love this series.” —Vannessa Cronin, Amazon Book Review
“1989 is a full-body immersion in a world gone by, and a constant reminder of how history determines the present.”—Angela Bauer, Jacksonville Journal-Courier
“A propulsive new thriller . . . [1989] is a tour de force from Val McDermid—bring on 1999.”—Janet Webb, Criminal Element
“In 1989, McDermid creates a vivid sense of memory . . . [and] addresses [powerful themes] in detail while weaving genuine history through a fictional story.”—Cara DiCostanzo, Mystery & Suspense
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
