1989

Written by Val McDermid

Narrated by Katie Leung

Hailed as Britain’s Queen of Crime, Val McDermid’s award-winning, internationally bestselling novels have captivated readers for over three decades. The second novel in McDermid’s newest series, 1989 is a full-body immersion in a world gone by, and a constant reminder of how history determines the present.

It’s 1989 and journalist Allie Burns is growing up. Older and maybe wiser than the hustling young hack we met in 1979, she’s running the northern news operation of the Sunday Globe, chafing at losing her role in investigative journalism and at the descent into the gutter of the UK tabloid media. But there’s plenty
to keep her occupied. The year begins with the memorial service for the victims of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, but Allie has barely filed her copy when she stumbles over a story about HIV/AIDS that will shock her into a major change of direction. The world of newspapers is undergoing a revolution, there’s
skullduggery in the medical research labs and seismic rumblings behind the Iron Curtain. When murder is added to this potent mix, Allie will be called upon to chase a story that will take her further afield than she’d ever planned, and force her to question all her old certainties.

A riveting thrill ride of a novel from a captivating new series, 1989 confirms internationally bestselling author Val McDermid as one of crime fiction’s true masters.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Oct 25, 2022
• ISBN: 9781705086216

Val McDermid

Val McDermid is a number one bestseller whose novels have been translated into more than forty languages, and have sold over nineteen million copies. She has won many awards, including the CWA Gold Dagger the LA Times Book of the Year Award and the Cartier Diamond Dagger Award for outstanding achievement. She writes full-time and divides her time between Edinburgh and East Neuk of Fife.

Reviews for 1989

[edgoldberg · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Off to a very slow start...so slow that I didn't really want to read further. Maybe I'll pick it up again at another time.

[terran_9 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Besides the fact that I enjoyed this as a mystery, I appreciated the coverage of events in Scotland of 1989. Starting with Allie's coverage of the Lockerbie bombing tragedy, this account touches on the beginnings of the HIV/AIDS pandemic and the homophobic atmosphere throughout society in those times. Allie is given assignments in Eastern Europe which bring her into contact with the revolutionary political movements taking place across the Communist sector in that year. All in all, this provides broad-ranging coverage (or at least mention) of one year's happenings that changed history.

[breic-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Despite a very slow start, I think the novel redeems itself by the end—just barely.

[eyejaybee · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Val McDermid has been one of our most prolific crime novelists, and has now published more than forty books, including four series focusing on different protagonists. However, she has not allowed the sheer volume of her output to compromise its quality, and she is known for her watertight plots, finely drawn characters, and empathetic lead protagonists.This novel is the second in a new series, following Alison (“Allie”) Burns. In the earlier instalment, 1979, she was introduced as a young reporter on a Glasgow-based newspaper. McDermid’s own career also featured a period as a crime reporter, and her insights into the chauvinistic attitudes proliferating throughout the press corps in the late 1970s emerged very clearly. Things had not improved significantly over the next ten years.As this novel opens, Allie has moved down to Manchester, where she manages the northern crime desk of a daily paper in the stable of a press baron (hints of Robert Maxwell!). The press baron is immensely wealthy, but strapped for ready cash, and hits upon the idea of ‘borrowing’ significant sums from his employees’ pension fund, coercing his daughter, who heads one wing of his publishing empire, to go along with his scheme.Against this background, and in the short term context of the Lockerbie aeroplane bombing and the Kegworth crash (I had forgotten how close in time those dreadful events were to each other), Allie finds herself embroiled in a complex plot, too complicated to summarise clearly here.I enjoyed this novel, but I did wonder if it lived up to the high standards I have come to expect from Val McDermid. The historical context is very sharply conveyed, and Allie and her close colleagues are as plausible as McDermid’s protagonists generally are. However, some of the other characters struck me as rather more cliched than I would have expected. I hope that the next instalment in this series is as strong as the first one.

[pomo58 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Val McDermid's 1989 is both a wonderful crime drama and a bit of a nostalgic trip into the past. Fans won't be disappointed.I enjoyed this one a little more than I did 1979, I think because 1979 spent some time establishing characters. I do think that this can be read as a standalone though it will be more interesting if you read 1979 first.If McDermid is hoping to both entertain her readers as well as make them realize that in many ways we still haven't solved most of society's problems, she has succeeded very well. The problems faced in 1989, both by Allie and the world at large, are still present today. Many have morphed or become more subtle while some have become even more blatant and hateful.Even if a reader doesn't want to think big picture this will be a fun novel for them, the crime story is compelling in its own right. The nostalgia and the comparison with where we are now is simply frosting on the cake for those of us so inclined.Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.