Val McDermid is a popular Scottish author who was born on June 04, 1955 in Fife, Scotland, United Kingdom. She is particularly famous for writing all her novels in the Mystery, crime and Thriller genres. She has written 4 different mystery novel series based on the lives of 4 main protagonists. Almost all the novels written by McDermid are widely popular all over the world because of her unique characterization of the characters of the novels and suspenseful plots. She breathtakingly describes the living conditions in East Germany - the power of the Stasi, the fear, the drabness. She had my heart in her hands when Allie put her own freedom in jeopardy to smuggle someone out of East Berlin. And there's a very clever murder, the setup for which is where the book begins. An atmospheric journey into the past with much to say about the present, it is the latest suspenseful, pitch-perfect addition to Val McDermid’s crime pantheon.” — Murder and Mayhem Ferguson, Brian (29 August 2022). "Val McDermid reveals 'Queen of Crime' legal threat from Agatha Christie estate". Edinburgh Evening News . Retrieved 29 September 2022. a b Coreena Ford (29 December 2012). "Author Val McDermid assaulted at Sunderland book signing". Journal Live . Retrieved 11 January 2012.

She has said in many interviews that she received a great motivation from the great writing works of the famous authors at the time when she started her writing career. These famous authors include Ian Rankin, James Lee Burke, Reginald Hill and Ruth Rendell. The novels written by McDermid have been translated into more than 30 foreign languages all over the world. She has been able to sell more than 11 million copies of her novels in different parts of the world. This success helped McDermid to become the No. 1 bestselling author of her time. McDermid has won many international awards for her successful novels, such as the CWA Gold Dagger and the LA Times Book Award. Allie is a rare female in the newsroom of The Daily Clarion, a Glasgow-based Scottish national newspaper that sits on the tabloid side of the fence. It’s her first national job since finishing her degree and then doing her training at a regional in the north east of England. She has ambitions of making it to Fleet Street, but in a male dominated world she’s consigned to the stories that need ‘a woman’s touch’ – like the first-hand account she writes about the unexpected arrival of a baby on a snow-bound train at the turn of New Year. The second in the Allie Burns series has moved ten years ahead to 1989. Because of the large move forward in time, it can easily be read as a stand-alone.

Like every other field, journalism in the late 70s was dominated by males, and females were considered merely as props in the office. But Burns is motivated to prove this wrong and work on a breakthrough investigation. She gets help from a “wannabe” investigative journalist named Danny Sullivan (who soon becomes her great friend.) It is the winter of discontent, and reporter Allie Burns is chasing her first big scoop. There are few women in the newsroom and she needs something explosive for the boys’ club to take her seriously. In the wider world, 1989 was also a big year. The HIV/AIDS epidemic is running rampant among the UK's gay male community, raising judgemental attitudes in the conservative press and increasing pressure on health services. The break up of the Soviet Union is imminent, following upon the policies of glasnost and perestroika instituted by the USSR's last head of state, Mikhail Gorbachev. Allie Burns is a young journalist working for Glaswegian tabloid newspaper The Daily Clarion. Sidelined to writing fluff pieces by her sexist dinosaur colleagues, she is drawn to sensitive investigative reporter Danny Sullivan, who understands that she wants to write stories that matter. Working together, they unearth two stories which they hope will launch their careers - a tax avoidance scandal and a domestic terrorism plot, but their quest for the truth will have deadly consequences.

Karen implies in the book that lesbianism is now mainstream in Scotland. You live in Edinburgh, but isn’t acceptance more patchy than she suggests?

I have both attributes. It’s the base level you start from as a Fifer: you have to be a wee bit gallus to get away with being thrawn. A brilliant thriller, as well as a perfect snapshot of the social and political issues of the time." - Linwood Barclay Val McDermid is the absolute QUEEN. Allie is a fabulous character, I’ll go wherever she takes me and I’m dying to see what she does next‘ MARIAN KEYES Absolutely fantastic. I have been reading Val McDermid for twenty-five years, so I am really saying something when I tell you I enjoyed this novel the most‘ CHRIS BROOKMYRE