100,000+ Books, Games & Puzzles in-stock πŸ‡³πŸ‡Ώ

Overnight NZ-wide delivery on in-stock orders πŸš€

1979

The unmissable first thriller in an electrifying, brand-new series from the No.1 bestseller
Series: Allie Burns
3.77 goodreads logo

Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.

Check link for latest rating.
( 12,629 ratings, 1,286 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
1979 by Val McDermid is a gripping crime thriller set in the heart of Glasgow. The story follows a young journalist, Allie Burns, as she navigates a treacherous world of journalism and crime. With the city on the brink of change, Allie finds herself immersed in a dangerous investigation that could change her life forever.
Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$2300
Elsewhere:
$2499
AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLIER Ships from our Auckland warehouse within 4-6 weeks

Found a better price? Request a price match

Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

You might enjoy this book if you're fascinated by gripping tales of mystery and intrigue set against a historical backdrop. The story delivers a compelling mix of journalism, danger, and suspense in 1970s Glasgow, making it perfect for fans of crime thrillers with a strong sense of time and place.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

The first breathtaking thriller in a brand-new series from number one bestseller Val McDermid.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description
THE FIRST IN A THRILLING NEW SERIES FROM THE NO.1 BESTSELLER Pre-order Val McDermid's explosive new novel, 1989, now! ____________________ She's on the hunt for a killer story... 1979. It's the winter of discontent, and Allie Burns is chasing her first big scoop. One of few women in the newsroom, she needs something explosive for the boys' club to take her seriously. Soon Allie and fellow reporter Danny Sullivan are making powerful enemies with their investigations - and Allie won't stop there. When she discovers a terrorist threat close to home, she devises a dangerous plan to make her name. But Allie is a woman in a man's world... and putting a foot wrong could be fatal. ____________________ 'A supremo of the genre at the height of her powers' - PETER JAMES 'The Queen of Crime has delivered another masterpiece' - DAVID BALDACCI 'Allie is a fabulous character, I'll go wherever she takes me' - MARIAN KEYES 'A thrilling snapshot of a fascinating era' - JANE HARPER 'McDermid at her nail-biting, heart-rending best' - CHRIS WHITAKER 'Her best book in years' - THE TIMES, BOOK OF THE MONTH 'Allie Burns is off to a flying start, and well worth following' - SCOTSMAN 'A perfect snapshot of the social and political issues of the time' - LINWOOD BARCLAY 'Full of wit, thrills and incisive social observation and features a marvellous new character' - MICK HERRON '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 'The good news is that this excellent novel marks the start of a new series' - GUARDIAN 'Brilliant characters, masterful plotting' - CHRIS HAMMER 'An excellent opener to what promises to be an outstanding series' - SPECTATOR 'The fast-paced storytelling flows irresistibly' - IRISH TIMES 'Riveting' - DAILY EXPRESS 'Sensational. One of Britain's most accomplished writers' - SUNDAY EXPRESS 'A nail-biting new series' - OBSERVER

Series: Allie Burns

View all
  • 1979
    THE FIRST IN A THRILLING NEW SERIES FROM THE NO.1 BESTSELLER Pre-order Val McDermid's explosive new novel, 1989, now! ____________________ She's on the hunt for a killer story... 1979. It's the winter of discontent, and Allie Burns is chasing her first big scoop. One of few women in the newsroom, she needs something explosive for the boys' club to take...
    Paperback
    $2300
    Elsewhere:
    $2499
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • 1989
    THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER Karen Pirie returns . . . Pre-order Past Lying, the eagerly-awaited new Karen Pirie thriller, publishing October 2023 ___________ 1989. The world is on the brink of revolution and journalist Allie Burns is a woman on a mission. When she discovers a lead about the exploitation of society's most vulnerable, Allie is determined to investigate...
    Paperback
    $2600
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships today

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Val McDermid’s 1979 has been applauded for its gripping narrative, vivid portrayal of social and political issues, and a compelling depiction of journalism in the 1970s. Allie Burns, the protagonist, is admired as a richly developed character who promises an exciting series ahead. The novel is noted for its authentic and atmospheric setting, drawing readers into the era and the complexities of uncovering crime through investigative journalism. Critics highlight it as a standout work in McDermid’s repertoire, marking a strong start to a new series.

Book Hero reading reviews

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780751583076

Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 03 February 2022

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Sphere

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 32.0mm

Width: 128.0mm

Height: 196.0mm

Weight: 324g

Pages: 464

About the Author

Val McDermid is a number one bestseller whose novels have been translated into forty languages, and have sold over nineteen million copies. She has won many awards internationally, including the CWA Gold Dagger for best crime novel of the year and the LA Times Book of the Year Award. She was inducted into the ITV3 Crime Thriller Awards Hall of Fame in 2009, was the recipient of the CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger in 2010 and received the Lambda Literary Foundation Pioneer Award in 2011.

In 2016, Val received the Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction Award at the Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival and in 2017 received the DIVA Literary Prize for Crime, and was elected a Fellow of both the Royal Society of Literature and the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Val has served as a judge for the Women's Prize for Fiction and the Man Booker Prize, and was Chair of the Wellcome Book Prize in 2017. She is the recipient of seven honorary doctorates, is an Honorary Fellow of St Hilda's College, Oxford and a Professor at the University of Otago in New Zealand. She writes full time and divides her time between Edinburgh and East Neuk of Fife.

X @valmcdermid

Instagram @quineofcrime

Also by Val McDermid

View all
  • Marple: Twelve New Stories
    Marple: Twelve New Stories is a tantalising collection of short stories that reintroduces the legendary detective Jane Marple. This anthology, crafted by twelve bestselling and acclaimed authors, breathes new life into one of Agatha Christie's most beloved characters. Each author brings their unique voice and perspective to Miss Marple, whilst masterfully preserving the hallmarks of a traditional mystery. The tales...
    Paperback
    $3100
    Elsewhere:
    $3500
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Marple: Twelve New Stories
    A brand new collection of short stories featuring the Queen of Crime’s legendary detective Jane Marple, penned by twelve remarkable bestselling and acclaimed authors. This collection of twelve original short stories, all featuring Jane Marple, will introduce the character to a whole new generation. Each author reimagines Agatha Christie’s Marple through their own unique perspective while staying true to the...
    Paperback
    $2200
    Elsewhere:
    $2500
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • A Darker Domain
    The second riveting crime novel in the Karen Pirie series, from No.1 Sunday Times bestseller Val McDermid. β€˜A superb mystery’ The Times From the creators of Line of Duty and Bodyguard, KAREN PIRIE is now on ITV, starring Lauren Lyle (Outlander). Twenty-five years ago, a woman and her baby son were kidnapped and held to ransom. Catriona Grant ended up...
    Paperback
    $2500
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Match Up
    FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER ... In Match Up, an unparalleled anthology brought to life by the most celebrated crime writers of our time, Lee Child's iconic Jack Reacher partners with Kathy Reichs' meticulous forensic anthropologist, Temperance Brennan, to catch a cunning killer who operates under the radar. Val McDermid’s brilliant profiler, Tony Hill, and his steadfast ally, DCI Carol...
    Paperback
    $2500
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Distant Echo
    The first novel in the bestselling Karen Pirie series. The award-winning Number One bestseller and Queen of crime fiction, Val McDermid, carves out a stunning psychological thriller. The past is behind them, but what’s still to come will tear them apart… From the creators of Line of Duty and Bodyguard, the series KAREN PIRIE is now on ITV, starring Lauren...
    Paperback
    $2300
    Elsewhere:
    $2499
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Silent Bones
    The Masterful New Thriller in the Karen Pirie Series, Now a Major TV Series The truth is buried just beneath the surface . . . When torrential rain causes a landslide on a motorway in Scotland, it reveals a crime scene: someone hid a body in the tarmac eleven years before. Journalist Sam Nimmo had been the prime suspect in...
    Paperback
    $3200
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Trick Of The Dark
    When Charlie Flint is sent a mysterious package of cuttings about a brutal murder, it instantly grabs her attention. The murder occurred in the grounds of her old Oxford college β€” a groom battered to death just hours after his wedding. As his bride and wedding guests sipped champagne, his alleged killers were slipping his bloodstained body into the river....
    Paperback
    $2499
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Queen Macbeth
    Shakespeare fed us the myth of the Macbeths as murderous conspirators. But now Val McDermid drags the truth out of the shadows, exposing the patriarchal prejudices of history. A thousand years ago in an ancient Scottish landscape, a woman is on the run with her three companions: a healer, a weaver, and a seer. The men hunting her will kill...
    Paperback
    $2299
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Winter
    'A warm hug of a book... like sitting by a roaring winter fire' JACKIE KAY Winter is the time to snuggle indoors without guilt; to curl up on the sofa with a good book or a box set, a hot drink or a wee whisky to hand. Val McDermid has always had a soft spot for winter: the bitter clarity...
    Hardback
    $3899
    Elsewhere:
    $4499
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Still Life
    Don't miss Past Lying, the twisty new Karen Pirie thriller 'No one can tell a story like she can' Daily Express 'The queen of psychological thrillers' Irish Independent 'The bodies never stay buried forever . . .' On a freezing winter morning, fishermen pull a body from the sea. It is quickly discovered that the dead man was the prime...
    Paperback
    $2300
    Elsewhere:
    $2499
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Broken Ground
    Number one bestseller and queen of crime Val McDermid returns with her most breathtakingly atmospheric and exhilarating novel yet. 'Somebody has been here before us. And he's still here . . .' When a body is discovered in the remote depths of the Highlands, DCI Karen Pirie finds herself in the right place at the right time. Unearthed with someone's...
    Paperback
    $3200
    Elsewhere:
    $3499
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Cross and Burn
    Someone is brutally killing women. Women who bear a striking resemblance to former DCI Carol Jordan. The connection is too strong to ignore and soon psychological profiler Tony Hill finds himself dangerously close to the investigation, just as the killer is closing in on his next target. This is a killer like no other, hell-bent on inflicting the most severe...
    Paperback
    $2600
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks

More from Crime & Thriller

View all
  • New Release
    Every Lake
    Scary stories are fun... until your life becomes one. When Alice was fifteen, her father killed Mia Heywood in their lakefront cottage before vanishing into the trees. At least that's what the locals think happened. Over a decade later, Alice has lost her job as a journalist, she's going through an expensive divorce and she desperately needs to sell the...
    Paperback
    $3299
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    It Could Have Been Her
    PREPARE TO BE HOOKED: The no. 1Β Sunday TimesΒ and MULTI-million-copy bestselling author is back with a brand-new spine tingling thriller. It was the night she almost died. Jane Trevally, newly divorced and feeling a little lost, agrees to accompany a man she doesn't know to his house in the darkest corner of Hampstead Heath. She's offered a drink, goes in, and...
    Paperback
    $3000
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    26 Beauties
    The twenty-sixth thrilling novel in the globally bestselling Women's Murder Club series. Beautiful young women are disappearing by the dozen. A celebration is cut short when a concerned father crashes Detective Inspector Lindsay Boxer's party. His daughter is missing - and she's not the only one. DI Lindsay Boxer has been tracking a chilling pattern: a Jane Doe washed ashore,...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    The Secrets We Hide
    The stunning new North Falls thriller by the bestselling author ofΒ We Are All Guilty Here 'Quite simply, Karin Slaughter is the best of us' Dervla McTiernan Welcome back to North Falls -- a small town with big secrets. The house at 1601 Iris Drive looks like any other in the quiet, residential street. But rumours are rife about the Vickery...
    Paperback
    $3099
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    The Parkwood Murders
    They came for an escape, but can they escape a killer? Detective Nicola Bridge returns in another gripping and immersive mystery For its loyal guests, Parkwood Holiday Village in west Dorset is a haven- woodland walks, a tranquil lake, service around the clock. Until, just after midsummer, a body is found floating in the swimming pool. Detective Nicola Bridge, exhausted...
    Paperback
    $3000
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Hope Rises
    'BALDACCI IS STILL PEERLESS' - THE SUNDAY TIMES REVENGE IS A DISH BEST SERVED COLD . . . Walter Nash, working under the alias of Dillon Hope, is on the road to revenge after becoming an informant for the FBI against a global criminal operation headed up by Victoria Steers. Steers has ripped everything Nash held dear away from him....
    Paperback
    $3099
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    Slash
    A year after a brutal shootout left her lover dead, ex-police sergeant Honey Chalmers is a hot mess, drinking too much and eating too little, working casual gigs for a shady firm of private investigators β€” while holding conversations with a ghost. A desperate father asks her to investigate his missing son β€” a double-murder suspect last seen during the...
    Paperback
    $3200
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    A River Red With Blood
    The players call it the Game, and its aim is simple: to abduct and kill a stranger without getting caught. They're very good at it. They've been playing it for a long time. And they can keep playing as long as everyone sticks to the rules: No Killing Close to Home and No Killing Outside the Game. But those rules...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Shadow Step
    The new Detective Miller thriller from bestselling author Mark Billingham, full of tension, wit and incredible twists. The Shadow Step: One taken simultaneously by a pair of dancers facing the same direction, one of them behind and slightly shifted leftwards ('in the shadow') Typically, such a step perfectly demonstrates synchronized elegance. It showcases a couple in near telepathic harmony with...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    Backorder
    Ships mid August
  • Blue Lightning
    New Release
    Blue Lightning
    Blue Lightning The fourth Shetland novel A remote island on lockdown. A killer on the loose . . . Shetland detective Jimmy Perez knows it will be a difficult homecoming when he returns to Fair Isle to introduce his fiancΓ©e to his parents. With the autumn storms raging, the island is cut off from the rest of the world. Then...
    Paperback
    $3000
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Red Bones
    New Release
    Red Bones
    Red Bones is the third Shetland novel featuring detective Jimmy Perez. Sometimes the dead won't stay buried... When a young archaeologist uncovers a set of human remains, the island settlers are intrigued. Is it an ancient findβ€”or a more contemporary mystery? Then an elderly woman is shot in what appears to be a tragic accident in the middle of the...
    Paperback
    $3000
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Last to Drown
    New Release
    The Last to Drown
    Praise for Noelle W. Ihli: 'Hands down one of my favourite reads of the year' - FREIDA MCFADDEN 'A true classic in the genre' - LISA JEWELL 'A propulsive story that haunts and mesmerizes' - KARIN SLAUGHTER FIVE DAYS. TWENTY STRANGERS. NO PHONE SIGNAL. The rafting trip was supposed to be the adventure of a lifetime. But now that Kaia's...
    Paperback
    $3000
    Elsewhere:
    $3499
    In Stock
    Ships today

Why buy from us?

Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!

Service & Delivery

Service & Delivery

Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.

Auckland Bookstore

Auckland Bookstore

We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.

Our Gifting Service

Our Gifting Service

Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.