Val McDermid's Blog, page 15
September 14, 2015
Splinter the Silence review – chilling return for the queen of thrillers…
Psychological profiler Tony Hall and ex-DCI Carol Jordan return in a timely investigation into online abuse
Lucy Scholes
Sunday 13 September 2015 14.00 BST
Val McDermid is back with her much-loved crime-fighting partnership, psychological profiler Tony Hill and ex-DCI Carol Jordan.
The case that reunites them is a chillingly timely one, focusing on online abuse suffered by outspoken women with a feminist agenda. This isn’t the conventional setup though: there’s “no forensics, no loose ends to pull”, not even a murder verdict to kickstart the investigation – just three seemingly unconnected suicides, each mimicking that of a famous writer: Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, and Virginia Woolf.
Read the full article on the Guardian website…
September 3, 2015
The Val McDermid thriller you can only read if you crack the case…
SEPTEMBER 3RD, 2015
The National
Val McDermid has written the work for Dundee University’s online forensic investigation course…
It has all the hallmarks of her blockbuster novels – a body on a hill, a mystery about its identity and a forensic expert who can solve it all.
But Val McDermid’s latest bestseller will not be hitting any bookshops after the crime writer penned the words for an online course in forensic investigation for Dundee University.
More than 16,000 people have registered for the free course, called Identifying The Dead: forensic science and human identification, ahead of its launch on Monday. However, organisers expect many more to sign up to discover how the case unfolds. Those who do will spend six weeks searching for clues and piecing the mystery together.
Read the full article on the national website…
August 28, 2015
Profile: Bloody Scotland, the crime wave that’s welcome
Nan Spowart
The National
AUGUST 27TH, 2015
SHE is better known for her novels but best-selling author Val McDermid will be entertaining fiction fans by singing at this year’s Bloody Scotland International Crime Writing Festival.
McDermid, who is to sing The Twa Corbies, will be just one of the authors performing musical numbers at a ceilidh-type event during the festival.
There will also be a performance from the newly formed Slice Girls led by American author Alexandra Sokoloff, while Scottish novelist Doug Johnstone will be playing guitar and singing.
Other performers include Steve Cavanagh, Luca Veste, Mason Cross and Michael J Malone.
“Ian Rankin will be with us too but he’s not declared his hand as to whether he’ll be entertaining us,” said author Craig Robertson, who will compere the event. “All the authors at the festival are invited so I’m certain there will be other major names in attendance. There will be readings, songs, short stories and poetry from some of the best-known crime writers.
He added: “It will be all quite informal. I’m quite open to authors deciding on the night that they’d like to get up and do something so it will be flexible and open to change.”
The event is at the Curly Coo on the Saturday evening of the festival which this year takes place from September 11-13.
August 27, 2015
2015: Val McDermid and Nicola Sturgeon
First shown: 27 Aug 2015
The bestselling crime writer meets one of her best-known fans, Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, to discuss her new books.
Val’s appearance at the Edinburgh book festival, where she was interviewed by Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon, sold out instantly.
See the Full interview with Nicola Sturgeon: BBC iPlayer
August 26, 2015
Val interviewed by Hannah Ellis-Petersen in The Guardian…
Hannah Ellis-Petersen
Tuesday 25 August 2015 16.49 BST
The titan of tartan noir talks about misogynistic trolls, Scottish independence and why this government is taking Britain back to Victorian levels of inequality…
Val McDermid is standing in St Cuthbert’s graveyard in Edinburgh, surveying the weathered tombs without much enthusiasm. This interview venue – my choice – came from the misguided belief that an author who has spent her life writing about murder might feel at home surrounded by graves. It turns out that the atmosphere of the place is completely lost on her.
I’m working class – I wouldn’t be able to go to Oxford now
“His talents adored the profession of his choice, his life recommended the gospel which he preached in every relation of life,” I read aloud off a 19th-century gravestone. “He died universally regretted.”
There’s a pause. “Well, he sounds like he was fun on a Saturday night,” says McDermid, who gives a short, sharp laugh and wanders off.
The Scottish novelist is not one to mince her words, either in her books or in person. Now 60, McDermid emerged in the late 1980s with her pioneering Lindsay Gordon series, which featured the “shocking’” inclusion of a cynical lesbian journalist as the main protagonist, and since then she has published dozens of bloody and suspense-filled novels, selling more than 11m copies around the world. Lauded by critics, in 2010 she was awarded one of the highest accolades in crime fiction: the Crime Writers’ Association Cartier Diamond Dagger for outstanding achievement. Her appearance at the Edinburgh book festival tonight, where she will be interviewed by Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon, sold out instantly.
Of late, McDermid has become something of a current-affairs fixture, speaking out on issues ranging from Scottish independence to the welfare state. A vocal supporter of the yes campaign, she moved back to her native Scotland last year after 40 years living as a “foreigner” in England, and has done little to disguise her disdain for both David Cameron and Scottish Labour since the general election.
Read the full interview on The Guardian website…
August 22, 2015
AskValMcDermid: join a Q&A about the relationship between crime writers and forensic practitioners…
From the FutureLearn blog
21 AUG 2015
The free online course, “Identifying the Dead: Forensic Science and Human Identification,” from the University of Dundee allows you to take on the role of a forensic investigator and solve a murder mystery penned by crime writer, Val McDermid. As an exclusive preview, we’re inviting you to take part in a live Q&A with Val and two expert forensic practitioners.
In the Q&A, you’ll have the chance to ask questions about the forensic investigation process, the different roles that exist, and where crime writers get their expert knowledge from.
Visit the FutureLearn blog and find out more…
August 17, 2015
Interview with Nicola Sturgeon at the Edinburgh International Book Festival…
Saturday 15 August 2015
Look out for Nicola Sturgeon’s interview with crime writer Val McDermid at the Edinburgh International Book Festival
Read the full article by GEMMA FRASER in the Scotsman
August 5, 2015
10k enroll on Val McDermid-inspired forensics course…
By TIM BUGLER
The Scotsman
Tuesday 04 August 2015
MORE than 10,000 people have already signed up to a free online course which allows students to take the role of a forensic investigator at the heart of a murder mystery by Scots crime writer Val McDermid.
The six-week course, called Identifying The Dead: forensic science and human identification is a MOOC, or massive open online course, which anyone can sign up to take.
It has been launched on the Open University’s FutureLearn platform Dundee University’s Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification, headed by academic and forensic anthropologist Professor Sue Black.
July 20, 2015
Cleeves, James and Hawkins win Dead Good Awards…
Saturday 20 July 2015
By Sarah Shaffi
Established authors Ann Cleeves and Peter James and newcomer Paula Hawkins were among the winners of the inaugural Dead Good Reader Awards.
The awards, given out on Friday 17th July at the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate, were voted on by readers and members of Penguin Random House’s crime community Dead Good Books.
The awards were presented by Mark Lawson and authors Lee Child and Val McDermid, the latter of whom also won a prize.
McDermid took The Reichenbach Falls Award for Most Epic Ending, for her book The Skeleton Road (Sphere).
June 14, 2015
Writer Val McDermid sponsors Raith Rovers shirts…
Saturday 13 June 2015
ANTHONY BROWN in The Scotsman
Kit sponsor Val McDermid joins recently-appointed manager Ray McKinnon to unveil Raith Rovers new strip. Picture: SNS
WHEN, as a little girl, Val McDermid first visited “the San Starko” – as she affectionately refers to Stark’s Park, Raith Rovers’ home ground – and experienced the unique terracing thrill of “a cold bum and pie dripping down my sleeve”, she could never have envisaged that by the age of 60, hers would be one of the most prominent names associated with her beloved football club.
The greatest impact is in China because the highlights have been shown on Chinese TV
Val McDermid
A career as an award-winning crime writer, in which she has sold more than 11 million books worldwide and had her work translated into 30 different languages, however, has elevated the Kirkcaldy wordsmith to “celebrity Rovers fan” status alongside her fellow author, Ian Rankin, Coldplay’s Guy Berryman and, of course, the former prime minister, Gordon Brown.
The name McDermid was already held in high esteem in the Fife town long before Val’s writing ability hoisted her into the public domain, with her late father, Jim, renowned as the man who unearthed the great Jim Baxter in his role as a Rovers scout. Now his daughter is carrying on the family name’s proud link with the club.
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