Val McDermid, one of the all time greats of crime fiction, is touring New Zealand 22 – 24 August 2010

Trick of the Dark
Val McDermid

From the author of the Tony Hill books which TV’s ‘Wire in the Blood’ series is based on, comes a standalone thriller.

'Death is a hollow drum whose beat has measured out my adult life.' So writes Jay Macallan Stewart in her latest volume of memoirs. But nobody has ever asked whether that has been by accident or design. Nobody, that is, until Jay turns her sights on newly-wed and freshly-widowed Magda Newsam. For Magda's mother Corinna is an Oxford don who knows enough of Jay's history to be very afraid indeed. Determined to protect her daughter, Corinna turns to clinical psychologist Charlie Flint. But it's not the best time for Charlie. Her career is in ruins. Pilloried by the press, under investigation by her peers, she's barred from the profiling work she loves. What Corinna's asking may be her last chance at redemption. But as Charlie digs into the past and its trail of bodies she starts to realise the price of truth may be more than she wants to pay.

About the Author

Val McDermid (left Alan Peebles) is the 2010 recipient of the Cartier Diamond Dagger Award which honours outstanding career achievement in the field of crime writing.

Val McDermid is the author of 22 bestselling novels, which have been translated into 30 languages and sold over 10 million copies. Val grew up in a small town called Kirkcaldy on the East Coast of Scotland in the heart of the Fyfe coalfield. At just 17 she was accepted to read English at Oxford and went on to become a journalist though always yearned to be a novelist. Her first novel was published in 1987.

From www.valmcdermid.com:

‘I had always wanted to write, ever since I realised that real people actually produced all those books in the library. But everyone told me that it was impossible to make a living from writing, that I needed to have a proper job. I knew I wasn't the sort of person who would be suited to a proper, nine to five job with a neat hierarchical career structure, so I became a journalist.
I spent two years training in Devon, winning a clutch of awards, including Trainee Journalist of the Year, then for fourteen years I worked on national newspapers in Glasgow and Manchester, ending up as Northern Bureau Chief of a national Sunday tabloid - a title that sounds far grander than the reality, I should confess.

Meanwhile, I was attempting to become a writer. I wrote my first attempt at a novel when I was working in Devon. The best thing I can say about it was that I actually finished it. It was a typical 21-year-old's novel - full of tortured human relationships, love, hate, grief, angst, not to mention the meaning of life. It was, naturally enough, rejected by every publishing house in London. But an actor friend who read it thought it would make a good play. So I turned it into a script and showed it to the director of the Plymouth Theatre Company. And he decided it would fit perfectly a season he had planned of new plays by new writers. So there I was, at 23 a performed playwright. It wasn't what I had intended, but I was happy with it. I later adapted the play, Like A Happy Ending, for BBC radio. And I was commissioned to write another play, this time for a touring company in Lincolnshire and Humberside.

But I didn't have the practical skills to make a success of writing drama, and the agent I had then didn't do anything to help me acquire them. In fact, he fired me because I didn't make him enough money. (so who's got the last laugh now?) So I decided to turn my hand to writing a crime novel, because I'd always enjoyed reading the genre, and I'd been very excited by the New Wave of American women crime writers, who made me wonder if I could write something similar with a UK setting.

I started writing Report for Murder in 1984, and it was published by The Women's Press in 1987. The rest is history... I finally gave up the day job in April, 1991, and I've been making my living by writing ever since. I was the Manchester Evening News' crime reviewer for four years, and I still review regularly for various national newspapers. I also write occasional journalism and broadcast regularly on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio Scotland.’

NZ tour details:

An afternoon event with Val McDermid
Sunday 22 August 4.30pm
Our City O-Tautahi, Oxford Terrace, Christchurch
Tickets $12.
Contact Ruth on (03) 384 4721 or Morrin on (03) 329 9789

An Evening with Val McDermid
Tuesday 24 August 6pm
The Women’s Bookshop, 105 Ponsonby Road, Ponsonby, Auckland
Entry $5 at the door.
RSVP (for catering purposes) to:
Phone (09) 376 4399; email: books@womensbookshop.co.nz, secure website: www.womensbookshop.co.nz

Wellington event details to be advised.