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A review by undertheteacup
Deadline For Murder by V.L. McDermid, Val McDermid
4.0
As I expected, McDermid's skill grows throughout the series. By this installment her writing has grown more subtle and nuanced, supporting the story she's trying to tell rather than getting in the way of it.
There's a lot to enjoy in this book. As always, Lindsay makes for a great hero. She's intensely hot-headed in her personal life yet performs her role of journalist/investigator with cool aplomb, which makes things interesting when those two roles intersect, as they do in this novel! She's also full of seemingly contradictory principles and values: a working-class lesbian sensibility that always has her seeking out the underdog and criticizing the classism and misogyny she comes across, but which doesn't prevent her from manipulating and using marginalized people's vulnerability against them if it means saving the people she cares about.
There's also the fact that McDermid is clearly a Scottish writer and she's not writing for an outsider perspective. She doesn't take the time to explain every single little detail that for example an American might not understand. She just lets you figure it out as you go along, which makes the story immensely more satisfying and immersive. Especially because McDermid really is intimately familiar not only with Glasgow but also with the ins and outs of tabloid journalism. All the books have a very strong sense of place and time, with all the relevant political and social currents of the late 80s in evidence.
Finally, there's the women who love women. Sadly this particular volume is ridiculously bi-phobic, as the one character who is extensively shown to have lovers of multiple genders also ends up dead and has really terrible moral character. (Alison's character was so intriguing, especially in the contrast between how she was raised and how she ran her adult life - McDermid really missed out when she chose to forego deeper character development in favor of the superficial 'femme fatale' thing). So that puts kind of a damper on the fact that there are all these lesbians running around unapologetically loving, living with, and having sex with each other.
There's a lot to enjoy in this book. As always, Lindsay makes for a great hero. She's intensely hot-headed in her personal life yet performs her role of journalist/investigator with cool aplomb, which makes things interesting when those two roles intersect, as they do in this novel! She's also full of seemingly contradictory principles and values: a working-class lesbian sensibility that always has her seeking out the underdog and criticizing the classism and misogyny she comes across, but which doesn't prevent her from manipulating and using marginalized people's vulnerability against them if it means saving the people she cares about.
There's also the fact that McDermid is clearly a Scottish writer and she's not writing for an outsider perspective. She doesn't take the time to explain every single little detail that for example an American might not understand. She just lets you figure it out as you go along, which makes the story immensely more satisfying and immersive. Especially because McDermid really is intimately familiar not only with Glasgow but also with the ins and outs of tabloid journalism. All the books have a very strong sense of place and time, with all the relevant political and social currents of the late 80s in evidence.
Finally, there's the women who love women. Sadly this particular volume is ridiculously bi-phobic, as the one character who is extensively shown to have lovers of multiple genders also ends up dead and has really terrible moral character. (Alison's character was so intriguing, especially in the contrast between how she was raised and how she ran her adult life - McDermid really missed out when she chose to forego deeper character development in favor of the superficial 'femme fatale' thing). So that puts kind of a damper on the fact that there are all these lesbians running around unapologetically loving, living with, and having sex with each other.