When Val McDermid takes to the stage with noir supergroup the Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers there’s one song that will still be on the set list despite it being embroiled in a recent stooshie.
But why, why, why Delilah after the Tom Jones hit was banned from being sung by a choir at Welsh rugby home games because it features a man stabbing his partner?
“We’re not going down the Welsh Rugby Union route because we don’t do it as a straight celebration of the song,” said Scotland’s queen of crime fiction who is a headliner at Aberdeen’s Granite Noir festival.
So how will Val and the rest of the band – crime writers Chris Brookmyre, Stuart Neville, Mark Billingham, Doug Johnstone, and Luca Veste – be tackling the number?
“You’ll have to come along and see it,” said Val, who is a vocalist for the Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers.
Val McDermid will help kick off Aberdeen’s Granite Noir festival
They will kick off Granite Noir on its opening night on Thursday February 23 with a gig at The Lemon Tree.
Val can’t wait to be back on stage as they run through a selection of covers all on the theme of crime and murder.
“It’s called murdering other people’s songs,” she joked.
“It’s hard to have a favourite because they’ve all got something that grabs us, but I just love singing Back On The Chain Gang by The Pretenders. It’s quite demanding to sing, but I really enjoy it.
“And we are going to introduce some new songs to the set, which will be a surprise on the night. Let’s just say we’re featuring songs from Adam And The Ants, ABBA and Blondie.”
After Val hangs up the mic on her Lemon Tree gig, she’ll be getting ready for her next Granite Noir appearance, in conversation at the Music Hall on Friday February 24.
Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon – who last week revealed her intention to stand down once a successor has been chosen – will return to Granite Noir to chair the ‘In Conversation with Val McDermid’ event.
A keen reader and a self-confessed fan of the grisliest elements of fiction, Ms Sturgeon has long been a fan of Val McDermid’s work, having first met her at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in 2015. Click here for more information about the First Minister’s upcoming visit.
Val will be chatting about her latest book, 1989, the second in a series featuring Allie Burns, the investigative journalist who was the protagonist in 1979.
Her decision to break away from her usual contemporary settings for her novels was driven by the pandemic.
Big events at the heart of Val McDermid’s 1989 novel
“If you remember March 2020, everything was changing day-to-day, we were all in a state of fear, people were dying and we had no sense there might be an end in sight. I just felt I couldn’t stand on solid ground so I thought I need to go back in time to where I do know what happened,” said Val.
So the author counted back in 10-year leaps from 2019, the last year of normal life before Covid arrived. In the newest one, Allie is still a journalist, working against a backdrop of the big events of the day.
“With 1989, it starts with the Lockerbie memorial service, it moves on to Hillsborough, you’ve got the AIDS Crisis, you’ve got the media wars with Murdoch and ultimately you’ve got the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of communism,” said Val.
“So all of these are pretty big events to set a story against, there’s plenty to write about.”
The five-book series will continue, taking in 1999, 2009 and finally 2019.
“I find myself, not out of any planning, having got some pretty interesting years,” said Val.
“In 79 was the winter of discontent and of course the first Scottish devolution referendum. In 1999 we’ve got the Y2K bug and the opening of the Scottish Parliament, so there’s all sort of things going on in these ‘9’ years that I think is going to keep me going.”
Val McDermid talks about the new Karen Pirie novel on the way
But Val isn’t solely devoting her rich writing talent to Allie Burns. Right now, she’s working on the next book featuring cold case detective, Karen Pirie, due to be published this autumn.
“It’s called Past Lying and it’s a book about unreliable narrators,” said Val. “It’s set in April 2020 and a cold case emerges during lockdown. Karen has to pursue that in lockdown with all the restraints and restrictions that imposes.
“It’s structurally different to what I’ve done before, but I don’t want to say too much at this point, because I don’t want to give too much away. But it’s still Karen Pirie, it’s still cold cases and still set in Edinburgh, but it’s a wee bit different in shape.”
Last year, Karen Pirie took to the screen in a TV version starring Lauren Lyle that won rave reviews around the world, to Val’s delight.
“I was in New Zealand at the time it went out and I was literally being stopped in the street in Dunedin by people saying ‘we’re watching it, we’re loving it!’
“That’s due in no small part to Lauren Lyle’s performance. She completely embodied Karen Pirie. She doesn’t look like the Karen Pirie in my head, but she encapsulates all the key factors that make her such an interesting character, I think”.
Is a second series on the way then?
“I can’t say at the moment, I’m not allowed to say anything,” said Val.
Val McDermid can’t wait to get back to Aberdeen’s Granite Noir in person
Meanwhile, Val can’t wait to get back to Granite Noir in person, after having been a headliner in the years when the crime writing festival was online due to the pandemic.
“It’s a very friendly festival and the audiences are very friendly,” she said. “It’s also an opportunity to see people. We live solitary lives as writers, so the great thing about festivals for us and from a professional point of view is that we get to see our colleagues, catch up and have a laugh.
“We’re quite a friendly bunch in the crime fiction world. I often say we’re the party animals of the literary circuit.”
And she’s hoping to see some friendly faces at both the Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers gig and her in conversation event.
“If you’ve read my books, come along because you’ll get some new insights. If you’ve not read my books come along, because hopefully it will entice you to read my books,” said Val.
“The good thing about live events with authors is that you get a sense of who they are and that’s what translates into the books.”
For more information on Granite Noir, which runs from Thursday February 23 to Sunday February 26 visit granitenoir.com.
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