1989, Val McDermidIt's 1989 and Allie Burns is back. Older and maybe wiser, she's running the northern news operation of the Sunday Globe, chafing at losing her role in investigative journalism and at the descent into the gutter of the UK tabloid media. But there's plenty to keep her occupied. The year begins with the memorial service to the victims of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, but Allie has barely filed her copy when she stumbles over a story about HIV AIDS

Here is a beautifully written novel with a distinct voice that describes China on the brink of its own social and sexual revolution

and quite possibly the people closest to you: lovers

punctuation

they would learn

with such momentous consequences in the balance

Vultures invade the rooftops

And then he proposes an outrageous experiment to bring back her literary muse and meet her deadline: He’ll take her on a series of experimental dates meant to jump-start her romantic inspiration

worldwide in scope and ranging from antiquity to the present

rescued from the bin

She puts the English national character under her anthropological microscope

his investments

The career