Fife bestselling author Val McDermid is thrilled to have nailed the top spot in a list of the region’s most-borrowed library books of 2022.
The Kirkcaldy-born queen of crime’s novel 1979 was loaned 425 times during the year.
And it beat Jack Reacher author Lee Child and Richard Osman’s million-selling The Thursday Murder Club to top the Fife libraries’ fiction list.
Val McDermid has sold more than 11 million books in 30 languages during her 35-year writing career.
And 1979 is the first in a new series featuring journalist Allie Burns.
McDermid’s Still Life, the last in the hugely-popular Karen Pirie series, also made the top five most-borrowed list.
Val McDermid ‘couldn’t be more thrilled’
The award-winning author’s love of reading was sparked by days spent at Kirkcaldy central library, across the road from her childhood home.
And she is famously still a huge supporter of public libraries.
She said she was delighted her books were now being enjoyed by today’s library-goers.
“I couldn’t be more thrilled to top the charts in Fife libraries,” she said.
“I’ll never lose sight of the debt I owe public libraries in the kingdom.
“They showed me that books offered worlds that were different to mine.
“They gave me dreams and the means to make them come true.
“It’s great that they’re still doing that.”
Top five adult fiction books
The Fife libraries service has revealed their top five adult fiction, non-fiction and children’s books of 2022.
In fiction, 1979 is closely followed by Better Off Dead by Lee Child, whose protagonist Jack Reacher featured in a blockbuster movie starring Tom Cruise.
It was borrowed 417 times.
Meanwhile, it was a tie for third place between Scottish author William McIlvanney and Richard Osman, with 386 loans each.
And Val McDermid’s Still Life was loaned 383 times.
Top five non-fiction books
And another Fifer topped the Fife libraries’ non-fiction chart.
Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Fife: A History From Earliest Times To Present Day was loaned 149 times.
Mr Brown, who also grew up in Kirkcaldy, was beaten to the top spot in 2021 by Michelle Obama’s Becoming.
However, the former First Lady took second place last year.
Also popular in non-fiction were This Much Is True, an autobiography by actress Miriam Margolyes, and The Salt Path by Winn Raynor.
Kate Allinson’s Pinch of Nom recipe book came in fifth.
Top five children’s books
Former children’s laureate Julia Donaldson proved her enduring appeal with two books in the top five, The Scarecrow’s Wedding and The Gruffalo.
However, she was pipped to the top spot by Ed Vere’s Max At Night.
Also on the list of popular children’s books last year were Tip Tip Dig Dig by Emma Garcia and Fife Minutes To Bed! by Richard Dungworth.
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