Set in Glasgow, Scotland, we follow the missteps and growth of Paddy Meehan, a blue collar catholic in mostly Protestant Scotland, a fledgling though ambitious copy girl at the chauvinistic Scottish Daily News. A young boy is brutally murdered, by a twelve year old, end of the story according to police and the confessions of the boy. Paddy, because her fiancee Sean is related to the boy and has met them, is convinced he could not have done it without adult help, Of course, the newspaper where she works has no interest in pursuing her intuition and because she's a woman, also only a copy girl, she is ignored, laughed at, and harassed by the chauvinistic male culture. It doesn't help that Paddy has a terrible self image, the result of being overweight most of her life. She has little confidence, just a burning desire to break loose of her over protective catholic family and the poverty in which she has grown up. The boys name is leaked to the press, a result of an confidential discussion Paddy has with a fellow reporter, alienating Paddy from family and her fiancee, Sean. Though she is not responsible for the leak, they still blame her. As she continues to search for the accomplices to this horrific murder, she breaks with Sean, learns to deal with disappointing her family, and ends up befriending many of the reporters who initially made fun of her. Through pluck and luck, she discovers the murderer, the reasons for the deaths and though she has managed to gain the respect of her colleagues, she has lost a colleague, a good friend to murder, a result of her investigation. By the end, her ingenuousness is gone, she's learned the system, gained confidence, but also lost something, her youth, so to speak. I liked the character of Paddy quite a bit, rooted for her as she made in way in a I assume the 1960's newsroom, rift with bores, drunks, pigs, the like. It's hard to believe this world actually existed, much like the chauvinism of MAD MEN on TV.
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