My husband is trying to kill me: a new client gets straight to the point. This is a whole new ball game for Maggie Laird, who is trying to rebuild her late husband’s detective agency and clear his name. Her partner, Big Wilma, sees the case as a non-starter, but Maggie is drawn in. With her client s life on the line, Maggie must get to the ugly truth that lies behind Aberdeen s closed doors. But who knows what really goes on between husbands and wives? And will the agency s reputation and Maggie and Wilma s friendship remain intact?

My thanks to Sara at Saraband for my review copy and the opportunity to join the blog tour.

A return to Scotland’s Granite City and the chance to join up with Harcus and Laird, Aberdeen’s newest Private Investigators.

Fresh from events in McIlvanney-prize-listed Cross Purpose we have a distressing new problem for our leading ladies to contend with. Sheena Struthers wants to engage Harcus and Laird to investigate her husband – she is convinced that he is trying to kill her and fears for her life. While Maggie is concerned and keen to help the distressed woman, Wilma is not so sure.  Keeping an eye on the time and energies involved in domestic investigations she is keen for Maggie to ditch Mrs Struthers and concentrate on working more reliable and financially rewarding cases. The two disagree but Maggie is not prepared to turn her back on a woman who is calling for help. 

In this post-Weinstein era and with #MeToo still very much in the public eye Burnout is an extremely important addition to the voices and stories which is helping lift the lid on unwelcome and unacceptable attitudes.  While Sheena Struthers is insisting her husband is harming her there is little proof to support her claims and Burnout highlights the problems which victims (and prospective prosecutors) face.

As we read further into the book we read of a couple where the woman is unhappy and subjected to unwelcome attentions of her husband. His demands and desires totally at odds with her own but she sees no escape from his control. We don’t get to know who the couple are but reading their encounters was an uncomfortable and somewhat distressing experience.  Yet Claire MacLeary is not done there, other relationships are subjected to scrutiny and she lifts the lid on the “secret” lives of a few characters. Readers are taken into the home of a young couple with a small child where the husband is oblivious to the exhaustion and unhappiness of his wife. Maggie’s daughter appears with a new beau in tow and Maggie is very unimpressed with the attitude of the boy towards her daughter.  Even Big Wilma is going to have a few bumps in her relationship with her husband.  We get to see some stark realities over attitudes, expectations and the desperation that can come from a lack of respect.  It is all handled really well by the author who does not sugarcoat any of the issues she is addressing.

This is powerful storytelling but the focus is never lost on the investigations which are ongoing. The dry humour we expect is also very much in attendance and the larger than life Big Wilma never fails to disappoint – she even treats herself to a trip to a strip club for Ladies Night.

Harcus and Laird are quite unlike any other characters I am reading – they have self-doubt, worry about paying the bills, feel the world is almost on the brink of slipping away from them yet they have a will and determination to succeed and it makes them joyful to read.

Burnout is published by Contraband and is available in digital and paperback format.  You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Burnout-Claire-MacLeary/dp/1912235110/ref=sr_1_1_twi_pap_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1521071707&sr=8-1&keywords=burnout+claire+macleary