Burnout: a crime novel for the Weinstein, Westminster and #MeToo era

Posted on March 9, 2018

Maggie and Wilma, the crime-fighting odd couple who first appeared in last year’s McIlvanney Prize-longlisted Cross Purpose, return to tackle some of Aberdeen’s dirtier secrets in Claire MacLeary’s Burnout, published by Contraband on 8 March 2018 (ebook) and 29 March 2018 (print).

It’s a gritty, surprising, smart and entertaining crime thriller with a social conscience, and genuinely a break from the norm, featuring as it does an older, resilient female duo tackling power and abuse issues affecting women.

In the wake of the recent high-profile sexual harassment scandals, Burnout brings the issue of abuse back to its domestic setting. As Maggie and Wilma discover, abuse may be physical or sexual, but it’s the long-term psychological toll that’s often most damaging: it leads to burnout. But in this world of secrets and lies, nothing is clear-cut…

With Burnout, Claire MacLeary continues to mark herself out as an idiosyncratic voice in crime writing. She has an uncanny ability to reflect the complex reality of relationships and domestic abuse, combined with a page-turning plot, fantastic characters and a dark humour.