Maggie Laird & Wilma Harcus

By the author of McIlvanney-prize-listed Cross Purpose. "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?

A brilliant new talent for the lover of crime.' Sue Black DBE, forensic anthropologist When Aberdeen housewife Debbie Milne abruptly vanishes without trace, leaving behind her two young children, husband Scott is too distraught to sit out the police's 72-hour window and await developments. He turns to local detective agency Harcus & Laird. Put off by previous "domestic" cases, Maggie Laird isn't keen, but is cajoled by partner Wilma Harcus into a covert operation. Together they comb through meagre scraps of information, eventually trawling the city's women's refuges and homeless squats, in spite of the deadly danger. Then a woman's body is discovered in a Dundee builder's skip. With the clock ticking and the police struggling to make identification, the race is on. Claire MacLeary fashions a surprising, gritty, fast-paced tale with the warmth and wisdom of 'women of a certain age'.

Claire MacLeary has, with little fuss or fanfare, written a crime series that subverts and rejuvenates the crime genre' Scots Whay Hae When police are called to a murder scene at the home of Aberdeen socialite Annabel Imray, they are under pressure to get a conviction, and fast. The last thing they want is the distraction of a series of baffling break-ins. The victims, all of them women, are terrorised: just how did the intruder know so much about them? Meanwhile, local PIs Maggie Laird and Wilma Harcus are at rock bottom, their bills mounting. As Maggie prepares to sell her home and contemplates dissolving the agency, Wilma goes off-piste to get a loan. But when the clock starts ticking on repayment, she realises the price is too high. And before long, Maggie herself is in grave danger. Wilma fears the worst. Can she find her before it's too late?