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A pair of Aberdeen mums are unlikely but likeable sleuths dreamt up by Claire MacLeary, who came late to writing – but is now on book No4

detective inspectors that got on Claire’s nerves. For a start, they never stop eating. If they’re not stuffing a rowie in their mouths, they’re worrying about what to cook for tea.

Then there are the annoying teenage children and needy elderly parents.

Both have proper jobs as well as a side hustle in the private investigating business. They even wear leggings.

Maggie and Wilma are based on the women who worked at functions when Claire had a sandwich shop in Aberdeen. Whenever she had a big job on, the call went out to her staff ’s sisters, cousins and neighbours.

She recalled: “All those folk would come out the woodwork. None had had the benefit of further education or any career to speak of. They’d been at home juggling kids and homework and housekeeping – and sometimes elderly parents – keeping a lot of things up in the air and getting very little sleep on it.

“These women were magnificent. They rose to the occasion, dealt with every hiccup.”

What Wilma and Maggie lack in evidence-control exper make up for in lateral thin point in Claire’s latest boo the pair are discussing lack of progress in tracin who has disappeared from Wilma points out to Magg have a huge hidden adva

She says: “We’re women like Debbie.” The plods w have taken the statemen evidence in plastic bags struggle to get inside Deb

Unlike Claire, who lives