HarperCollins snaps up 'chilling and compelling' crime novel from McCluskey

Julia Wisdom, publisher for crime and thriller at HarperCollins UK, and Anna Valdinger, fiction publisher at HarperCollins Australia, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, in début novel The Wolf Tree and a further crime novel. The deal was negotiated by Tom Gilliatt at the Left Bank Agency and Felicity Blunt and Rosie Pierce at Curtis Brown. The Wolf Tree will publish in March 2025.  

It is described as a “chilling and compelling crime novel set on the remote Scottish island of Eilean Eadar”. The island had been infamous for the disappearance of three lighthouse-keepers in 1919, a mystery that was never solved. But a century later, when a young man is found dead at the foot of the same lighthouse, two detectives from Glasgow are sent to investigate.

McCluskey is a Melbourne-based writer, editor and actor. She has written several film and TV projects for her production company Sibylline Films. She is also co-founder of Three Fates Theatre Company, and has acted in several feature and short films, as well as television shows and web series.

Wisdom called McCluskey’s “ability to unsettle the reader" and powers of description "remarkable… The mystery is woven through with legend and folklore, but the story itself feels modern, edgy and gripping. Laura knows exactly how to create a threatening atmosphere and how to keep the suspense at a high level throughout. The solution, when it comes, is extraordinary.”

McCluskey said: “It still feels unreal to know that The Wolf Tree is going to be shared with readers across the world; and even more so to say that it’s being launched in Australia and the UK by the passionate and brilliant team at HarperCollins. HarperCollins is home to some of my favourite authors, stories and characters, and I am so thrilled for this story, and DIs Lennox and Stewart, to join the ranks.”