“North Edinburgh’s Tarantino” says writing has been “therapeutic” in overcoming learning disabilities as he unveils his latest crime book.
Colin Burnett, author of the Aldo crime thriller series, has just published the third installment of the series with Family Man.
In his novels, Burnett says he tries to “shine a light on working-class communities in Edinburgh and Midlothian”.
The 36-year-old from Bonnyrigg has already written two novels in the series, A Working Class State of Mind, released in 2021, and Who’s Aldo?, released in 2023. All of his works have been published by Scottish publishing house, Tippermuir Books.
The series’ main character, Aldo, is a Scottish-Indian crime boss from Leith with a comedic touch à la Tony Soprano.
In Family Man, Burnett told Deadline News that he explores the darker side of Aldo, who is the head of Edinburgh’s most popular fictional crime family.
He said: “When I was writing Aldo, I was a wee bit worried in terms of how folk would engage with, especially that darker side of his character, because it’s been hinted at in the other two books.
“In this one you really get to see him as a gangster, which is what I was wanting to do.”
Burnett, who lives with learning disabilities and is autistic, said that he found writing “therapeutic”.
He said: “It can throw challenges, but with being on the spectrum, I find it quite therapeutic to write even though it can be quite challenging at times.
“It sort of gives me a focus to channel my energies, and I really enjoy writing. I like coming up with characters, different storylines and things like that.
“I’ve tried to use my journey in a positive aspect to try to encourage other people with similar disabilities to engage with writing. I’ve tried to do that since the first book onto this one.”
Prior to his career as a professional writer, Burnett gained a following on Twitter many years ago writing stories on the social media channel.
He said: “I had readers from all over the world reading my stuff, which was really great, and had people from different countries contact me from France, America, Australia, and Korea. It was weird, I wasn’t really sure how well I’m finding my stories.
“That gave me a platform to get my first book published, because I was getting a lot of traction when I was sharing the stories online, so that made it easier to get a publisher.”
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