Breakdown Clause

A darkly funny political satire from a former parliamentary staffer who's been in the trenches.

If you’re stupid enough to trust anyone in Parliament with a secret, you deserve the inevitable moment they use it against you . . .

Cleo Turner was once a brilliant young political adviser, until she married a government minister. Now she’s stranded in her husband’s remote electorate with a baby, a beautiful house and a life she barely recognises. Increasingly desperate to get back to the city and her sense of self, Cleo asks a small favour of an old visiting colleague: help engineer her husband’s political downfall.

But Parliament should have taught Cleo that secrets are currency, loyalties are temporary and everyone has an agenda. And as the weekend begins to unravel, she discovers she may not have quite as much power over the people around her as she thinks.

Darkly funny and deliciously cynical, The Breakdown Clause is a political satire about marriage and motherhood, secrets and revenge, and what happens when the person pulling the strings suddenly loses control.