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Cath Staincliffe - Page 3
Cath Staincliffe
Go Not GentlyGo Not Gently
Looking For TroubleLooking For Trouble


First British Edition Headline (1997)
Go Not Gently
See Review by Val McDermid - Gold Dagger winner & creator of Lindsay Gordon, Kate Brannigan & Tony Hill
Juggling the school run with assignments tailing cheating husbands makes life a strange mixture of the dramatic and the domestic for Sal Kilkenny, private investigator and single mother. And when van driver Jimmy Achebe, distraught at his wife's apparent infidelity, asks Sal to confirm his fears, only to find himself a widower shortly afterwards, she suspects the dramatic may be about to take the upper hand.
But it is another of her cases, investigating the sudden decline into Alzheimer's Disease of Lily Palmer, an elderly woman resident of Homelea Nursing Home, that claims more of her attention. For although they both know she may be attempting to find answers to the unanswerable, Sal feels that she should try to give her client Agnes Donlan as much peace of mind over the reasons behind her friend's pitiful state as she can. When Agnes witnesses a violent dare-up between Lily's doctor and Homelea's matron, and a rapidly worsening Lily is miraculously found a bed in South Manchester's oversubscribed psycho-geriatric hospital, Sal begins to wonder whether there may be real grounds for Agnes's unease about her friend's treatment after all.
Gritty, intelligent, humane and involving, GO NOT GENTLY features a highly believable heroine rooted in a vivid and convincing Manchester background and is an outstanding follow-up to Cath Staincliffe's acclaimed debut LOOKING FOR TROUBLE, nominated for the Crime Writers' Association Best First Crime Novel Award.
'.. A superb follow up to Cath Staincliffe's highly acclaimed debut' Peterborough Weekend Telegraph
'Struggling single mother Sal Kilkenny is compassionate, gutsy, bright enough to know when it's clever to be scared and tenacious as a Rottweiler. Cath Staincliffe's tour of the mean streets and leafy suburbs of Manchester reveals the city as the natural successor to Marlowe's Los Angeles' Val McDermid
'Uncommonly engaging and celebrating a lifestyle in which battles with the budget are just as stressful as punch-ups with the baddies. Not what you'd call escapist, but zestful and involving.' Philip Oakes, Literary Review
'Gritty, intelligent, humane and involving… a highly-believable heroine rooted in a vivid and convincing Manchester background in this novel and entertaining book.' The Big Issue In the North
'Warm, compassionate and engrossing… One to watch out for' Yorkshire Post
'No nonsense and thoroughly likeable… combines gritty realism with a clever plot… Recommended' What's On, Birmingham
'Warm, compassionate and engrossing… Staincliffe lifts the lid on issues such as mental health and abuse of the elderly in a realistic manner. Highly believable and a wonderful twist at the end.' Yorkshire Post
'The snappy first person narrative delves into the dark sinister side of medicine in this gritty and involving yarn… Go not Gently is well worth reading.' Bradford Telegraph and Argus


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British Pbk Original - Crocus Books
Looking For Trouble
Short-listed for the Crime Writers Association John Creasey Award and serialised on Woman's Hour, BBC Radio 4
She's a single parent. A private eye. And liking it. Until, that is, Mrs. Hobbs turns up asking Sal Kilkenny to find her missing son.. Sal's search takes her through the Manchester underworld, a world of deprivation and petty theft, of well-heeled organised crime and ultimately, murder. Would she have taken the job on if she had known what she was getting into? Probably, because Sal is fired with the desire to see justice done, to avenge the death of a young lad whose only crime was knowing too much...
"Struggling single mother Sal Kilkenny is compassionate, gutsy, bright enough to know when it's clever to be scared and tenacious as a Rottweiler. Cath Staincliffe's tour of the mean streets and leafy suburbs of Manchester reveals the city as the natural successor to Marlowe's Los Angeles. With a cast of characters drawn from the gutter to the high ranks of business and officialdom, she probes the city's underbelly in an exciting tale of corruption, exploitation and brutality." Val McDermid
"Sal Kilkenny manages a fine juggling act with a horribly messy case and a hectic home life." Liza Cody
"Ms. Staincliffe writes exceptionally well." Marcia Muller
"an instantly attractive heroine" A Shot In The Dark
"credible and involving, with corruption paving the mean streets of Manchester" Literary Review
"an excellent thriller" The Big Issue
"one to watch out for" Yorkshire Post
"gutsy, unconvoluted prose.. an original thriller whose protagonist is no-nonsense and thoroughly likeable… combines gritty realism with a clever plot… Recommended" Birmingham Post
"A direct and gripping debut" Paint it Red
"a complex modern mix of single parenthood, warmly and realistically portrayed" A Shot In the Dark
"a writer with energy, wit and a point of view. Stand back and watch her go" Literary Review


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