Cath Staincliffe
Audio Tape Soundings (2003) |
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Bitter Blue
A Sal Kilkenny mystery
It is first day after the Easter break, and Sal Kilkenny is already rushed off her feet. Her daughter Maddie unexpectedly kicks up a fuss about going to school. Sal promises to investigate the offensive poison pen letters being sent to the elegant hotel receptionist, Lucy Barker. A Mr and Mrs Ecclestone seek her assistance in their house purchase, asking her to survey the area for nuisance neighbours or criminal activity.
But these tasks are more troublesome than Sal anticipated. The campaign against Lucy escalates and Sal is unable to nail the perpetrator. Her surveillance duties involve a grim discovery and violent crime. Maddie continues to be stubborn about school and her teachers are complaining. And now a nightmarish sequence of events may become a matter of life and death .. .
Julia Franklyn has a real passion for talking books and has been reading them for the last fifteen years. She has combined this with a busy career in radio and television both as a presenter and also as a voice-over with thousands of commercials to her credit. For the last eight years she's been a presenter on ITV's Gardener's Diary.
5 Cassettes Running Time: approx. 6 hrs
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Audio Tape - ISIS (2003) |
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Tower of Silence
Sal is preoccupied with the trimmings of Christmas when she is asked to investigate a suicide. Miriam Johnstone had a history of mental instability and the coroner’s verdict seemed justified. But when Sal eventually agrees to help the family, she starts to have her suspicions.
Meanwhile, she has a personal dilemma on her hands - when should she introduce her daughter to her new boyfriend, Stuart? As this dilemma preys on her mind, she receives a call from a woman desperate for answers about her own child and Sal agrees to tail the difficult teenager. Before long she’s led in unexpected directions that take her closer to danger and heartbreak than ever before…
Julia Franklyn has a real passion for talking books and has been reading them for the last fifteen years. She has combined this with a busy career in radio and television both as a presenter and also as a voice-over with thousands of commercials to her credit. For the last eight years she's been a presenter on ITV's Gardener's Diary.
Unabridged:
6 Cassettes Running Time: approx. 7 hrs
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Audio Tape Soundings (2002) |
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Stone Cold Red Hot
A Sal Kilkenny Mystery
When private eye Sal Kilkenny is asked to discover the whereabouts of Jennifer Pickering, disinherited by her family twenty years before, it seems that Jennifer does not want to be found. Her brother Roger is determined to locate her - their mother is dying and he craves an emotional reunion to settle their differences before it is too late. As events unfold, single-mother Sal becomes engrossed in the mystery - against her better judgement.
As she spends her days tracing Jennifer, Sal’s nights are taken up with an emotional and often dangerous assignment on one of Manchester’s toughest housing estates. In a highly charged atmosphere, tempers flare. The two cases collide when events, past and present, spiral out of control . . .
‘A writer with wit, energy and a point of view. Stand back and watch her go.’ Literary Review
Julia Franklyn has a real passion for talking books and has been reading them for the last fifteen years. She has combined this with a busy career in radio and television both as a presenter and also as a voice-over with thousands of commercials to her credit. For the last eight years she's been a presenter on ITV's Gardener's Diary.
6 Cassettes Running Time: approx. 7 hrs 30 mins
About The Author
Cath Staincliffe is creator of the Sal Kilkenny mysteries. These books, set in contemporary Manchester (Northern England), feature single-parent, private eye Sal Kilkenny who, like many modern women, has to juggle the demands of work with those of parenthood.
Looking For Trouble (Crocus 1994) was short-listed for the Crime Writers Association's John Creasey Award for the best first crime novel and was also serialised on Woman's Hour, BBC Radio 4.
Cath Staincliffe was raised in Bradford with a few years interlude in Torquay. After graduating with a degree in Drama and Theatre Arts from Birmingham University she moved to Manchester to start a job. She lives with her partner and their three children. Combines working on freelance community arts projects and childcare with writing. She's a keen crime reader and aspiring gardener. A member of the Crime Writers Association and Mystery
Women.
Cath has always written poetry and stories (from infant school onwards..) She studied play-writing at university but her writing was sporadic and limited to poetry for several years while she worked as a community artist. Cath devoted more time to writing when on maternity leave with her first child and she attended women's writers workshops at Commonword, Manchester. Her poetry and short stories were published in anthologies and she became interested in developing longer pieces initially in science fiction.
She writes in small snatches, in longhand, sitting on the sofa (no room of her own!) and never works out all the plot first - which leads to tricky times. She attends a novel writing group where she gets and gives support and encouragement.
Looking For Trouble was inspired by the crime fiction that Cath likes to read. She chose to develop the domestic life of her heroine, Sal Kilkenny, by making her a mother with all the attendant responsibilities and concerns. Sal is a character whose life reflects the experience of the many women who have to combine business and work with home and family.
The City of Manchester provides a strong background to the stories, there is great diversity of place and atmosphere and the cosmopolitan make-up of the city means Cath can find any number of characters and enterprises to write about.
Cath is a founder member of Murder Squad, a
group of seven crime fiction writers who have come together to promote their
work and the genre to a wider public. Murder Squad carry out readings,
literary projects, residencies and workshops in a whole range of settings.
For further details see their website www.murdersquad.co.uk
Bibliography
N.B. dates and publishers in dark red indicate British First Editions. Dates and publishers in black indicate recent reprints.
Bitter Blue
(Soundings,
2003)
Dec 03
Tower of Silence
(ISIS,
2003)
Stone Cold Red Hot
(Soundings,
2002)
Looking For Trouble Audiobook
(Soundings,
1995)
(Sal Kilkenny)
Bitter Blue
by Cath Staincliffe
