Cath Staincliffe
More Reviews
Go Not Gently
'Manchester crime writer Cath Staincliffe has made her fans wait three years for the second novel to feature her single parent sleuth Sal Kilkenny. But it's been well worth the wait. Because she's a private eye who can't help empathising with her clients, Sal finds herself offering help and support to an elderly client who's worried about the fate of her best friend in an old people's home, even though there's no real case for her to investigate. Meanwhile, her other principle case seems to be a classic case of marital infidelity. But when adultery turns to murder, Sal has even more to worry about. As she attempts to make sense of what appears baffling and unconnected, Sal's ingenuity and courage are tested to the limits. The ending relies a little too heavily on chance, but that doesn't spoil an intelligent, gripping and often moving novel that reveals Manchester with honesty and affection.' Val McDermid, Manchester Evening News
Looking For Trouble
“Sal Kilkenny, penurious single parent with four-year-old daughter, turns private eye, partly to placate the bank, chiefly because she enjoys legitimate snooping. The job turns dangerous when she's hired to find a missing boy, perilously involved with white-collar pederasts. Credible and involving, with corruption paving mean Streets of Manchester, where honest clogs once clattered. Admirable debut novel by a writer with energy, wit and a point of view. Stand back and watch her go.” Literary Review
“The first chapter grips your attention immediately. A book that starts with the sentence, 'I get a kick out of following people' has to mean business.
An excellent thriller which you can't put down; each chapter making you read it as you wonder what will happen next. As a story it's believable with a subtle twist at the very end.
Based in and around the Manchester area, Sal Kilkenny (single parent-cum private eye), embarks upon what she thinks is just a routine investigation. A mother wants to find her 16 year old son who has left home a month previously. It's assumed he may have come to Manchester and is living rough. Two murdered people on and a whole host of complications, Sal is no nearer untangling the messy web she has got herself into. All is not what it seems and she more she uncovers the more complicated the plot becomes." FRANCOIS GARCIA, The Big Issue
"Sal Kilkenny, self-employed investigator and single mother, lives hand-to mouth in Manchester, juggling the school run with assignments following adulterous husbands. When asked by a distraught mother to find shy, runaway teenager, Martin, she little expects to become embroiled in an urban underworld and a complex case where ends refuse to meet. When Martin's friend scouts round local clubs, he ends up with a suspicious heroin overdose. Then the mother-cum-client client is brutally murdered... except she turns out to he an impostor. Written in gutsy unconvoluted prose, this is an original thriller whose protagonist is no-nonsense and thoroughly likeable. Concerned with the facts of contemporary violence in England's once green and pleasant land Staincliffe doesn't moralise or hide the sordid reality. She combines gritty realism with a clever plot and a cast of weird characters drawn from top to bottom of the social scale, keeping the reader on edge, wanting to know whodunnit and why, until the last page. Recommended.” What’s On, Birmingham
"Eighteen months after setting herself up as a private investigator on the enterprise allowance, Sal Kilkenny is struggling to balance the trials of single-motherhood with a trickle of marital infidelity cases. When she's hired to trace a runaway teenager the case initially looks like a non-starter, but pretty soon the spectre of sexual abuse rears its ugly head. Then people around her start turning up dead; and she finds herself stumbling dangerously close to a particularly nasty element of the Manchester underworld.
Cath Staincliffe's frequent descriptions of the humdrum and domestic serve to make her unpleasant revelations about events just beyond the doorstep all the more chilling. A direct and gripping debut." GEORGE KITCHING
"If you are a literary female sleuth, it is now de rigeur to be young and feisty, and to have domestic problems. Usually it's nosy neighbours, but in this case, it's children and a hectic home life. But Cath Staincliffe, from Bradford, handles her creation, Sal Kilkenny, with wit and the investigation of missing teenager is well-paced . One to watch out for." Yorkshire Post
"Cath Staincliffe’s single parent private eye, Sal Kilkenny, is … searching for a missing teenager in Manchester's underworld. This is 90's North of England at its darkest. with homeless youngsters surviving in urban dereliction, prey and victims to men with money and power. Sal Kilkenny is an instantly attractive heroine. Her life is a complex modern mix of single parenthood, warmly and realistically portrayed. Full marks to Manchester publisher, Commonword, who produce Crocus Books, for their discovery of this excellent writer." A Shot in the Dark
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