Looking For Trouble

by Cath Staincliffe

Published August 1995

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 wasteland 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 herself into?

Actually, yes. Sal is on fire with a desire to see justice done and to avenge the death of a young lad whose only crime was knowing too much . . .

This is the first Sal Kilkenny mystery, serialised on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour.

Praise for Cath Staincliffe:

'A book about courage and compromise, about how sometimes it's kinder and braver to lie.Stunning.'
Anne Cleeves

'Modest, compassionate... a solid ingenious plotter with a sharp eye for domestic detail'Literary Review

'Complex and satisfying' The Sunday Times

'about as good as the British private eye novel gets' Time Out

'It's always exciting to see a writer get better and better, and Cath Staincliffe is doing just that'Val McDermid

'an engrossing read'Sunday Telegraph


Dead Wrong

by Cath Staincliffe

Published 8 October 1998

Against the backdrop of Euro '96 and the soundtrack of Oasis, a summer of terror begins.

Sal Kilkenny has two very frightened clients on her hands. Debbie Gosforth is the victim of a deranged stalker while teenager Luke Wallace is afraid he might be a murderer as he has, allegedly, stabbed his best friend Ahktar Khan to death.

And then the IRA bomb Manchester's Arndale Centre and the city goes up in smoke...

Praise for Cath Staincliffe:

'Gritty, intelligent, humane and involving' Big Issue

'Deftly organised, with several surprising twists.' Evening Standard

'Has her finger on the pulse of her city and that rare ability to write about love, motherhood and friendship without sentimentality' Val McDermid

'Modest, compassionate... a solid ingenious plotter with a sharp eye for domestic detail' Literary Review

'Complex and satisfying' The Sunday Times

'about as good as the British private eye novel gets' Time Out


Go Not Gently

by Cath Staincliffe

Published 13 November 1997

Juggling the school run with private investigating, Sal Kilkenny's life is a strange mix of the dramatic with the domestic.Sal has two new clients:Jimmy Achebe wants her to confirm his suspicions of his wife's infidelity and Agnes Donlan fears for her friend Lily, who has undergone a swift decline in her new nursing home.Sal soon finds herself in treacherous territory which threatens to impinge on her private life...

Praise for Cath Staincliffe:

'A book about courage and compromise, about how sometimes it's kinder and braver to lie. Stunning.'
Anne Cleeves

'Modest, compassionate... a solid ingenious plotter with a sharp eye for domestic detail'. Literary Review

'Complex and satisfying.' The Sunday Times.

'about as good as the British private eye novel gets' Time Out.

'It's always exciting to see a writer get better and better, and Cath Staincliffe is doing just that.' Val McDermid.

'an engrossing read'. Sunday Telegraph