Sal Kilkenny mystery Series

On her first day back after the Easter break Manchester based Private Investigator, Sal Kilkenny takes on two new cases. The first is to discover who is sending offensive poison pen letters to hotel receptionist Lucy Barker. The second is surveilence work for a couple who want reassuring that there are no nuisance neighbours or criminal activity in the area they're planning to buy a new home. As Sal prepares to stake out the streets a bitter cold snap plunges the country into arctic conditions. Her stress levels are not helped by the escalation of the campaign against Lucy Barker and her inability to nail the perpetrator who maddeningly avoids capture. Plus there's trouble at home as Sal's daughter Maddie seems unable to settle at school. When Sal's normally mundane surveillance duties bring her face to face with a grim discovery and violent crime she's sure that it just can't get any worse before it gets better. Unluckily for Sal there is more than one surprise in store for her and a nightmarish sequence of events may well turn out to be a matter of life and death...

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

Towers of Silence

by Cath Staincliffe

Published 4 February 2002

No peace and goodwill to all men here in Manchester...

It's the countdown to Christmas and Sal Kilkenny is exhausted even thinking about the festive season - her life as a single mother is hectic at the best of times. So when she is asked to investigate a suicide that a grieving family cannot come to terms with, she turns the case down.

Eventually, and against her better judgement, Sal is persuaded to look into the woman's last hours and is appalled to discover how little the authorities had investigated her death. And why would a woman so petrified of heights choose to jump from the top of Manchester's Arndale Centre car park?

Sal Kilkenny Series
Looking For Trouble (Book 1)
Go Not Gently (Book 2)
Dead Wrong (Book 3)
Stone Cold Red Hot (Book 4)
Towers of Silence (Book 5)
Bitter Blue (Book 6)
Missing (Book 7)
Crying Out Loud (Book 8)

Praise for Cath Staincliffe:

'Gritty, intelligent, humane and involving' Big Issue

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

'An engrossing read.' Sunday Telegraph

'Real people, real problems... Staincliffe writes brilliantly and compassionately about things that matter. Seriously good.' Literary Review

'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

Stone Cold Red Hot

by Cath Staincliffe

Published 13 February 2001

Can Sal break the conspiracy of silence that surrounds her latest case?

Sal Kilkenny is asked to discover the whereabouts of Jennifer Pickering, disinherited twenty years ago. But it seems that now Jennifer does not want to be found. And as she spends her days tracing Jennifer, Sal's nights are shattered by a dangerous stint with the Neighbour Nuisance Unit on one of Manchester's toughest housing estates. In this highly charged atmosphere it's not surprising when tempers flare... and as properties start to burn, Sal's two cases spiral out of control and events, past and present, collide with deadly intensity.

Sal Kilkenny Series
Looking For Trouble (Book 1)
Go Not Gently (Book 2)
Dead Wrong (Book 3)
Stone Cold Red Hot (Book 4)
Towers of Silence (Book 5)
Bitter Blue (Book 6)
Missing (Book 7)
Crying Out Loud (Book 8)

Praise for Cath Staincliffe:

'Gritty, intelligent, humane and involving' Big Issue

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

'An engrossing read.' Sunday Telegraph

'Real people, real problems... Staincliffe writes brilliantly and compassionately about things that matter. Seriously good.' Literary Review

'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