Looking for Trouble

Sal Kilkenny #1

by Cath Staincliffe

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, of well-heeled organized crime and, ultimately, murder.

Genres: Crime, Mystery, Ebooks, Fiction

272 pages, Paperback

First published November 3, 1994

About the author

Cath Staincliffe is a best-selling, award-winning novelist, radio playwright and the creator of ITV's hit series, Blue Murder, starring Caroline Quentin as DCI Janine Lewis. Cath's books have been short-listed for the British Crime Writers Association best first novel award, for the Dagger in the Library and selected as Le Masque de l'Année. In 2012 Cath won the CWA Short Story Dagger for Laptop, sharing the prize with Margaret Murphy with her story The Message. Cath was shortlisted again with Night Nurse in 2014. Cath's Sal Kilkenny private eye series features a single-parent sleuth working the mean streets of Manchester. Trio, a stand-alone novel moved away from crime to explore adoption and growing up in the 1960s, inspired by Cath's own experience. Letters To My Daughter's Killer was selected for Specsavers Crime Thriller Book Club in 2014 and featured on ITV3s Crime Thriller Club. Cath also writes the Scott & Bailey novels based on the popular UK TV series. Cath's latest stand alone book, The Girl in the Green Dress, was inspired by her experience as the parent of a transgender child. It tells the story of a transphobic hate crime and asks the question: how far would you go to protect your child? Cath is one of the founding members of Murder Squad - a group of Northern crime writers who give readings, talks and signings around the country. Cath was born in Bradford, Yorkshire, UK and now lives in Manchester, Lancashire with her family. You can follow her on Twitter, @CathStaincliffe, which she does when she should be busy writing!

Reviews

[Lynda Kelly]

I had high hopes for this after reading others' reviews and realising she write Scott & Bailey among other things-can't go wrong !! However........this was an "old" book released onto the Kindle and it's full of mistakes. So much so I wanted to pack it in in loads of instances as it wore me down. This is expected in freebies (although still unacceptable as far as I'm concerned) but not in paid books so I'm less than impressed. I had plans to read this whole series but won't now. I have bought another by her which is more recent so I am hoping that wasn't a terrible decision and is more polished.
There were repeated apostrophe mistakes throughout, especially talking about the Dobsons' house and using Dobson's and missing it off Ladies'. It was wrong every single time !! Instead of wracked it is .racked ?? There were missing speechmarks in places and almost every time JB was written at the end of a sentence the fullstop was missing. Maybe a formatting "thing" but it should have been checked. Then at one point JB was changed to J.B. It was all a bit too slapdash. The odd word was dropped from sentences such as the/a and there was a lack of paragraph breaks making it a little baffling at times.
Live was used when it should've been five and pouring instead of poring and then 1 and not I.
I did not like Sal very much at all, either, nor the way she spoke about Digger. A few of her chapter endings were dum,dum, dum moments but that got a little tiresome after a while. She really wasn't a terrific detective, either, I thought. Her daughter was always whining or bleating and was in no way very likeable and Sal was always wanting to sleep or she had smelly armpits. Too much repetition.
There were a few very funny remarks in it but I really didn't like it. It's a terrible introduction to this author in this state.

[BookQueen]

I can't believe this is from the creator of Scott and Bailey :( I could have written this book. It has no style. I felt zero connection with the characters; a boring relating of Sal Kilkenny's boring life. I am reading the first Scott and Bailey novel which seems to be written by a different writer - The writing is on par with Val McDermid ...
I received Bitter Blue from the Book Depository today featuring Sal Kilkenny. I hope it is better than this book.

[Sandra]

This probably one of Cath Staincliffer earliest novels, and compared to 'Letters to my daughter's killer' and some of the Scott and Bailey novels, it shows which, obviously, is a Good Thing. This, for my taste, over-domestic in its detail and Sal Kilkenny far too ditzy to be convincing or interesting. The low side of three stars

[Val]

The first book in the Sal Kilkenny series.

Single Mum Sal is a Private detective, a job she by and large enjoys. Until she undertakes to locate a missing son.

Her search involves rubbing shoulders in the grimy Manchester Underworld. But she’s a stickler for justice and all she wants is to get that justice for a young lad, whose only crime was knowing too much.

Having lived & worked in Manchester for years, it adds to the book for me being able to visualise exactly where Sal is.

Very enjoyable. Will definitely read more.

[Sharen]

I enjoyed this early mystery by an author I like. I don’t think it’s fair to judge a book on editing errors. The story is a good one, and I enjoy a mystery/crime novel that features characters that have a life other than just solving crimes.

[Rhonda]

Working on this series. This is a quick read, good stories!

[Suzanne]

I liked this book. It had a good storyline and some good characters. I like how you don’t have to read them in order.

[Sally]

#1 Sal Kilkenny. Fast moving.

[Caroline]

Didn’t hold my interest at all so I didn’t finish.

[Gertrude]

Not as good as the other Cath Staincliffe books that I have read. About a private investigator called in to investigate a runaway teenaged boy. She gets herself into some very dangerous situations

[Kirsty Darbyshire]

This is just about as good as I could want a crime novel to be. Staincliffe's Manchester is the real thing, it's not been sanitised or seedified and it's a great backdrop for this story. I thought Val McDermid's Kate Brannigan books had a good Mancunian feel to them but they've got nothing on this book for bringing the city to life. On every other page I found myself remembering something else about the place. I don't know how the book would read if you didn't already know Manchester but I don't think it would harm the book any, I hope you'd find the town as real as I did.

I liked the plot so much that I find myself not wanting to say too much about it here as one of the best things about it was the unexpectedness of some of the events. There's plenty of surprises and no authorly cheating.

The characters are probably the star part of the book though, I especially like the protagonist's four year old daughter and the fact that a single mother investigator is a twist on the usual crime story.

Definitely one of the best books I've read in ages, it's way too long since I read Dead Wrong (the third in this series I think, Looking for Trouble is the first) and I won't wait so long to catch up on the rest of Staincliffe's work.

[Deborah]

I enjoyed this, the first Sal Kilkenny mystery. I liked the central characters - Sal, her little girl Maddie, their housemates Ray and his little boy Tom.

the layers of mystery surrounding Martin Hobbs, the missing teenage boy, were nicely complex without overdoing it. the secondary characters were varied and clearly depicted, if not always with a lot of depth. the awful lodger Clive was very convincing and evoked horrible memories of shared houses :-)
the conclusion was satisfying, even if some answers were never going to be made public.

I bought the ebook of this after reading a much more recent crime novel by Cath Staincliffe, which is a prequel to the Scott & Bailey TV series. it's always interesting to see how a writer develops, and it was also very interesting reading a crime novel set in Manchester in the mid-90s, when the gun-carrying gangs were only just taking off.

[Naomi]

The first in the Sal Kilkenny Mysteries was really good and sucked me in immediately. I still prefer her Janine Lewis series to this one. I think the characters are much more enjoyable, but these will do. One of the things that drives me crazy with this series is that if you are in the US, as I am, you are scratching and clawing to get the SK books. I have had to read a number of them out of order, so I didn't develop as much of an attachment to SK as I did Janine Lewis.

[Sandra]

I have read four of Cath's later books and felt they grabbed me more than this story. Having said that, I think I will come to like Sal and her little family and her friends more with each book. There is certainly no beg your pardons in this book, but I agree there was a least one instance at the school, which just wouldn't happen. Perhaps the fact this book was first published in 1994, has something to do with it.

[Debbie]

Manchester (UK) based Private Investigator Sal finds a missing boy and a whole heap of trouble. Despite being warned off by the police after her client is found dead, Sal continues to get involved in the mystery surrounding young Martin. Not your usual cops and robbers - despite some nasty crimes, this is an almost gentle crime novel.

[Samantha Curtis]

I have read quite a lot of Cath Staincliffe's books and loved every one. After reading the 3rd book in this series not realising it was a series i had to read from the start. I wasnt disappointed. All the books i read from cath just get better and better.

Looking forward to reading more books from cath

[Angela]

Great book I really enjoyed it and read it in one day. One or two facts are slightly wrong - you can't walk into a school staff room without signing in as a visitor and no teacher would ever give away a pupils address - but this didn't spoil my enjoyment. I've just bought book 2!

[K.B. Walker]

I heard this author speak at a local library and thought I'd give her books a try. This was a very good read, kept me gripped and I'll look out for more Sal Kilkenny stories in the future. Best of all it's set in Manchester.

[Gustambro]

I know it is one of Cath first books but I was not impressed. I enjoyed the style of Scot & Bailey, but Sal Kilkenny was boring and not that smart. More like an amateur! I've given up on reading the next on the series...

[Colin Slider]

couldn't get into this at all - after 60 or so pages realised I had no interest in finding out what was happening with the protagonist, felt no empathy with her or her various issues - so rather than persevere I gave up. That doesn't happen often

[Patsy]

This was set in Manchester so I knew lots of the places mentioned.

[Gail]

Cracking, fast paced thriller. Thoroughly enjoyable and can highly recommend

[Rachel Cotterill]

Utterly gripping, I couldn't put it down. Realistic characters with normal lives, in a tense thriller that kept me guessing to the end.

[Ian Britton]

This was my first Cath Staincliffe book and featured Sal Kilkenny private eye. If you like Sue Grafton you will properly like this series. I now plan to go on and read the rest.

[Jack]

Manchester-based private investigator Sal is asked to look for a runaway boy. Then a body turns up and plenty of other unpleasant things start happening. Exciting crime tale.

[Sue]

Enjoyed it - would read more by this author

[Angela Free]

Didn't want to put this one down. Which is quite surprising because it isn't particularly meaty. Really like Sal Kilkenny (the main character). Looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

[Adele]

The first Sal Kilkenny Mystery, short-listed for the Crime Writers’ Association best first novel award

[Gill]

Published in 1994, sadly this feels just as current now, with talk of cutbacks and child exploitation.

A well-written if somewhat obvious plot, at least to 21st century eyes.

[Bridget Brooks]

OK but not brilliant. Worth reading but predictable and not totally convincing. One of her earlier novels I think.