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Sal Kilkenny #8
Crying Out Loud
An abandoned infant on her doorstep is the last thing Manchester private eye Sal Kilkenny needs. Sal's client Libby Hill is trying to put her life back together after the brutal killing of her lover and the conviction of petty criminal Damien Beswick, who confessed to the murder. But now Beswick has retracted his confession--exactly what game is he playing?
216 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 24, 2011
18 people are currently reading
85 people want to read
About the author
Cath Staincliffe
59 books321 followersCath 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!
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
August 7, 2025
CRYING OUT LOUD is #8 in the Sal Kilkenny series. I read it without having read any of the previous books in the series but never felt lost.
There were three main threads in this book:
1) There appears to be an "on-off" romantic relationship running through the series between PI Sal Kilkenny and her "housemate" Ray. Currently it's on. Generally, I find these sequential on-off romantic relationships boring (with the exception of McDermid's Tony Hill/Carol Jordan series), but it plays a very small part in this novel and so didn't annoy me.
2) A baby was left on Sal's doorstep with nothing but a note asking her to "Please take care of the baby." No signature. No explanation. This is the "crying baby" of the title, and too much time is spent worrying about this baby, who continuously upsets everyone in the household. Frankly, I agreed with Ray that Sal should report it to the child protection agency. Even though there is an explanation, in the end, for why the baby was left with Sal, it seemed incidental to the main plot of the story.
3) The only fascinating part of the novel was the case Sal is hired to solve—the murder of a man who had both a wife and a mistress, and was planning to leave this wife. Both the wife and the mistress would have been prime suspects in this murder case, but both had impeccable alibis. A homeless drug addict was convicted of the crime, but his half-sister does not believe he is guilty, and so Sal is hired to find evidence of his innocence. This is an intriguing case and I don't feel that enough space was allotted in the book to all its interesting twists.
I still enjoy Cath Staincliffe's writing style, although in this novel, PI Sal Kilkenny annoyed me. I wish she had spent more effort exploring the murder case and less effort worrying about the crying baby. I think I will try one more Sal Kilkenny novel in case this was just a misstep on the author's part. Three stars, mainly because the murder case was so interesting.
There were three main threads in this book:
1) There appears to be an "on-off" romantic relationship running through the series between PI Sal Kilkenny and her "housemate" Ray. Currently it's on. Generally, I find these sequential on-off romantic relationships boring (with the exception of McDermid's Tony Hill/Carol Jordan series), but it plays a very small part in this novel and so didn't annoy me.
2) A baby was left on Sal's doorstep with nothing but a note asking her to "Please take care of the baby." No signature. No explanation. This is the "crying baby" of the title, and too much time is spent worrying about this baby, who continuously upsets everyone in the household. Frankly, I agreed with Ray that Sal should report it to the child protection agency. Even though there is an explanation, in the end, for why the baby was left with Sal, it seemed incidental to the main plot of the story.
3) The only fascinating part of the novel was the case Sal is hired to solve—the murder of a man who had both a wife and a mistress, and was planning to leave this wife. Both the wife and the mistress would have been prime suspects in this murder case, but both had impeccable alibis. A homeless drug addict was convicted of the crime, but his half-sister does not believe he is guilty, and so Sal is hired to find evidence of his innocence. This is an intriguing case and I don't feel that enough space was allotted in the book to all its interesting twists.
I still enjoy Cath Staincliffe's writing style, although in this novel, PI Sal Kilkenny annoyed me. I wish she had spent more effort exploring the murder case and less effort worrying about the crying baby. I think I will try one more Sal Kilkenny novel in case this was just a misstep on the author's part. Three stars, mainly because the murder case was so interesting.
February 19, 2014
Really enjoyed this book, could not put it down read it in 2 days
September 14, 2019
I wanted to read more of this author after "Fear of Falling" but this was not a good choice. The story was good, but I did not like Sal. She treated Ray abominably. Also, I thought the writing was overwrought and amateurish.
December 7, 2018
Very slow to start, but gathered pace, and was enjoyable.
June 23, 2020
A very short book, somewhat far fetched but I enjoyed it and it kept me guessing
An easy entertaining read
An easy entertaining read
September 3, 2022
Another good story in this series, looks like it will be the last one
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March 31, 2013Crying Out Loud, by Cath Staincliffe, B. Narrated by Julia Franklin, Produced by Soundings, AKA ISIS, Downloaded from audible.com.
Private Eye Sal Kilkenny is investigating for a woman whose lover was murdered. He was married to someone else. A petty criminal confessed to the crime and was convicted, but after he went to jail, he said he hadn’t done it, and he only confessed because he was hooked on drugs and thought he would get help if he confessed. The victim’s lover wanted to make sure he had really done it so hired Sal to investigate. But how can she investigate, when she comes out of her house one day and finds an abandoned baby on her doorstep with bottles and diapers and clothes, showing it has been cared for, asking her to keep the baby for a few days and to tell no one but signing his/her name so badly that Sal has no idea who it is. As she investigates the case involving the convicted killer, and tries to manage with a new baby in the house which the family is not thrilled about, she has her work cut out for her. Some interviewing techniques that are interesting but Sal doesn’t come off as much of a private eye. A little too cozy and romantic for me.
Private Eye Sal Kilkenny is investigating for a woman whose lover was murdered. He was married to someone else. A petty criminal confessed to the crime and was convicted, but after he went to jail, he said he hadn’t done it, and he only confessed because he was hooked on drugs and thought he would get help if he confessed. The victim’s lover wanted to make sure he had really done it so hired Sal to investigate. But how can she investigate, when she comes out of her house one day and finds an abandoned baby on her doorstep with bottles and diapers and clothes, showing it has been cared for, asking her to keep the baby for a few days and to tell no one but signing his/her name so badly that Sal has no idea who it is. As she investigates the case involving the convicted killer, and tries to manage with a new baby in the house which the family is not thrilled about, she has her work cut out for her. Some interviewing techniques that are interesting but Sal doesn’t come off as much of a private eye. A little too cozy and romantic for me.
January 4, 2013
A private investigator finds a baby mysteriously left on her doorstep as she is investigating a case of a young man who claims to have falsely confessed to a murder. Interesting interleaved plot and subplot. Got down to the last chapter before I had it all figured out. Interesting characters.
March 24, 2015
I liked the "Britishness" of this book and the characters were likable, but I suspected someone about halfway through and ended up being correct. It didn't take all the fun out of the story for me, but I dropped it a star for being predictable.
October 19, 2016
This series has been very hit or miss for me. While this one isn't a total miss, I didn't love it. I felt it was much more superficial than others in the series. I ended up having difficulties attaching to the story evident by the 2 week reading period for a 170 page book.
July 1, 2013
I like Sal Kilkenny, and I like the Manchester she evokes, and the social and societal critiques in the novels.
September 3, 2014
Book eight in a series, but it didn't impact the story.
Enjoyable but unmemorable.
Enjoyable but unmemorable.
April 8, 2015
A nice escape novel. Believable characters and plot.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews