Staincliffe, Cath

(British, 1956– )

Cath Staincliffe's first novel, Looking for Trouble (1994), features Sal Kilkenny, perhaps the only single-parent detective in crime fiction, who solves a young man's disappearance; this leads her into the underbelly of Manchester, the murky waters of child abuse, and high level corruption. In Staincliffe's second novel, Go not Gently (1997), Kilkenny investigates the sudden descent into Alzheimer's of a resident in a nursing home. This takes her into the world of medical malpractice. Staincliffe writes with a realism which is forceful but never cloying.

Val McDermid, Sara Paretsky  IP