Cath Staincliffe
Transworld Publishers have signed up Cath Staincliffe to write an original crime novel based on the ratings winning ITV1 crime drama series Scott & Bailey. Transworld approached RED Production Company with the proposal for a prequel to the TV series, set in Manchester, which explores the early careers and personal lives of the three main protagonists: D. C. Rachel Bailey (played on screen by Suranne Jones), D. C. Janet Scott (played by Lesley Sharp) and D. C. I. Gill Murray (played by Amelia Bullmore). The publication has the full backing of Sally Wainwright, the TV series writer, and Diane Taylor, her co-creator, who is a retired Detective Inspector from the Greater Manchester Police Force’s Major Incident Team. The novel which will be published as a paperback original in Spring 2012.
Cath says: “I am delighted to be writing the Scott & Bailey novel. They are wonderful characters and it is a great pleasure to be bringing to life the back-story of their first case together.”
Cath’s eBook short stories Violation and In The Heart Of The City are ready for download. Violation examines the impact of media intrusion on a grieving family while In The Heart Of The City is her fictional response to the riots.
Witness, now out in paperback and as an eBook, explores the stories of four bystanders who see a boy killed in a drive-by shooting and have to cope with the impact of that violence and the strain of testifying in a murder trial. (The cover is from the hardback.)
Sal Kilkenny, my private eye, returns this October in her eighth mystery, Crying Out Loud. Work gets up close and personal when Sal finds an abandoned baby on her doorstep. Meanwhile Sal’s latest client wants to know why the man convicted of killing her lover is now retracting his confession. And there are further bombshells to come, with fall-out that threatens everything that Sal holds dear.
High Green Walls, the second in my Legacy series for Woman’s Hour drama on Radio 4, is broadcast each day in the week beginning 28th November.
Cath was brought up in Bradford and hoped to become an entomologist (insects) then a trapeze artist before settling on acting at the age of eight. She graduated from Birmingham University with a Drama and Theatre Arts degree and moved to work as a community artist in Manchester where she now lives with her partner and their children.
Cath is the author of the acclaimed Sal Kilkenny mysteries. Looking for Trouble launched private eye Sal, a single parent struggling to juggle work and home, onto Manchester’s mean streets. It was short listed for the Crime Writers Association’s John Creasey best first novel award, serialised on BBC Radio 4, Woman’s Hour and awarded Le Masque de l’Année in France. Since then, Cath has published six further Sal Kilkenny mysteries.
Cath is also a scriptwriter, creator of ITV's hit police series, Blue Murder, which ran for five series from 2003 – 2009 starring Caroline Quentin as DCI Janine Lewis. Blue Murder has been sold around the globe in places as diverse as Fiji, Iceland and Yemen.
Cath writes for radio and created the Legacy drama series which features a chalk-and-cheese, brother and sister duo of heir hunters whose searches take them into the past lives of families torn apart by events.
Trio, a stand-alone novel, moves away from crime to explore adoption and growing up in the 1960s. Cath’s own story, of tracing and being re-united with her Irish birth family and her seven brothers and sisters, has been featured in the television documentary Finding Cath from RTE.
Cath’s latest novels each feature ordinary people facing ethical dilemmas. The stand-alone stories, published by Constable & Robinson, include The Kindest Thing a love story turned nightmare when a woman helps her husband die and is tried for murder, and Witness (April 2011) which explores what it might be like, as an innocent bystander, to have to testify in a murder trial.
Cath was short-listed for the CWA Dagger in the Library in 2006. She is an avid reader and reviews for Tangled Web and Deadly Pleasures.
The Chief Superintendent and The Screenwriter
Listen to Det. Supt. Patsy Wood and Cath Staincliffe talk to Jenni Murray on BBC Woman's Hour about working together on ITV's Blue Murder series.
More about Cath Staincliffe
FAQs: Time and again at readings or book launches the same questions come up. Here are ten of them and my answers.
A Day in the Life: Cath describes a typical day.
Crying Out Loud
Work gets up close and personal when Sal Kilkenny finds an abandoned baby on her doorstep. Meanwhile Sal’s latest client wants to know why the man convicted of killing her lover is now retracting his confession. And there are further bombshells to come, with fall-out that threatens everything that Sal holds dear.
Published by Severn House, October 2011. ISBN 978-0-72788-020-8
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Witness
Four bystanders in the wrong place at the wrong time. Witnesses to the shocking shooting of a teenage boy. A moment that changes their lives forever.
Fiona, a midwife, is plagued by panic attacks and unable to work. Has she the strength to testify? Mike, a delivery driver and family man, faces an impossible decision when his frightened wife forces him to choose – us or the court case. Cheryl, a single-mother, doesn’t want her child to grow up in the same climate of fear. Dare she speak out and risk her own life? Zak, a homeless man, offers to talk in exchange for witness protection and the chance of a new start.
Ordinary people in an extraordinary situation. Will the witnesses stand firm or be prevented from giving evidence? How will they cope with the emotional trauma of reliving the murder under pitiless cross-examination? A compassionate, suspenseful and illuminating story exploring the real human cost of bearing witness.
Published by Robinson, April 2011 ISBN 978-1-84901-343-7 (hardcover) 978-1-84901-344-4 (paperback)
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The Kindest Thing
When Deborah reluctantly helps her beloved husband Neil end his life she finds herself in the dock for murder. As the trial unfolds and her daughter Sophie testifies against her, Deborah, still reeling with grief, fights to defend her actions. Deborah seeks solace in her memories of Neil and their children and the love they shared.
A love story, a modern nightmare and an honest and incisive portrayal of an ordinary woman caught up in an extraordinary situation, The Kindest Thing tackles a controversial topic with skill and sensitivity. A book that begs the question: what would you do?
Published by Constable, April 2010. ISBN 978-1-84901-273-7
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‘Intelligent and heartfelt.’ She
‘A compelling novel.’ Star
‘Excellent.’ Big Issue
‘Compelling to read.’ Catholic Herald
‘An involving novel.’ Natasha Cooper, TLS
Missing
‘People disappear every day. Most of them choose to. Have you ever been tempted?’ Sal Kilkenny has just found one person when another two go missing: mother Janet Florin failed to pick her children up from school and hasn’t been seen since; and asylum seeker Berfan has disappeared in Manchester. Meanwhile as summer kicks into gear, the temperature is notched up on the domestic front when Sal’s housemate Ray wants to share much more than the chores.
Missing (Allison & Busby, hardback publication: June 2007) ISBN 978-0-7490-8025-9
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Hit and Run
A corpse in the river, a child mown down, a fugitive slaughtered - three untimely deaths means three murder investigations - unless, of course, they are all part of the same case...Life is tough as a cop at the top - and tougher still with a new baby at home - but DCI Janine Lewis is used to balancing her home life with the challenges of bringing killers to justice. Starting back at work after maternity leave, Janine finds herself in the thick of two major investigations. The badly battered body of a young woman is recovered from the River Mersey and a schoolgirl is killed in a hit and run. As Janine and her team fight to unravel the story behind each death, she struggles with equally demanding dramas at home.
Hit and Run (Allison & Busby, published: November 2006) ISBN 978-0-7490-8176-8
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Read an extract from Hit and Run.
Blue Murder: Cry Me a River
Janine Lewis is a pregnant, single mother whose life has become rather hectic. As well as juggling three lively children single-handed, she has ruffled a few feathers by becoming Greater Manchester's first female Detective Chief Inspector. At last, Janine has been given her first murder enquiry to head. The body of a local deputy head teacher is found with a slashed stomach and left to die. With a suspect on the run, an elderly dying man and a seven-year-old child as the only available witnesses, Janine knows this won't be an easy case to crack.
Blue Murder: Cry Me a River (Allison & Busby, published: July 2004) ISBN 978-0-7490-8335-9
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Read an extract from Blue Murder.
Bitter Blue
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 surveillance 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...
Bitter Blue (Allison & Busby, published: May 2003) ISBN 978-0-7490-8171-3
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Read an extract from Bitter Blue.
- Earlier crime novels
- Towers Of Silence
Stone Cold Red Hot
Dead Wrong
Go Not Gently
Looking For Trouble
Trio
A compelling and perceptive story of adoption, motherhood, love, loss and the search for identity. 1960, Manchester. The Pope has banned Catholics from watching unsafe TV, Kennedy is to run for the US presidency, the government is considering a bill to curb the activities of Teddy Boys and Cliff Richard is the latest heart-throb. Three young Catholic women find themselves pregnant and unmarried. Three hopeful mothers-to-be, approved by the Adoption Society wait for news that will tell them a child is available. Three little girls are born, relinquished and placed with their adoptive families. Trio follows the lives of these mothers and daughters over the ensuing years.
Trio (Fresh Press, p/b) ISBN 978-0-9548301-0-6
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Read more about Trio, including an extract.
‘Staincliffe turns part Marge Piercy, part Rosamunde Pilcher ... a captivating story filled with tears, tragedy, humour, and happiness’
Booklist
‘Poignant and true to life. I couldn't put it down; I really wanted to know what happened to the characters’
Maureen Crank, MBE, Chief Executive and founder member of After Adoption
