Sal Kilkenny Books In Order

Publication Order of Sal Kilkenny Books

The “Sal Kilkenny” series written by author Cath Staincliffe (who also writes the “Scott and Bailey” series) started in the year 1994 with the release of “Looking for Trouble”.

The main character is a woman named Sal Kilkenny, who works as a private investigator. She is a single mother from Manchester, and her daughter is four years old (in the first book) and named Maddie. It is her job to find balance as a mother and on the streets of Manchester, England. She has a garden that she takes care of.

The first two novels in the series contrast with each other. The first one is about what can happen to kids and teens, the second one focuses on what older people are vulnerable to.

“Looking for Trouble” is the first novel in the “Sal Kilkenny” series and was released in the year 1994. Sal likes her life as both a private eye and single mother. Until Mrs. Hobbs comes to her wanting her to find her son who has gone missing. The search takes her through the underworld of Manchester, which is a world full of deprivation, of fully entrenched organized crime, and murder.

She still would have taken on the job had she known what she was getting into. Seeing as how she is fired up to get justice served for a young lad, who died. The only reason for this is because he knew too much.

Readers found themselves being pulled in by the story right off the bat and it stayed as good throughout the entire novel. Fans of the novel found themselves liking the main characters of the book: Sal, Maddie, Ray, and Tom. The novel comes to a nice conclusion, even if everything was not fully revealed by the end of the novel. This is an author some are going to check out other things she has written.

“Go Not Gently” is the second novel in the “Sal Kilkenny” series and was released in the year 1997. Sal gets hired to see if a buddy of an eighty year old woman is getting the proper treatment while she is in aged care facility. It puts Sal in much more danger than tackling organized crime did in the first book.

Some found the twist in the other mystery in this book to be quite a good one to them. Fans of the novel found themselves wondering how things were going to resolve by the end of the story. Some did not even see the conclusion this one had coming. Here is an author, in Cath Staincliffe, who is a master of writing UK mystery; whether it is from this series or anything else she has written.

“Dead Wrong” is the third novel in the “Sal Kilkenny” series and was released in the year 1998. In this, Sal has two very afraid clients. One is a divorcee named Debbie Gosforth, who is being stalked by a deranged man. While the other is a teenager named Luke Wallace, who fears that he could be a murderer.

While Sal goes off to find the out who the stalker is that is making Debbie’s life hell, members of the IRA set off a bomb at the Arndale Center. It kicks off a summer full of terror.

Some find these books to be superb, having enjoyed them all. They see Sal as a real person that lives her home life and faces many issues of a single parent and trying to make a living as a private eye. Fans of the novel found this to be yet another page turner from a compelling series of novels. This was even better than the previous two books in the series because it was able to weave everything in Sal’s life better: the cases she was working and her home life.

“Stone Cold Red Hot” is the fourth novel in the “Sal Kilkenny” series and was released in the year 1998. Sal Kilkenny is currently trying to find Jennifer Pickering, a woman that went missing two decades back during the day. During the night, she is part of the Neighborhood Nuisance Unit in one of the toughest housing section of Manchester.

The estate gets more and more frenzied with all of the racial tension, things get more and more enflamed. Properties begin burning, and it makes the cases that Sal is working go out of control. This comes as events from both the past and the present hit each other with some deadly force.

These are entertaining reads that keep readers flipping the pages throughout, having a hard time of putting them down for very long. They also have a hard time getting into any other kinds of books. Fans of the novel this one had two threads running together, one of which had some social commentary in it, and the whole story built to an exciting conclusion. Some think that Cath Staincliffe is one of the most under rated writers that is still writing, and this series provides some of the proof of that.

“Towers of Silence” is the fifth novel in the “Sal Kilkenny” series and was released in the year 2002. Christmas is on hold for Sal, when she reluctantly takes on a case of a woman named Miriam Johnstone dying. She was a mentally unstable parent, and the coroner ruled that it was a suicide. Both the grieving family and Sal’s suspicions might suggest something else caused her death. Why would someone afraid of heights jump from a multi storey parking garage?

She even has a personal dilemma at the moment. Should she have Stuart (her boyfriend) meet her daughter Maddie? Sal takes on yet another case from a single mother who is distressed. Her inquiry into the troubled teen’s life puzzle her. Before too long, she gets taken in all kinds of directions she didn’t expect that will bring her a lot closer to heartbreak and danger than she has ever been in before.

Readers found this to be yet another winner by Staincliffe, who is quite the author especially when it comes to this series. Sal is a character that some would like to meet for real. Fans of this novel found themselves liking the characters, and the two mysteries that Sal unravels, especially because they end up being more than they first appeared to be.