Showing results by author "Cath Staincliffe" in All Categories

How far would you go to protect your child? Can you really keep them safe? What if who they are puts them at risk? And what if they have blood on their hands?Teenager Allie Kennaway heads off for prom night, cheered on by dad Steve and her little sister, Teagan. But Allie never comes home, beaten to death in an apparent hate crime because of her transgender identity. As police investigate the brutal murder, a crime that has appalled the country, one parent is at her wits' end with her son's behaviour. Are his outbursts and silences hiding something dark?

Detective Constable Janet Scott is subtle and reliable, a diplomatic thinker with a wry sense of humor. She's put in the time and seen it all, but has no desire for the boss's job—she loves her own too much. Rachel Bailey couldn't be more different—she's energetic, impulsive, and ambitious, and has just been transferred to the Manchester murder squad. Their commander thinks Rachel's intuition could make her a great cop, but has reservations about her shoot-first-think-later approach, so she partners her with Janet.

Meet Janine Lewis. A single mom of three and Manchester’s newest detective chief inspector. Her cheating husband walked out the day she got promoted. Now she’s six months pregnant with his baby and in charge of her first murder case. The body of a deputy head teacher is found on a lonely allotment. Gutted—his stomach sliced open—and left for dead. The only witnesses are a dying elderly man and a seven-year-old girl. And now the prime suspect has disappeared.

Second day back at work. Detective Chief Inspector Janine Lewis drops off her seven-year-old son at school. As she drives off, a car breaks fiercely with a squealing sound. Janine sees the child flung to one side, the small body flying limp like a puppet, then landing hard. With a sickening feeling, Janine recognizes her as Tom’s classmate—Ann-Marie Chinley. Janine gives chase, but the hit-and-run driver gets away. When she finally gets to work she hears a body has been fished out of the river. The victim is in her early twenties, newly pregnant, malnourished as a child.

Yorkshire Dales, Summer 1997. Vicky Mott slips out the door of her remote cottage, and into the pale dawn light. She scrawls a note for her friends. Gone to see the sunrise. V xxx That’s the last anyone ever hears from twenty-year-old music lover Vicky. Another victim of the Fellside Strangler?...

‘Brilliant . . . entertaining.’ ANN CLEEVES Summer can be murder out on the sun-scorched Yorkshire Fells. When the body of eighteen-year-old Tyler Prasad is found up on lonely Skye Moss, Detectives Leo Donovan and Shan Young are called in to investigate. Tyler lies dead in a bone-dry ditch...

Passengers boarding the 10.35 train from Manchester Piccadilly to London Euston have no idea that their journey is about to be brutally curtailed. Holly has just landed her dream job, and Jeff is heading for an interview after months of unemployment. They end up sitting next to each other.

A blaze at an abandoned chapel in impoverished Manorclough turns out to be more than just arson when the body of a man who has been shot twice is discovered in the ashes. For the Manchester Metropolitan police team it’s the start of a gruelling and complex case that exposes the fractures and...

On a winter’s evening, a trio of unruly teenagers board a bus, ganging up on Luke Murray, threatening to kill him. No one intervenes until Jason Barnes, a young student, challenges the gang. Luke seizes the chance to run off the bus, but he’s followed. Andrew Barnes is dragged from the shower by his wife Valerie: there’s a fight in the garden and Jason’s trying to break it up. As Andrew rushes to help, the gang flees. Jason shouts for an ambulance for Luke, but it is he who will pay the ultimate price.

Cath Staincliffe is best known as the creator of the hit TV series Blue Murder, as well as for her ‘Scott and Bailey’ books and ‘Sal Kilkenny’ crime novels. This full cast drama collection features the five gripping dramas in her ‘Legacy’ series, together with a standalone mystery and a three-part thriller, all specially written for BBC Radio.

Manchester today. A dead baby. A missing mother. A cradle of secrets. Has the woman killed her child? Is she at risk to herself? Someone in the neighbourhood of old terraced streets has the answers. But Detectives Donna Bell and Jade Bradshaw find lies and obstruction at every turn, in a community living on the edge, ground down by austerity and no hope. A place of broken dreams. Of desperation. And murder. When a stranger crashes into Jade's life, her past comes hurtling back, threatening to destroy her and the world she has carved out for herself. 

Lori Maddox chooses to spend the year after university travelling and visits China, where she finds casual work as a private English tutor. Back in Manchester her parents, Joanna and Tom, who separated when Lori was a toddler, follow her adventures on her blog. When Joanna and Tom hear nothing for weeks, they become increasingly concerned and travel out to Chengdu in search of their daughter.

In this drama by Cath Staincliffe, probate researchers Dan and Rachel search backwards through the family line to find the true heir and get a slice of the fortune. But their quest leads them to uncover a broken family with a terrible secret. Henry Gaunt has died leaving a sizeable estate but no...

A love story, a modern nightmare and an honest and incisive portrayal of a woman who honours her husband's wish to die and finds herself in the dock for murder. When Deborah reluctantly helps her beloved husband Neil end his life and conceals the truth, she is charged with murder. As the trial unfolds and her daughter Sophie testifies against her, Deborah, still reeling with grief, fights to defend her actions. Twelve jurors hold her fate in their hands, if found guilty she will serve a life sentence.

A sunny, Sunday afternoon, a family barbecue, and Naomi Baxter and her boyfriend Alex celebrate good news. Driving home, Naomi causes a fatal accident, leaving nine-year-old Lily Vasey dead, Naomi fighting for her life and Alex bruised and bloody. Traumatised, Naomi has no clear memory of the crash and her mother Carmel is forced to break the shocking truth of the child's death to her. Naomi may well be prosecuted for causing death by dangerous driving.

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.

Janet Florin has been missing for almost a week, and family friend Trisha Marlowe, desperate for news, hires Sal Kilkenny to track her down. Ramin's brother, Berfan, is missing too. A failed asylum seeker, likely to be returned to Iran, has he disappeared to escape deportation? His brother says not. And when Sal hears that Berfan has been seen in Manchester, the chances of finding him look good.

Grandmother Ruth Sutton writes to the man she hates more than anyone else on the planet: the man who she believes killed her daughter Lizzie in a brutal attack four years earlier. In writing to him Ruth hopes to exorcise the corrosive emotions that are destroying her life, to find the truth and with it release and a way forward. Whether she can ever truly forgive him is another matter - but the letters are her last, best hope.

An abandoned infant on her doorstep is the last thing Manchester private eye Sal Kilkenny needs as she faces the challenge of her current case. Sal’s client Libby Hill is trying to put her life back together after the brutal killing of her love 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? The evidence against him seems damning, but is there more to this case than meets the eye?

Scarlett is dancing in the school talent show tomorrow. Nana, who Scarlett lives with since Mum died, reckons Scarlett will be on Strictly at this rate. Except Scarlett doesn't make it home from school. She's abducted by a man she never imagined she'd see again. A man on the police's most wanted list. Her dad.