Monday, September 19, 2011

Stone Cold Red Hot by Cath Staincliffe (Allison and Busby 2001)


My first impression of Roger Pickering was of nervous tension. He stood on the doorstep, hiding behind his fringe of light brown hair, eyes cast anywhere but at me.
"Sal Kilkenny?" He managed to get my name out.
"Yes, MrPickering. Please come in."
I led him along the hall and downstairs to my office in the cellar. With the self-absorption of the painfully shy, he made no small talk, no comment on our location, and politely refused coffee.

3 comments:

mikeovswinton, nr Manchester said...

Nice to see some recognition of a good book by a fine author. She does good author's sessions at Waterstones Deansgate, by the way. Not that that will be any use to folk on the other side of the Atlantic. The Sal Kilkenny books are a particular favourite series of mine, and they really give a flavour of Manchester, I think.

Imposs1904 said...

Cheers for the recommendation.

I'll definitely be looking out for some more of her titles but, to be honest, her novels aren't readily available in the States. I guess I'll have to hunt them down via the online secondhand shops. That's how I found this one.

Don't take this the wrong way but I actually thought it was a wee bit old fashioned. Very eighties in its left politics. I could envision seeing this as a tv adaptation on Channel 4 circa 1986 . . . despite the book being published in 2001. Not necessarily a bad thing when all things are considered.

mikeovswinton said...

Her Blue Murder series was adopted fairly recently (its run a few series actually) by ITV. With Caroline Quentin in the lead role.

Yeah, the 80s politics - its never really overstated is it, but I know exactly what you mean.

She's writing one offs rather than a series at present - and they are rather different in feel and approach.