TH - 737/1 | Dead to Me (Scott and Bailey #1) by Cath Staincliffe

A daughter's death
A teenage girl is found brutally murdered in her squalid flat.

A mother's love
Her mother is devastated. She gave her child up to the care system, only to lose her again, and is convinced that the low-life boyfriend is to blame.

Two ordinary women, one extraordinary job
DC Rachel Bailey has dragged herself up from a deprived childhood and joined the Manchester Police. Rachel's boss thinks her new recruit has bags of raw talent but straight-laced DC Janet Scott, her reluctant partner, has her doubts.

Together Scott and Bailey must hunt a killer, but a life fighting crime can be no life at all...

ID:  TH - 737/1

Read More ...

TH - 737/2 | Bleed Like Me (Scott and Bailey #2) by Cath Staincliffe

A family man
The bodies of a man, woman and child are found, lying in pools of blood. The owner of the inn where the bodies are discovered has fled. But he's not alone, he's taken his two young sons with him. No one knows what he's going to do next...

A professional front
DC Janet Scott has survived a terrifying attack, and is now having second thoughts about her life and steady marriage. Her best friend DC Rachel Bailey is reeling from a love affair that could have killed her, literally. It's hard to stay focussed...

A united force
Gill Murray has enough of her own problems without the team falling apart. She knows they must work together if they are to find the desperate man before he makes his final move. But one question haunts her: what will they have to do to stop him?

ID:  TH - 737/2

Read More ...

TH - 737/3 | Ruthless (Scott & Bailey #3) by Cath Staincliffe

A blaze at an abandoned chapel on the impoverished Walton Estate 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 fault lines of a community living on the edge.

DC Rachel Bailey, recently married, is trying to come to terms with her new status and deal with the fallout from her chaotic family.

DC Janet Scott's world is shaken to its foundations when death comes far too close for comfort and she finds one of her daughters on the wrong side of a police investigation.

DCI Gill Murray's ex Dave, a Chief Superintendent, crashes back into her life, out of control and bringing chaos in his wake.

And then a second building goes up in flames...

ID:  TH - 737/3

Read More ...

TH - 736 | Split Second by Cath Staincliffe

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.

ID:  TH - 736

Read More ...

TH - 735 | The Kindest Thing by Cath Staincliffe

What would you do? When Deborah reluctantly helps her beloved husband, Neil, end his life and conceals the truth, she is charged with his murder. As the trial unfolds and her daughter Sophie testifies against her, Deborah, still reeling from grief, fights to defend her actions.

Twelve jurors hold her fate in their hands - and if found guilty she will serve a life sentence.
But is the assisted suicide of a person you love murder?

ID:  TH - 735

Read More ...

TH - 734 | Trio by Cath Staincliffe

It is 1960 and three young Catholic women find themselves pregnant and unmarried; the only acceptable course of action is adoption. The women meet up in a home for unmarried mothers to await the births of their babies. "Trio" follows the lives of the mothers and daughters over the ensuing years.

ID: TH - 734

Read More ...

TH - 733 | Witness by Cath Staincliffe

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? This is a compassionate, suspenseful and illuminating story exploring the real human cost of bearing witness.

ID:  TH - 733

Read More ...

TH - 732 | Letters to My Daughter’s Killer by Cath Staincliffe

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. Ruth's burden of grief and hatred, has only grown heavier with the passing of time, her avid desire for vengeance ever stronger. 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.

Letters To My Daughter's Killer exposes the aftermath of violent crime for an ordinary family and explores fundamental questions of crime and punishment. How do we deal with the very human desire for revenge? If we get justice does reconciliation follow? Can we really forgive those who do us the gravest wrong? Could you?

ID:  TH - 732

Read More ...