Looking for Trouble
She's a single parent. A private eye. And liking it. Until, that is, Mrs Hobbs turns up asking Sal Kilkenny to find her missing son. Sal's search takes her through the Manchester underworld, a world of deprivation and petty theft, of well-heeled organised crime and ultimately, murder. Would she have taken the job on if she had known what she was getting into? Probably, because Sal is fired with the desire to see justice done, to avenge the death of a young lad whose only crime was knowing too much.
The first Sal Kilkenny Mystery, short-listed for the Crime Writers' Association best first novel award and serialised on BBC Radio 4, Woman's Hour
I get a kick out of following people. There’s a childish excitement in trailing the unwitting suspect, in not being caught doing something shady. It’s rarely easy. Fate conspires to fix the traffic lights, spirit up needy strangers seeking directions, wayward dogs and road-works. Actually, I can’t blame fate for the road-works; that’s down to the city council. They’d only just finished digging up the whole of Manchester, to replace the rotting sewers, when they started digging it up all over again to lay the tram lines.
Of course, in between the thrill of the chase there’s the stifling boredom of waiting. Waiting for the woman to emerge from having her hair permed, for the couple leaving the hotel, together or separately, or for the bloke to finish his stint at the pub.