Stone Cold Red Hot
No romance or no physical intimacy at all.
Closed door. No anatomical or crude language.
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Blurb
Can Sal break the conspiracy of silence that surrounds her latest case? Sal Kilkenny is asked to discover the whereabouts of Jennifer Pickering, disinherited twenty years ago. But it seems that now Jennifer does not want to be found. And as she spends her days tracing Jennifer, Sal's nights are shattered by a dangerous stint with the Neighbour Nuisance Unit on one of Manchester's toughest housing estates. In this highly charged atmosphere it's not surprising when tempers flare... and as properties start to burn, Sal's two cases spiral out of control and events, past and present, collide with deadly intensity. Sal Kilkenny Series Looking For Trouble (Book 1) Go Not Gently (Book 2) Dead Wrong (Book 3) Stone Cold Red Hot (Book 4) Towers of Silence (Book 5) Bitter Blue (Book 6) Missing (Book 7) Crying Out Loud (Book 8) Praise for Cath Staincliffe: 'Gritty, intelligent, humane and involving' Big Issue 'Deftly organised, with several surprising twists.' Evening Standard 'An engrossing read.' Sunday Telegraph 'Real people, real problems... Staincliffe writes brilliantly and compassionately about things that matter. Seriously good.' Literary Review 'Modest, compassionate... a solid ingenious plotter with a sharp eye for domestic detail' Literary Review 'Complex and satisfying' The Sunday Times 'about as good as the British private eye novel gets' Time Out
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A Glimpse of the Mersey
Same narrator and northern working-class setting, but a warm family saga about belonging rather than a violent investigation — gentler and more hopeful.
Landline
Also about digging into a buried past to fix the present, but warm and comic rather than gritty crime with arson and violence.
Attachments
Keeps the ordinary-people-in-a-workplace texture, though the mystery of an unseen stranger is gentle romance instead of a dangerous investigation.
Bare necessity
Another resourceful woman rebuilding after betrayal on British turf, but played for laughs and a happy ending rather than grim estate violence.
Happiness for beginners
Shares the northern-England everyday setting and a determined heroine, only here the stakes are found family and romance, far lighter than murder.
O Presente do Meu Grande Amor
Shares the seed's clean, no-heat level, though it swaps gritty Manchester crime for cozy YA holiday romance — far lighter and sweeter.