Book Review - Dead to Me by Cath Staincliffe

Cath Staincliffe has a solid writing pedigree - Sal Kilkenny, Blue Murder and now Scott & Bailey, whose TV series characters appear in the book Dead to me.

Dead to me is a prequel to the TV series – the first case where Janet Scott and Rachel Bailey work together.  The book starts with Bailey “freezing her tits off” at a crime scene faced with a no win situation – does she stop a stroppy DCI without ID entering a crime scene or does she get a bollocking from the crime scene manager for allowing access to someone with no ID?  For Bailey, the answer’s obvious – no access without ID and piss off the DCI!

The aggrieved DCI, Gill Murray, sees some worthwhile trait or talent in Bailey, who is transferred into the DCIs syndicate and teamed up with Scott to solve the case of the murder of a teenage girl found dead in a grubby flat.  The detectives follow a series of trails through the seedier side of Manchester, places and people as far away from the city’s shiny glass fronted buildings, coffee shops and executive apartments as you can imagine.

I’ve always been dubious about TV tie in’s, but this surpassed my expectations.  The characterisation of calm and thoughtful Scott, contrasted against the chippy and almost downright angry Bailey is excellent.  The narrative voice for all three detectives clearly brings out the distinctiveness of their individual characters, although I confess to finding the stroppy, ambitious and occasionally incisive character of Rachel Bailey the most enjoyable of the three.  The plot is strong, the sense of place in Manchester is spot on and the procedural element of the novel is good – all three help keep you on the page. 

After reading this novel, I’d far prefer to see Scott & Bailey on the pages of a book than on the TV screen.

Romancrimeblogger