Book Review - Fire On The Fells By Cath Staincliffe

I was introduced to this author by Netgalley and Joffe Books, who have kindly offered me a copy of Fire On The Fells in return for my honest review. 

As I knew very little about Cath Staincliffe I thought I would do little search and find some information to share with you before I review her book. Little did I know what I would find out.

Cath is a novelist, radio playwright and the creator of ITV's hit series, Blue Murder starring Caroline Quentin. Her radio work for the BBC includes the three-part thriller, Undercover, Legacy and Stone.

Below names just a few of the nominations and prizes won by this talented author.

Cath has been short listed many times for the prestigious CWA Daggers and was a winner of the Short Story Dagger. Her book Letters To My Daughter’s Killer was selected for Specsavers Crime Thriller Book Club and featured on ITV3’s Crime Thriller Club.

The Fells, book one of the Detectives Donovan & Young series was shortlisted for the peoples book prize. 

Fire On The Fells by Cath Staincliffe.

My Rating - ★★★★★

Goodreads - 4.38

Publication date – May 2025

Fire On the fells is available as a kindle edition and paperback. If you’re after an audio edition I’m afraid you will have to wait till July time for its release.

Synopsis

Summer can be murder out on the sun-scorched Yorkshire Fells.

When the body of eighteen-year-old Tyler Prasad is found up on lonely Skye Moss, Detectives Leo Donovan and Shan Young are called in to investigate. Tyler lies dead in a bone-dry ditch. His handsome face shattered in a brutal attack that leaves Donovan and Young baffled. They dig into Tyler’s deepest secrets, following a twisty trail that leads straight to Patefield Grange, a luxury country-house retreat across the moors. The well-heeled guests gathered for a controversial grouse hunt in the sweltering summer heat, seem respectable on the surface.

But, beneath the façade, dark secrets smoulder. It’s only a question of which was worth killing for. As temperatures soar, so does the pressure for Donovan and Shan to crack this impossible case.

Before tensions at the Grange ignite, and the body count rises again . . .

My Review

The last few books I’ve read have been romance/women’s fiction so this time I thought I would mix it up and stick my nose in to some crime. Having never read anything by this author I did not know what to expect and was pleased to find myself reading at any opportunity. Only trouble with that is that 48 hours later the book was finished and I’m there turning to google to see what else this author has written, wondering if I can add to the ever-increasing TBR pile!

This book works brilliantly as a stand-alone novel and when found through Netgalley that’s what I believed it was, although when I added it to my Goodreads list (helps me keep track of what I have read) I found out it was actually book two of a series. I then got a little excited as I love a good series, did a bit of investigating and figured I would just go ahead and read it anyway. Now though I have a problem… I am wondering seeing as I enjoyed it so much, can I go backwards and read the first book in the Detectives Donovan & Young series. Has anyone else done this? Would anyone recommend the first book which I believe is called The Fells. Anyway, I’ve started to digress.

Fire on the fells is very well written, the author manages to capture the details and her descriptions bring the book alive, which made me feel and see everything! It was quite steady in pace all the way through and had several twists and turns that kept you guessing who the killer was. At times it had me on the edge of my seat wondering what was going to happen, the heat was certainly on... 

The main characters were loveable, they were portrayed as normal people, trying to survive the struggles of life, all whilst trying to hold down their job and piece together the horrific case and catch their killer.

Having got to know Leo and Shan I would love to know how their lives are going. Will there be a book three? I would certainly be up for reading and reviewing that if its as gripping as this one.

100% recommend this book, thank you Netgalley, Joffe Books and Cath Staincliffe for allowing me the opportunity to read and review this wonderfully captivating book.