Another gripping read from Cath Staincliffe - please bring on book three in this page-turning series

Book two for DI Leo Donovan and DC Shan Young and a first for me.

Leo and Shan are a wonderful duo, they are likeable in equal measures and have the same drive for justice, the mix of the insight into their personal and professional lives makes them all the more endearing.

The writier writes with detail, description and authenticity which makes the story all the more engaging.

This is actually the second book in the Detectives Donovan & Young series and I totally didn't spot this until later on.
However, this still reads absolutely fine as a standalone read given that the case here was whole and complete and we maybe just miss out on some of the character development from the last book - but this is written well to not cause any confusion moving through the series.

I haven't read this author before, but I love a good detective series and this was no exception.
Our detectives, Donovan and Young, have a good partnership and seem to work well together.
We do see some background into their personal lives too, which added some intrigue to their personalities and them as characters.
I can see this developing well throughout the series.

The case was tricky and left us, not with too many suspects, but at first, really nothing to go off at all.
As the story progresses and the investigation uncovers more information about the dead man, our duo start to piece together a string of secrets and lies and the twists and turns come thick and fast.

I absolutely loved the setting for this series.
My husband grew up in the Yorkshire Dales and we have often visited since moving away.
The writing here was so descriptive and I found that it transported me right back to our holidays walking the fells - luckily we never came across anything like this!

This was a great read and I've already grabbed the first book in the series to read and catch up with before any further releases are due!
I know it's the wrong order, but let's just look past that for now....
Looking forward to seeing more from this author and our two detectives in the near future.

With a setting in the Yorkshire Dales and a woman with a mysterious past this book is full of intrigue and thrills. Tyler Prasad is 18yo and is full of dreams but is it those dreams or the past that has left him dead? This is a book with many questions especially, who did it?

A great read and great characters, Detective Leo and his partner Shan are a perfect duo and fit well within the pages of this book. Love the different things going on in the book as it all keeps you guessing and makes for a very interesting read. It starts slowly and builds to the end which I enjoyed as well. It really set the scene. I really enjoyed this one and look forward to seeing what comes next.

Thank you NetGalley and Joffe Books for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

Fire on the fells is part of a series but I read it as a stand alone. DI Leo and DS Shan are called to a teenager found shot on the Yorkshire moors. Both detectives are also battling their own demons. Leo has just watched his son go to jail for racial hatred crimes while Shan is dealing with the miscarriage of her baby.
The book also deals with grouse shooting parties and its effect on the Yorkshire moors habitat, racial tension and environmental protests.
I identified with the characters and cared about them. Worth a read.

The second installment in the Donovan and Young mystery series begins with Leo Donovan bracing himself as his son is sentenced for a serious crime. While grappling with his son's imprisonment, Donovan is called to investigate the tragic murder of eco-campaigner Tyler Prasad, who has been fatally shot on the grounds of a shooting estate. Shan Young joins him in the investigation, all while dealing with her own recent personal loss.

This gripping murder mystery blends elements of tragedy with the familiar style of a police procedural. The visceral depiction of the fire and the story's progression through small cliffhangers leading to the final resolution showcase the author's broadcasting background. I’m eager to explore more books in this series. Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

It is a very hot September in the Dales when Leo and Shan are called out to a murder site in the middle of the moor. A young activist Tyler Prasad has been shot and the local estate is unhappy as the crime scene is interfering with their grouse shoots. Leo is struggling with the fact that his son has been sent to prison and Shan with her miscarriage however when their suspect disappears into a fire, problems are suddenly a lot more personal.
I really loved the setting of this novel, high up on the moors above Swaledale, and the landscape is evoked beautifully. There is rather a lot of plot and some just seems to peter out partway through. Having said that, it's a decent enough police procedural.

Detectives Leo and Shan find themselves called in to investigate the murder of a young man on the fells. Its an area where many men are out shooting grouse so suspects are high but were they involved. Can they solve the murder and give his family a little peace.

This was a slow burn start but towards the end it really picked up. There was a few really dramatic moments keeping me interested in the story. This does touch on some dark and possibly triggering themes with the parts about Leo's family but it doesnt steal focus from the main mystery. The ending was well done and cleverly written. I liked Leo and Shan, they faced their own issues but kept trying to get justice. An intriguing crime thriller.

Murder of a young British Asian lad who wanted to do nothing but photograph the beauty of nature. Tie this with racial hatred and the current debate about gamekeepers, the shooting fraternity and deaths of protected birds and there's a well-developed story. The senior detective has family problems, of course, with a son inclined to racial comments and in prison as a result, his younger colleague is Chinese British so understands all too well the racial aspects but she is still recovering from a miscarriage and difficulties with her relationship. Fortunately these do not overpower the thread of the murder story. Apparently second in a series but easily read as a standalone. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy.

Fire on the Fells by Cath Staincliffe is the second book in the excellent Detectives Donovan & Young series and I loved it. I love the Detective Leo Donovan and Detective Shan Young characters and they work well together to make this book an excellent read, especially as it was full of great twists and turns with a great story.
Fire on the Fells is a excellent crime story and it is set in the Yorkshire Dales. Tyler Prasad is a eighteen-year-old dreamer who came here to join an eco-protest, is found dead on the Sykes Moor. He has been shot and there’s no shortage of gunmen roving the land in search of grouse, especially as most of them staying at luxury country-house retreat, Patefield Grange.

Was Tyler Prasad being shot an accident or was it murder?

Detectives Leo and Shan investigate the death and they need to determine why the man was murdered and by whom.

This book was so good and I highly recommend it

Big Thank you to NetGalley and Joffe Books for my ARC.

A crime story set in the Yorkshire Dales.
A young man is found shot and murdered on Sykes Moor.
Police detectives Leo and Shan investigate and try to determine why the man was murdered and by whom.
Enjoyable murder mystery set in some locations I have visited which made it more enjoyable for me.
No impossible twists or revelations. A straight forward narrative with believable characters.
Well worth a read if you enjoy crime dramas.

Fire on the Fells by Cath Staincliffe.
Detectives Donovan & Young Book 2.
This was a good read. I did like the cover and blurb of this book. I liked the writing style and the story. I did like Detective Leo Donovan and Detective Shan Young. The setting Yorkshire Dales sounded lovely. I love how it was described. Twisty and gripping. I didn't see that coming at all. It wasn't who I thought it was. I do hope there is more to come.

Neither detective has had it easy since the end of book 1, Leo’s son Luke being sent to prison for a racially motivated attack and Shan having miscarried the baby she was having with partner Erin. Whilst Leo and his wife Ange pull together as a strong team, Erin and Shan have become distant from each other. The discovery of the body of a teenager, Tyler Prasad, out on the Fells near an exclusive grouse shooting lodge heralds their second murder investigation in the three months since DI Leo Donovan and DC Shan Young started working together in Settle, North Yorkshire. Tyler was part of an environmental protest group campaigning against the burning of the heather by the gamekeepers, and in fact it is Ange, also part of the campaign, who identifies the young man found with no belongings and blasted to death with a shotgun. As the detectives start to investigate, they come up with a number of possibilities. Could it be a member of the affluent shooting party, a jilted ex, a random encounter or even a hate crime? As the temperature rises and tempers fray, will they manage to find enough evidence to track down the killer of a beautiful lad who loved the world around him so much and who died so tragically young?
Leo and Shan make a great team, really working together almost as equals at times, and both are very likeable characters. Despite having their fair share of personal problems, they put them aside to work the case and get justice for the victim and his family, and come across as very kind and caring officers. While not essential to read the first story, I would encourage it as the reader will get to know the dynamic between the pair and the traumas they have undergone already. In fact, this story has lots of threads concerning family, love and loss involving many characters. This is a very strong police procedural, set in a beautiful part of the world which the author paints vividly, with a gripping and twisty plot and some real action-packed moments. I can’t wait for book 3!

A good book but not for me. I hadn't read the first book and found it difficult to relate to the characters. Unfortunately I didn't like Leo Donovan otherwise I would read the first volume. Really deserves 3.5 stars.

This is the first of the books by Cath Staincliffe that feature DI Donovan and DC Young that I have read, so I can say with some certainty that it reads well as a stand alone novel. As a fellow northerner, albeit from the other side of the Pennines, the setting on the bleak but beautiful moors and Dales of Yorkshire is a huge bonus, and the author does justice to the majesty of the setting with some quite exquisite descriptive paragraphs. Other reviewers have queried whether these fit in the developing storyline; however, for this reviewer they conjure up precisely the feeling that is experienced on the fells, although it may be that some neater entry and exit from the descriptive prose would work better.

Fans of police procedural will immediately be drawn to the way in which the lead characters explore the murder that is the central feature of the book, although a clearer integration of these powerful and well drawn figures with the necessary larger team of police officers with whom they would need to interact would add some grounding to the story and make it a little less of a lone couple effort.

The by now obligatory difficult home lives of the lead detectives that is such a theme in modern police detective fiction is present and correct. For this reviewer it was, perhaps, a little overdone, but not enough to distract from a well grounded storyline, and the author managed to maintain a strong momentum that built to a solid crescendo that managed to avoid the need to completely suspend disbelief.

The author clearly has strong beliefs and opinions about the environment and politics, which are reflected in the book.

Overall, a hard to put down book and worth looking out for others by this same author.

Detectives Donovan and Young #2

No one loves the Fells like Tyler Prasad, an eighteen-year-old dreamer who came here to join an eco-protest. But Tyler;s past followed hot on his heels. Now, Tyler lies deep in a ditch. His handsome face shot to pieces in a brutal attack that baffles Detective Leo Donovan. There's no shortage of gunmen roving the land in search of grouse - most of them staying at luxury country-house estate, Patefield Grange. The shooting party guests tell Detective Leo the victims name means nothing to them. But Leo knows a lie when he hears one.

Detectives Leo Donovan and Shan Young are tasked with investigating the death of Tyler Prasad, an eighteen-year-old activist. They have plenty of suspects to choose from. Plus it;s grouse season. We learn more of Leo and Shan's backstories.

This is quite an emotional read. The characters are well-fleshed out. there were some great twists, but some people afe keeping secrets and telling lies. There's family jealousy and illicit relations. Just when you think you've figured it out, the story ramps up a couple of notches. This book can be read as a standalone.

Published 8th May 2025

Joy Ellis fans will be delighted to find an author who breathes such life into this unique part of the world, while also marvelling at this author’s capacity to build character back stories which add so much to the story. This is a really strong mystery which encompasses the best of the police procedural genre while also committing heavily to building strong characters and relationships between them.

A fast paced murder and police investigation set in the Yorkshire moors. The story is told from the alternating perspectives of the two lead police investigators, Detective Inspector Leo Donovan and Detective Constable Shan Young. The narrative style suits the story with it being quick paced and engaging. It has a strong plot line with plenty of twists and turns.

This is the first book I’ve read by this author, it won’t be the last and I look forward to reading more of this detecting duo.

Set on the achingly beautiful Fells of North Yorkshire, this police procedural begins with the murder of a teenage boy. Inspector Leo Donovan and Detective Shan Young are pressured to solve this case quickly, as the victim was Asian-American and the local police have been accused of racism. However, it isn’t a simple case. The body was found on Patefield Grange where a country house offers a getaway with organized grouse shooting. Donovan and Young become involved with the estate hierarchy while they investigate. There are several suspects, more victims and Donovan and Young must fight for their lives before the complicated case is resolved. The detectives’ private lives are as complicated as this investigation. Leo is grieving a rift with his son who is serving a jail sentence for racist attacks. Leo gave the police evidence that led to his son’s conviction and cannot forgive himself. Shan’s recent miscarriage has driven a wedge between her and her partner and she can’t decide if she wants to reconcile.

Fire in the Fells is compulsively readable with characters you want to learn more about. This mystery/thriller is well plotted and the moody, evocative setting draws you in. Although this is the second in a series, it can be read as a standalone. 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, Joffe Books and Cath Staincliffe for this ARC.

Fire on the Fells is the 2nd book featuring DI Leo Donovan and DC Shan Young. Against a background of the Yorkshire fells the body of a young man is found. The well written and well researched story moves at a good pace and keeps your attention with twists, turns and dangers aplenty. Loved that we learn more about the detectives personal life - even if some of it was a tad emotional. Thank you to the author, netgalley and publisher for an early e-read. Highly recommended and will look out for book 3.