SALLY SPENCER
James García Woods
THE BOOKS
Sally Spencer has written several series - both mysteries and sagas - as well as stand-alone novels.
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The Stalker
Violation
The Vital Chain
The 12th book in the DCI Monika Paniatowski Series:
The Hidden
As the members of DCI Monika Paniatowski's team investigate a death that seems to be linked to an attack on the DCI, Monika Paniatowski knows exactly who the killer is - but there's no way she can tell anyone else!
DCI Paniatowski's team are increasingly convinced that the girl found dead in the woods is the victim of a ritual killing, carried out by a secret society which has been established in the very heart of Whitebridge.
Monika herself knows not only who the killer is, but also that he is stalking Louisa, her beloved daughter. But as she is one of the killer's victims too, and is lying in a coma - hearing everything, but unable to move or speak - there is nothing she can do about it!
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(Available now in Hardback)
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Review: “Spencer’s skillful writing, clever plotting, and colorful characters, combined with her insights into what makes humans—and especially cops—tick, make this a crime novel to savor. " (Booklist STARRED review)
The first in the Paco Ruiz series:
A Murder of No Consequence
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Spain is on the verge of a civil war, and murder on the streets of Madrid has become so commonplace that it passes largely unnoticed. So why does the death of the young girl in Retiro Park have such an effect on Paco Ruiz?
What is about her case that makes it so different from all the others he has investigated?
He doesn’t know - but he does know that despite being warned off by his superiors and receiving death threats from the fascists, he will stay with the investigation until he catches the killer.
A Murder of No Consequence is not only a thrilling and intriguing mystery, but also paints a vivid picture of a society – and a way of life – on the verge of collapse.
Regular readers of the Woodend and Paniatowski books will already be familiar with Paco Ruiz, who makes his first appearance in THE BUTCHER BEYOND, crops up again in ECHOES OF THE DEAD (selected by Kirkus Reviews as one of the twelve best detective novels of 2011) and also in DEATH'S DARK SHADOW (2013).
The first in the Inspector Sam Blackstone series:
Blackstone and the Rendezvous with Death
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As the fog clears, a brutally murdered corpse turns up, caught in the ropes of a barge in the Thames.
Ordinarily, this would be a run-of-the-mill incident, but in this particular case, inspector Blackstone quickly realizes he is well and truly out of his depth. The clothes may belong to a poor man, but the face does not; and to Blackstone, the aristocracy are in themselves a mystery whose authority far outweighs his own.
Blackstone's horizons are to be widened still further as the investigation leads him to Little Russia, an emigre area where he finds still more people who aren't used to taking the British bobby remotely seriously.
Fans of Alan Rustage's Woodend books will find in this brand new series the same ingenious plotting and entertaining turn of phrase. But this time the sharp eye for period detail turns to Victorian London - and a hero who is undeniably a little more of a daredevil.
The first novel in the DCI Charlie Woodend series:
The Salton Killings
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When the strangled body of teenager Diane Thorburn is found buried in the salt store, Chief Inspector Woodend is drafted in from London to investigate.
An outspoken Northerner, he does his policing the old-fashioned way, and he is convinced that Margie Poole, Diane's best friend, knows more about Diane's last movements than she is prepared to tell.
Then Woodend's inquiry turns up the death of another young girl a generation before. The similarities in the two cases begin to look more sinister than mere coincidence.
Could there be a serial killer on the loose . . .?