SALLY SPENCER
James García Woods
Novels
These novels are all very different, written at different times, and with very different settings, but all beguile the reader with the Sally Spencer characteristics of great characters, great research and intriguing plots that are often based around a mystery - enjoy!
A Conspiracy of Aunts
Robert – or Rob or Bobby as his aunts like to call him – is a child prodigy at Bridge.
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After his mother was drowned at sea, the young master tactician was left to be brought up by her four responsibility-shirking sisters, Jacqueline, Peggy, Catherine and Sadie.
All Rob remembers about his mother are her words of guiding wisdom, but unbeknownst to him, his aunts have made a solemn pact never to reveal exactly how his mother died...
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A Conspiracy of Aunts seeks to discover the dark forces at work in the mind of a serial killer - while distracting the reader with its black humour.
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Available now for Kindle and Kindle Unlimited, coming soon as a paperback.
You can't run from greed
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The Company is a murder mystery, and much more ...
Rob Conroy wakes up in a Bristol hospital to be told that three close members of his family have perished in a car accident.
Struggling to make sense of events, Rob receives a further shock when a childhood friend, now a Chief Inspector in the police, appears at his bedside and delivers even more stunning news – the car had been booby-trapped.
Rob soon discovers that the chain of command set up by his entrepreneurial grandfather has become a manacle which binds the entire family to his inescapable patriarchal will.
What is the unutterable truth that John tried so hard to confide in his brother before the fatal accident? And why does John’s social-climber of a wife Lydia protect another prime suspect in the triple murder?
. . . Are there more booby-traps, and more murders, to come?
A dark, fast-paced thriller
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Violation is a dramatic thriller that will tug at your heartstrings
Children in Harrisburg, Virginia are being targeted… The attacks are sparking outrage and fear among the city’s parents and politicians alike.
And worse is yet to come, because the deeper Mike Kaleta and his partner, Sergeant Carrie Williams, get into the investigation, the more it seems to him that there are people – powerful people – who will do all they can to make sure he does not succeed…
Can the determined pair really discover the truth?
Violation has twists and turns that take the reader in chilling and surprising directions.
. . . And what will happen when the hunters become the hunted?
The Stalker (Kindle and paperback)
​Since her husband’s suicide, Beth Baker has been living a life of quiet desperation… She knows she is not spending enough time with her young children, nor enough at the law firm in which she is a junior partner. The roof of her house leaks, the bills keep pouring in, and however hard she works, there is never enough money to go round. The future looks bleak.
Then – totally unexpectedly – life improves.
Her creditors are suddenly more patient and forgiving. And even more strikingly, she starts winning more cases in the criminal courts. Lots more cases! Cases which everyone agrees she should never have won…
It is this improbable run of successes that sets warning bells ringing in the offices of the district attorney and the chief of police – which, in turn, leads to a reluctant Sergeant Sam Brody, being placed in charge of the investigation to find out who she is bribing. But there are no bribes, nor have her creditors suddenly grown more charitable.
Acting behind the scenes – manipulating everything – is a man who likes to think of himself as her guardian angel.
But Beth must be careful. It won’t take much to turn her protector into a tormentor…
The Stalker is a fast-paced crime thriller that delves deep and examines how people can commit acts of pure evil in the name of divine justice.
The Stalker (Kindle and paperback)
​Since her husband’s suicide, Beth Baker has been living a life of quiet desperation… She knows she is not spending enough time with her young children, nor enough at the law firm in which she is a junior partner. The roof of her house leaks, the bills keep pouring in, and however hard she works, there is never enough money to go round. The future looks bleak.
Then – totally unexpectedly – life improves.
Her creditors are suddenly more patient and forgiving. And even more strikingly, she starts winning more cases in the criminal courts. Lots more cases! Cases which everyone agrees she should never have won…
It is this improbable run of successes that sets warning bells ringing in the offices of the district attorney and the chief of police – which, in turn, leads to a reluctant Sergeant Sam Brody, being placed in charge of the investigation to find out who she is bribing. But there are no bribes, nor have her creditors suddenly grown more charitable.
Acting behind the scenes – manipulating everything – is a man who likes to think of himself as her guardian angel.
But Beth must be careful. It won’t take much to turn her protector into a tormentor…
The Stalker is a fast-paced crime thriller that delves deep and examines how people can commit acts of pure evil in the name of divine justice.
The Madeiran Double Cross (Kindle and paperback)
​London bank robber Frank Mason has never pulled off his own crime job without the help of his mastermind wife Elsie.
Trapped in a loveless marriage, a loveless affair with his mistress Linda, and with the pressure of Elsie's gangster father looming over him, Frank needs a miracle to maintain his reputation in the criminal underworld.
But luckily Frank has The Plan: a full-blown, international crime caper.
Frank and his band of eccentric miscreants, including the demanding Linda and his right hand man and protegé Tony Horton, are off to Madeira to pull off an almost impossible bank job.
Little does Frank know, however, that members of his team are planning a double cross, and with Chief Superintendent Gower closing in, the team unravelling, and Elsie becoming more and more suspicious, Frank's plan is fast becoming a disaster.
Can Frank pull off his scheme before it's too late?
Or will the Madeiran plan fall foul at the feet of the Double Cross?
Booklist Review: Spencer's latest offers an enjoyable combination of caper novel and police procedural.
Pilgrimage of Death (Kindle and paperback)
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The year is 1386. In a Southwark inn, a group of pilgrims on the road to Canterbury are challenged to a competition by the landlord. Each will tell a story, and the teller of the best tale shall earn themselves a free meal on their return.
For Geoffrey Chaucer - soldier, spy, and poet - it is just the beginning. Every time a story is told, its teller is soon found murdered... in the manner of which they had spoken in their tale.
The three men alone deemed to be above suspicion - Chaucer, the night and the franklin - attempt to piece together the strange and bloody trail. But as Canterbury looms they seem no closer to uncovering the truth.
Any one of them could be next... Will they uncover the terrifying mystery behind the murders? Or will they also fall victim to the Pilgrimage of Death?
'Pilgrimage of Death' is a chilling re-telling of Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales'
- with a murderous twist.
The Silent Land
The story of Anna Mayakovsky, a peasant girl who became the Red Princess of the Russian Revolution.
Anna, the heroine of the story, is now a penniless old woman living in a bedsit, but no one can take away the vivid memories of her past: the Count who lifted her out of poverty and took her to live with his own children; the Count's son Misha, whose baby she bore; Peter, the ruthless factory owner who became her lover and her deadliest enemy; Sasha, the tough but gentle peasant who converted her to revolution.
And her aristocratic husband whom she adored, but could never love as completely as a woman should love her man.
But now Anna finds she has one more battle ahead of her: her great-granddaughters, Jennifer and Sonia, wish to lock her away in an institution. Anna knows that this will kill her. She will have to fight back.
Alan says: Of all my books, this is my favourite.
Booklist says:
"Anna’s conversion from society princess to Russian revolutionary, allusions to an intriguing life after the Russian Revolution, and her struggles to remain independent in her old age add up to a mesmerizing page-turner that will appeal to fans of historical sagas."
A Picnic in Eden
​It was bitterly cold on the day of the funeral, but as the two young men looked down at the coffin containing the body of their best friend, it was not the temperature that made them shiver.
They were thinking back to the time when the three of them had first met, in the infants playground.
It had all seemed so easy then. They were the Secret Camp Gang, and they would always look after each other. But as they grew up, they began to discover that life was much more complicated than they'd imagined.
Paul, the idealist of the three, found himself trapped in a loveless marriage - a marriage he had been forced into by the flick of a coin. Jimmy, the cynical breaker of hearts, finally met the woman who would break his. And David, who had the Midas touch in business, but a personal life which pushed him to the brink of despair.
And even when they tried to deal with their own problems, fate seemed intent on forcing all three into a conflict which was almost certain to end in tragedy.
For more on the setting of this book, read the blog post: First Memories