Sally Spencer

Chief Inspector Charlie Woodend and his loyal sergeant tackle a murder with as many suspects as there are clues in this tight puzzler.
 
Swann’s Lake, 1960. When Robbie Peterson, a criminal-turned-club-owner, is found dead in his office, a six-inch nail driven deep into his skull, Chief Inspector Woodend and Sergeant Bob Rutter are brought up from London to investigate. Why was Robbie’s office broken into...

Chief Inspector Charlie Woodend enters the smoky dens of Liverpool to stop a killer stuck in a deadly groove.
 
Liverpool, 1960s. When Eddie Barnes, lead guitarist of the rising group The Seagulls is electrocuted on stage at the Cellar Club in front of three hundred adoring fans, the Liverpool Police call in Scotland Yard’s Chief Inspector Charlie Woodend. But Woodend doesn’t understand why Eddie’s...

Chief Inspector Charlie Woodend will have to rely on his observational gifts to have a ghost of chance in solving his latest murder case.
 
The night after the mysterious appearance of the legendary Dark Lady on the road outside Westbury Park, a German efficiency expert, Gerhard Schultz, is found battered to death in the woods and Chief Inspector Charlie Woodend is faced with his most puzzling case yet. Why did Schultz seem...

The discovery of the body of a young, red-haired school mistress, lying in a pig-pen with her face half-eaten away, is the beginning of a new investigation for Charlie Woodend. But it is to be an investigation he is soon ordered to abandon when Helen Dunn, the daughter of Wing Commander Dunn - and a pupil at the school where the dead woman taught - suddenly vanishes into thin air. While Woodend and Rutter race against time in the desperate hope of...

In this hard-hitting standalone thriller from Sally Spencer, a crash survivor discovers dark family secrets as he tries to stay alive.
Bristol, 1991. Crammed into a hire car, on their way to a vital appointment, five representatives of Conroy Enterprises are running very late. Rob Conroy, the black sheep of the family, is torn between spiteful amusement at his Uncle Tony's irritation and anxiety for the future. If Conroy Enterprises...

Old grudges resurface with deadly consequences in this gripping, twisty mystery featuring DCI Monika Paniatowski.

On the night the Whitebridge Players staged their last ever performance, the idealistic young actors in the company resolved that twenty years on they would return to the same theatre and stage the same play.

But two decades later, old resentments have grown and new jealousies have germinated,

...

"Brings a creepy new note to Spencer's long-running series" Kirkus Reviews
The discovery of a body on a local allotment site re-opens an unresolved cold case for Monika Paniatowski and her team.
He was going to have to terminate Monika, he decided. It was a pity, but there it was.
The body has lain buried for years, and has no face and no fingertips. Monika Paniatowski's team have no real leads,...

"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
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...

"Spencer has devised a thrill ride that's not easily forgotten." - Publishers Weekly Starred Review
Monika Paniatowski's boss is trying to destroy her career, but the dead end case he assigns her turns out to be something else entirely . . .
DCI Monika Paniatowski recognises her latest assignment as advisor to the Earl of Ridley's rock festival for what it really is – an attempt by the chief...

The latest Detective Chief Inspector Woodend mystery
When Captain Robert Kineally went missing from Haverton American Army base in Devon in 1944, it was generally assumed he had lost his nerve and deserted. But now, twenty years after the War ended, a body found on the near-derelict base seems to tell an entirely different story. DCI Charlie Woodend has strong reasons for not wanting the case.
As a sergeant on secondment to the...