Review: ECHOES OF THE DEAD, Sally Spencer

• Published by Severn House 2010
• ISBN 978-0-7278-6980-7
• 218 pages
• source: my local library

Publisher's blurb

When a recently released prisoner claims in a deathbed confession that he is innocent of the rape and murder of a young girl for which he was convicted twenty-two years earlier, DCI Monika Paniatowski is tasked to lead an unofficial investigation into his claims.
At first she is reluctant, but when she learns that her old mentor Charlie Woodend was the lead detective in the case, she knows she must do everything she can to protect his reputation . . .

My take

I have been rationing myself with Sally Spencer titles this year. As you can see from the list of reviews below I have read a few of them. ECHOES OF THE DEAD is #3 in the Monika Paniatowski series and now I'm really looking forward to #4.

A large part of ECHOES OF THE DEAD is a recap of the events of 22 years earlier, Charlie Woodend's first case as a Scotland Yard investigator. He is called in to investigate the death of 13 year old Lilly Dawson, raped and strangled, and his judgement is impaired by a number of things: the fact that his own daughter is of a similar age, his sergeant Bannerman is so keen to get a result quickly and to begin climbing the promotions ladder, the local plods seem to have done such shoddy work in the few days they had the case missing all sorts of clues to the killer's identity.

Monika realises that she needs to confront Charlie himself, now retired in Spain, and I enjoyed the interplay between these two characters. Charlie is sure he couldn't have made a mistake, but then doubts being to creep in. Could he have been duped? It certainly looks as if Charlie will have to wear the blame if the Chief Commissioner admits the wrong man was convicted. Can Monika and Charlie work out who really did kill Lilly?

Very good reading for those who like nice solidly plotted police procedurals with the occasional excursion into what makes people tick.

My rating: 4.6

Other reviews of Sally Spencer titles on MiP
4.3, THE GOLDEN MILE TO MURDER
4.5, THE RING OF DEATH
4.4, FATAL QUEST: WOODEND'S FIRST CASE
4.4, THE SALTON KILLINGS
4.7, THE DEAD HAND OF HISTORY 
4.3, THE DARK LADY 

DCI Monika Paniatowski series (from Fantastic Fiction)
1. The Dead Hand of History (2009)
2. The Ring of Death (2010)
3. Echoes of the Dead (2010)
4. Backlash (2011)

Review: THE DARK LADY, Sally Spencer

• Published Severn House Large Print 2000
• 319 pages
• ISBN 0-7278-7055-6
• Source: my local library

Publisher's Blurb

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 so frightened when on his colleagues mentioned the legend of the Dark Lady? Did the workers at the BCI chemical factory - many of whom are known to hate the Germans - have anything to do with his death? How could Fred Foley, the tramp whose bloodstained overcoat was found close to the scene of the crime, have completely disappeared? And is this murder connected with one which occurred in Liverpool nearly twenty years earlier?

My take

This is #4 in the Inspector Woodend series. THE DARK LADY begins with a prologue set on the Liverpool docks in November 1946, in which a man who appears to have been a German soldier is murdered.The war is only recently ended and most of the investigating police team believe, like most of the British population still does, that the only good German is a dead German. So little effort is put into solving the murder, or even in finding out who the dead man is.

The book then jumps about 15 years and another German has been killed. This time his identity is known for he is a time-and-motion manager at British Chemical Industries. Charlie Woodend and Bob Rutter have been sent from Scotland Yard to Cheshire to carry out the investigation. The local police force have already decided on the culprit, they just can't find him.

On the same night that Gerhard Schulz was murdered a local ghost known as "The Dark Lady" is seen riding her black horse down a nearby lane. Woodend discovers that it may have been over 15 years since the end of the war, but there is a high level of animosity between recent immigrants: Germans, Italians and Poles.

The author gives an interesting insight to the post-war period, in addition to writing a  nicely constructed murder mystery. For me the Woodend series are becoming comfortable reads. The plots are well constructed police procedurals and the main characters well fleshed out. 

My rating: 4.3

Other reviews of Sally Spencer titles on this blog


4.4, THE SALTON KILLINGS (#1 Inspector Woodend)
4.3, THE GOLDEN MILE TO MURDER  (#5 Inspector Woodend)
4.4, FATAL QUEST: WOODEND'S FIRST CASE (#20 Inspector Woodend)

4.7, THE DEAD HAND OF HISTORY (# 1 Monika Paniatowski)
4.5, THE RING OF DEATH (#2 Monika Paniatowski)

Review: THE DEAD HAND OF HISTORY, Sally Spencer

• published 2009, Severn House Publishers
• ISBN 978-0-7278-6805-3
• 235 pages
• Source: local library book

Publisher's blurb

The first in a new series featuring Charlie Woodend's protege, DCI Monika Paniatowski - It will be no easy task to fill DCI Charlie Woodend's shoes, the newly-promoted Monika Paniatowski tells herself, but, given a little time, she thinks she can grow into them. Yet, with the discovery of a severed hand, time is the one thing she does not have. When her colleagues prove untrustworthy, the urge to call Woodend for help becomes almost irresistible . . .

My take:

I read #2 in this series, THE RING OF DEATH, at the end of last year, and liked it so much that I promised myself to chase up the first in the series. I'm so glad I did and look forward to reading #3.

You can put DCI Monika Paniatowski right up there with female sleuths. She's tough, gritty, and has lots of that "gut feeling" that characterises the best of modern detectives. Apart from being a woman, she carries a little extra baggage: she is a Pole, and once had an affair with the Chief Constable, who's determined he won't be seen as doing her any favours. She has a bagman, Sergeant Walker, who resents her and does his best to leave her out of the loop whenever possible, and the press are just waiting for her to make big mistakes on her first job. Monika would love to consult Charlie Woodend for advice, and even goes as far as doing some heavy breathing on the end of his phone, but this case with two severed hands asks for her best efforts. And she is not entirely on her own: Inspector Colin Beresford provides faithful support and she has won recent graduate DC Crane over to her side.

After tough, abrasive, Charlie Woodend, some think Monika might be a bit soft. But they soon learn differently.  And she already has the pathologist and her local JP on her side, simply because she is a woman.

It was interesting being there right at the beginning, watching Monika establish her team, and put in place her own procedures. There's a touch of humour in the writing particularly in the descriptions of her management of her teenage daughter struggling with her homework.

Good reading. If you like Ann Cleeves' Vera Stanhope, or Helene Tursten's Irene Huss, or Aline Templeton's Marjorie Fleming, then you'll take to Monika Paniatowski.

My rating: 4.7.

Reviews of Sally Spencer titles on MiP
4.3, THE GOLDEN MILE TO MURDER
4.5, THE RING OF DEATH (#2 of the Monika Paniatowski series)
4.4, FATAL QUEST: WOODEND'S FIRST CASE
4.4, THE SALTON KILLINGS  

Review: THE GOLDEN MILE TO MURDER, Sally Spencer

• Severn House Publishers 2001
• 248 pages
• ISBN 9-780727-857101
• Source: my local library
• #5/20 in the Woodend series

Publisher's blurb
The investigation into the brutal murder of a Blackpool policeman in the middle of the holiday season was never going to easy, but the case itself is not Woodend's only problem. There is trouble at home: his new boss, DS Ainsworth, is just waiting for an opportunity to stick a knife in his back; his invaluable assistant, Bob Rutter, had been replaced by a new sergeant more intent on advancing her own career than helping him - and the Blackpool police themselves seem to think it might be better if the killer were never found...

My take

Dipping into an established series has its problems for the reader as you have to work out a lot of the detail from earlier novels yourself (if the author doesn't tell you a lot of back story)

Charlie Woodend, "Cloggin-it Charlie", has obviously upset his superiors at Scotland Yard to the point that he's been relocated. In the THE SALTON KILLINGS which was the first in the series he was the "expert" from London, the bigwig from Scotland Yard. Although that brought problems, now the scenario is very different.

Now he has to report to Chief Superintendent Ainsworth at Lancashire Central in Whitebridge. This is where Woodend originally came from but it's no happy homecoming. Ainsworth sees him as trouble and assigns him a new "bag man" in the person of Sergeant Monika Paniatowski, the original Ice Maiden. Monika has had a difficult time in getting promotion partly because of her gender and partly because of her own sensitivity. Woodend is at first resentful of losing Rob Rutter who has been promoted but then he decides to see what he can do to initiate Monika into the way he works.  In reality Woodend likes best to work alone but Ainsworth tells him he must learn to work as a team player. Woodend tells Monika that they have been paired because Ainsworth doesn't think any one else would want to work with them.

The first case they are assigned is the murder of  popular DI "Punch" Davies. Woodend quickly gains the impression that his "team", who are all locals, are not working particularly hard at getting answers, almost as if they have something to hide.

So there is a lot of canvas enlargement in THE GOLDEN MILE TO MURDER. For the author, with a change of scenery for Woodend and new characters to associate with him, it is almost like starting again. It is set in the 1960s mainly in Blackpool and there is plenty of scope for Woodend to reflect on what things were like when he was a lad growing up in the area.

I'd call THE GOLDEN MILE TO MURDER  a good solid read, a story well told. My rating 4.3

Other reviews on this blog of Spencer titles
4.5, THE RING OF DEATH - #2 in the Paniatowski series
4.4, FATAL QUEST: WOODEND'S FIRST CASE - #20 in the Woodend series
4.4, THE SALTON KILLINGS - #1 in the Woodend series

Inspector Woodend (list from Fantastic Fiction)
1. The Salton Killings (1998)
2. Murder at Swann's Lake (1999)
3. Death of a Cave Dweller (2000)
4. The Dark Lady (2000)
5. The Golden Mile to Murder (2000)
6. Dead On Cue (2001)
7. Death of an Innocent (2002)
8. The Red Herring (2002)
9. The Enemy Within (2003)
10. A Death Left Hanging (2003)
11. The Witch Maker (2004)
12. The Butcher Beyond (2004)
13. Dying in the Dark (2005)
14. Stone Killer (2005)
15. A Long Time Dead (2006)
16. Sins of the Fathers (2006)
17. Dangerous Games (2007)
18. Death Watch (2007)
19. A Dying Fall (2008)
20. Fatal Quest: Woodend's First Case (2008)

Review: THE SALTON KILLINGS, Sally Spencer

Published: 1998
This edition: Dales Large Print Books
Length: 333 pages
ISBN 9-781853-899249
Source: my local library

Publisher's blurb

Drafted in from London to investigate the strangling of a teenager, Chief Inspector Woodend is an outspoken Northerner who does his policing the old-fashioned way: local knowledge and a healthy pinch of intuition. He is convinced that Margie Poole, daughter of the local landlady and the teenager's best friend, knows more about Dian Thorburn's last movements than she is prepared to tell. Woodend's enquiry turns up the death of another girl a generation before and the similarities look sinister. Is there a serial killer on the loose.

My take:

THE SALTON KILLINGS is set in a small salt mining village in Cheshire in the mid 50s. Chief Inspector Charlie Woodend, "Cloggin'- it Charlie", is a northerner, a bit of a misfit at Scotland Yard. He has a reputation of wearing out sergeants faster than you can get through shoe leather.

Rutter [Charlie's assigned sergeant for this case] finally caught sight of the DCI, a man in his middle forties, wearing a baggy check sports coat over a zipped knitted cardigan. ... Hair - light brown, no Brylcreem, unruly. Nose - nearly, but not quite, hooked. Mouth - wide. Jaw - square without being brutish. All in all, a pleasant but unremarkable face. Except for the eyes. They were dark, almost black, and the lids were like camera shutters, constantly clicking and registering.

If you are looking for a well constructed British police procedural then THE SALTON KILLINGS, the debut novel in Spencer's Woodend series, might hit the spot. It did for me. An almost undemanding and quick read, with many of the hall marks of a cozy. But Charlie Woodend is an interesting character. THE SALTON KILLINGS is written retrospectively. The Epilogue takes us to Woodend in retirement and looks back at the case. An interesting technique.

I decided to track down the first in the series after I had read (and liked) the last on the list (see below) and then the second in Spencer's series that followed - the DCI Monika Paniatowski series.
4.5, THE RING OF DEATH
4.4, FATAL QUEST: WOODEND'S FIRST CASE 

I'll be reading more of the Woodend series.
My rating: 4.4

Inspector Woodend (list from Fantastic Fiction)
1. The Salton Killings (1998)
2. Murder at Swann's Lake (1999)
3. Death of a Cave Dweller (2000)
4. The Dark Lady (2000)
5. The Golden Mile to Murder (2000)
6. Dead On Cue (2001)
7. Death of an Innocent (2002)
8. The Red Herring (2002)
9. The Enemy Within (2003)
10. A Death Left Hanging (2003)
11. The Witch Maker (2004)
12. The Butcher Beyond (2004)
13. Dying in the Dark (2005)
14. Stone Killer (2005)
15. A Long Time Dead (2006)
16. Sins of the Fathers (2006)
17. Dangerous Games (2007)
18. Death Watch (2007)
19. A Dying Fall (2008)
20. Fatal Quest: Woodend's First Case (2008)

Review: FATAL QUEST: WOODEND'S FIRST CASE, Sally Spencer

Publisher: Severn House Publishers 2008
ISBN 978-1-84751-084-6
236 pages
Source: My local library

Publisher's blurb
A Charlie Woodend Mystery his first . . - DS Charlie Woodend has a murder to solve. Trouble is, nobody seems to want him to solve it not Eddie, a Liverpudlian thug sent to threaten him; not DCI Bentley; not Deputy Commissioner Naylor, whose word is law in Scotland Yard; not even the dead girl's mother herself. But Woodend cares. He will find the murderer, he promises himself, even if that means putting his career and perhaps even his own life on the line.

My take:

First of all, a warning: don't be deceived like I was, by the title, into thinking I was reading the first title in the Charlie Woodend series. In fact you are tackling the last in the series.
It is June 1973 and Chief Inspector Charlie Woodend is about to retire after 25 years in the job, to hand over to Monika Paniatowski (whom I met in THE RING OF DEATH). Monika has been his protege and Charlie decides to tell her one last story, that of his first case, the one that very nearly ended his career in the police force before it had even got off the ground.

I should have read the blurb on the back which quotes Kirkus Reviews:

Woodend fans should cherish this finale, which rounds out the professional career of Lancaster's famous subversive.

There are 20 titles in the Woodend series, and I have the first of the Paniatowski series (which follows) on my shelf from the library. Will I go back and read more of the Woodend titles? I'm not sure, because as you know, I like to read books in series order. But perhaps I'm not yet stymied and I could even now pick up an earlier Woodend title.

Certainly there's enough encouragement in the quality of the writing, a nice solid police procedural, a good read.

My rating: 4.4

I'll be adding this to my count for the British Books Challenge

Review: THE RING OF DEATH, Sally Spencer

Publisher: Severn House
2010 (originally published 2009)
ISBN 978-0-7278-6868-8
233 pages
Source: Local Library

Publisher's Blurb
The second in a new series featuring DCI Monika Paniatowski - Nothing could have prepared DCI Monika Paniatowski for this. It's not that the man's throat has been cut, or that he is naked, that shocks her - it's the way his corpse has been so carefully posed. Is the killer sending a message? If so, to who? Saddled with a colleague she doesn't trust, and watched by an old enemy, Monika realises that whatever the murderer's message is, he will not stop killing until she understands.

My take

I found THE RING OF DEATH  a real page turner and I do like the character of Monika Paniatowski.
I have never read any of the previous, Inspector Woodend, series, and I feel the need to at least delve into the last one or two in the series (there are 20 of them), and the first in the Monika Paniatowski series, THE DEAD HAND OF HISTORY, to find out more about Monika's rise to DCI, and to get a better acquainatnce with her. However there is plenty of background in THE RING OF DEATH. The novel deviates from just being a police procedural with an interesting exploration of how Monika is "making" herself, especially in her dealings with the Chief Constable, a one-time lover.

Her predecessor DCI Charlie Woodend, for whom she was "bagman", retired to Spain in the 20th novel in the Woodend series. There are references to how much he is missed in THE RING OF DEATH, and Monika constantly thinks of how Charlie would have handled this or that situation.

My rating: 4.5

Sally Spencer (31 novels) is a pseudonym of Alan Rustage (8 novels), who has also written 3 novels as James Garcia Woods.
Alan Rustage grew up in the north of England. He has taught in England and Iran. He now writes full-time and lives in Madrid.
Sally Spencer worked as a teacher both in England and Iran - where she witnessed the fall of the Shah. She now lives in Spain and writes full-time. She is an almost fanatical mah jong player.
See also http://www.sallyspencer.com/ and http://www.alanrustage.com/