Chief Inspector Woodend
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The Salton Killings
by Sally Spencer
Part 1 of the Chief Inspector Woodend series
Scotland Yard's Chief Inspector Charlie Woodend finds himself in a backwater village investigating a murder in this taut police procedural. 1950s Cheshire, England. When the strangled body of teenager Diane Thorburn is found buried in the salt store, Chief Inspector Charlie Woodend is pulled 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. . . ?
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(23)
Murder at Swann's Lake
by Sally Spencer
Part 2 of the Chief Inspector Woodend series
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 twice on the day of his funeral? What caused Robbie's son-in-law to attack his own brother on the night of the murder? As the case unfolds, Woodend uncovers several crimes, but it is only as it draws to a close that he realizes the murder has nothing to do with Robbie's criminal past-and everything to do with his domestic present.
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(22)
Death of a Cave Dweller
by Sally Spencer
Part 3 of the Chief Inspector Woodend series
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 mother says that Eddie had a girlfriend, while his best mate insists that he didn't. And who has been playing nasty tricks on The Seagulls, culminating in Eddie finding a dead rat-with a noose around its neck-in his guitar case? As Woodend battles with the complexities of the case, he is more than aware that if he does not find the murderer soon, there could well be another death.
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(14)
The Dark Lady
by Sally Spencer
Part 4 of the Chief Inspector Woodend series
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 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?
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(15)
The Golden Mile to Murder
by Sally Spencer
Part 5 of the Chief Inspector Woodend series
When a bobby's killed in Blackpool, Chief Inspector Charlie Woodend takes a ride through England's wild side to get to the bottom of a mystery. The investigation into the brutal murder of a Blackpool policeman during holiday season was never going to be easy, but the case is not Chief Inspector Woodend's only problem. His new boss, DS Ainsworth, is just waiting for an opportunity to stick a knife in his back; and his invaluable assistant, Bob Rutter, has been replaced by a sergeant more intent on advancing her own career than helping him. Then, it appears, the Blackpool police seem to think it might be better if the killer were never found . . .
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(17)
Dead on Cue
by Sally Spencer
Part 6 of the Chief Inspector Woodend series
With the newspapers screaming for a quick solution, this is a case no one wants to touch -- so naturally it is Chief Inspector Woodend who finds himself left holding the baby. With his usual panache, Cloggin'-it Charlie quickly immerses himself of the world of television, meeting people he has previously only seen as characters on the screen, learning that while there may be honour among thieves there does not seem to be much on the set of Maddox Row. The question, it soon becomes apparent, is not who wanted to kill Valerie Farnsworth, but who didn't. And will the murderer stop at only one victim? There are those in the know who are convinced that he won't.
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(21)
The Red Herring
by Sally Spencer
Part 7 of the Chief Inspector Woodend series
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 finding the girl alive, Woodend's bagman, Monika Paniatowski, continues to work on the murder, under the supervision of the mysterious Chief Inspector Horrocks, a Scotland Yard man who seems to have only a mild interest in finding the killer. Are the two cases connected? Woodend begins to wonder. And if they are, who is it who seems to be blocking both investigations at every turn?
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(18)
Death of an Innocent
by Sally Spencer
Part 8 of the Chief Inspector Woodend series
A man and a young woman are found blasted away by a rifle in a remote farmhouse on the Yorkshire moors. But where is the farmer, why did he have such swanky furniture in his living room, and who on earth are the victims? Charlie Woodend isn't amused with the people who are getting under his feet as he starts to grapple with these questions, but his steps are abruptly halted when the Deputy Chief Constable decides that, this time, Woodend's high-handedness has gone too far. Woodend may have been suspended but his sense of justice can't let go. And it won't let go however much resistance he encounters and from whom. But as Woodend is depressed to discover, when the people who are determined to keep you down are all-powerful, sheer will-power just isn't enough.
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(16)
A Death Left Hanging
by Sally Spencer
Part 9 of the Chief Inspector Woodend series
A miscarriage of justice for DCI Woodend
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(12)
The Enemy Within
by Sally Spencer
Part 10 of the Chief Inspector Woodend series
There had never been a murder in Whitebridge like this one. What kind of man would slash the throat of a an inoffensive middle-aged widow who was already terminally ill? Why did he decide to place her lifeless body in the middle of a children's bonfire?It is the most difficult and complex case in Woodend's career, but the two people he most relies on - DI Rutter and DS Paniatowski - are being torn apart by their personal problems.As he struggles on, almost single-handedly, Woodend comes to the reluctant conclusion that he is being forced to participate in the killer's game without even knowing the rules. Yet one thing, at least, is plain from the beginning. For the game to continue, there must be more deaths...
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(14)
The Witch Maker
by Sally Spencer
Part 11 of the Chief Inspector Woodend series
To be Witch Makers in the moorland village of Hallerton is both a great honour and a heavy burden. But this Witch Maker never lives to witness his moment of triumph and is discovered tied to the Witching Post early one morning with a length of twine wrapped tightly around his neck. Will DCI Charlie Woodend solve this mystery...
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(8)
The Butcher Beyond
by Sally Spencer
Part 12 of the Chief Inspector Woodend series
With the help of Paco Ruiz - a former policeman, living in disgrace since the Spanish Civil War - Woodend embarks on an unofficial investigation which provides more questions than answers. Why was the dead man travelling under a false passport? Who are the men he was seen to associate with, but now deny all knowledge of him? Why does the local police chief seem determined to lead him up a blind alley? And, who is responsible for the three more deaths which quickly follow on from the first? It soon becomes plain to Woodend that the roots of the case stretch back thirty years - and that if he is ever to solve it, he must confront history itself.
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(9)
Dying in the Dark
by Sally Spencer
Part 13 of the Chief Inspector Woodend series
Pamela Rainsford, found on a lonely canal path in the middle of a dark night, has not only been raped and strangled, but her face has been hacked to pieces. At first it seems a random killing, but as the case progresses, Woodend begins to suspect that the death of the mild-mannered, respectable secretary may have been a result of her own secret life.And another secret life is having its consequences, too - as a result of his now-ended affair with Sergeant Monika Paniatowski, Inspector Bob Rutter's marriage is falling apart. As the investigation proceeds, Woodend finds himself beginning to understand the complex web of lies and deceits which Pamela Rainsford has spun around herself, but nothing he discovers could never prepare him for a second death - this one much closer to home!
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Stone Killer
by Sally Spencer
Part 14 of the Chief Inspector Woodend series
Never before has DCI Woodend had to work under such terrible and terrifying pressure. He has just a few days, at the most, to find a flaw in the weighty evidence which led to Judith Maitland's conviction as a stone-cold killer- a few days to produce the real murderer. But what if Judith really is guilty as charged? What if she did, in fact, brutally butcher her lover, Clive Burroughs, in his own office, as the facts seem to suggest.
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A Long Time Dead
by Sally Spencer
Part 15 of the Chief Inspector Woodend series
The latest DCI Woodend mystery. Captain Robert Kineally disappeared from Haverton American Army base in Devon in 1944. Twenty years later, a body is found. Woodend knew and liked Kineally. He knew, and heartily disliked, Douglas Coutes, the man accused of killing him. With the British determined Woodend should exonerate Coutes and the Americans set on proving his guilt, Woodend must face his past mistakes if he is to have a shot at the truth.
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(8)
Sins of the Fathers
by Sally Spencer
Part 16 of the Chief Inspector Woodend series
Politician spills his guts - all over the road! The discovery of Bradley Pine's body off a busy road signals the end of his bid to win a local election. But why would the killer risk dumping the body so publicly? And why should he not only reduce the victim's mouth to pulp, but partly disembowel him? With the election looming, and Woodend's old enemy Marlowe replacing Pine as candidate, Woodend is required to produce a result. Any result!
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Dangerous Games
by Sally Spencer
Part 17 of the Chief Inspector Woodend series
When Terry Pugh's headless body is found floating in the canal, DCI Woodend at first believes that Pugh had merely miscalculated the amount of rope he needed to hang himself. But why would Pugh commit suicide when he had a loving wife who was expecting their first baby, and was just about to start an exciting new job? Other disturbing questions soon follow in the first body's wake. Who was the mysterious stranger Pugh was seen with, just before he died? What is the connection between him and the down-and-out who suffers a similar fate to his only twenty-four hours later? And how many more men are intended to die? As the investigation proceeds, Woodend and his team come to realize that the key to solving the crimes is hidden in the past - and on an island far, far away.
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Death Watch
by Sally Spencer
Part 18 of the Chief Inspector Woodend series
Angela Jackson, a young girl abducted from Whitebridge Corporation Park, has been missing for over twenty-four hours and, in the opinion of Dr Stevenson, the psychiatrist who Woodend turns to for advice, her kidnapper will first torture and then kill her. Woodend is aware of the damaging strains operating within his own team. Inspector Bob Rutter seems unable to control his infatuation with the unscrupulous journalist, Elizabeth Driver, while Sergeant Monika Paniatowski, is rapidly developing a deep affection for Rutter's small daughter, Louisa. And, Woodend's old enemy, Chief Constable Marlowe, is hovering in the background like a malevolent bird of prey, just waiting for the chief inspector to make a mistake. The more the investigation proceeds, the less Woodend can see any signs of hope. And he knows - deep within himself - that he will fail in bringing Angela back alive.
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Dying Fall
by Sally Spencer
Part 19 of the Chief Inspector Woodend series
A charred body is discovered in an abandoned cotton mill, and the crime scene presents DCI Woodend and his team with many questions, but very few answers. Who would want to murder a harmless old tramp, a man with no friends - or enemies - in the world? And why, of all the methods he could have chosen, did the killer decide to cruelly burn his victim to death? As Woodend attempts to solve a murder with no clues, he must also battle against a police authority that is attempting to block him at every turn. And though he does not know it, worse is to follow, because Elizabeth Driver, Inspector Bob Rutter's lover, has almost finished the book which could destroy both his career and everything he has ever worked for.
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(14)
Fatal Quest
by Sally Spencer
Part 20 of the Chief Inspector Woodend series
"You should have worked out by now that nobody wants this case solved!" These words, delivered by Eddie, a Liverpool thug brought down to London especially to put the frighteners on him, send a shiver down newly-promoted DS Charlie Woodend's spine. Because Eddie is right. Nobody does seem interested in bringing the killer of sixteen-year-old Pearl Jones to justice. Not DCI Bentley, Woodend's immediate boss. Not Deputy Commissioner Naylor, whose word is law in Scotland Yard. Not even the dead girl's mother herself.But Woodend cares. Working alone - sifting through the rubble of bombed-out post-war London and building up a picture of a life cut short - he is assailed by a growing anger and a deepening sorrow. He will find the murderer, he promises himself, even if that means putting his career - and perhaps even his own life - on the line.
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