Chief Inspector Woodend Mystery #1
Sally Spencer (aka Alan Rustage)
Severn House Digital
2012 / ASIN: B008MX0HRI [kindle]
British / Police Procedural / England / Contemporary
Amazon
Reviewed
by LJ Roberts
First Sentence:
The rain, driven by a relentless wind, clawed mercilessly at her
face.
Chief Inspector
Woodend is sent from London to a village in Cheshire. The strangled
body of a teenage girl has been found buried in the salt store.
Working with the local police and intuition, Woodend believes the
victim’s best friend knows more than she’s saying. He
also believes there is a connection to a similar murder a generation
earlier.
Who knows
why I’ve only just discovered this series, but who cares.
I read for character and have now found new characters to love:
Inspector Woodend and his second, Sgt. Bob Rutter. The two are a
wonderful contrast; Woodend being an old-school, shoe leather investigator
and Rutter being an armchair detective who believes in solving crimes
through science. There’s a wonderful scene where Woodend tells
Rutter that, in addition to read Sherlock Holmes, t-he should read
Dickens as “its people that matter”.
Spencer provides
and excellent sense of place that puts you within the story and
dialogue that makes the characters come to life. We learn who Woodend
is through very naturally placed bits in the story, rather than
one long exposition. We are given another fascinating character
who imparts an interesting perspective and observation on civilization
and life. Any author who makes me contemplate his views, is an author
worth my reading.
One criticism—to
me there was an incredibly weak plot point which should have been
obvious, or accounted for much earlier, in the investigation. However,
there was also a well-done plot twist which somewhat balanced it
out.
The Salton
Killings was a book I very much enjoyed. Happily, this was
the first in the series, so I look forward to reading more about
CI Woodend.
Reviews
of other titles in this series
The
Salton Killings #1
The
Golden Mile to Murder #5
Sins
of the Fathers #17
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