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Chief Inspector Woodend #4
The Dark Lady
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?
320 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 7, 2001
33 people are currently reading
73 people want to read
About the author
Sally Spencer
80 books152 followersA pseudonym used by Alan Rustage.
Sally Spencer is a pen name, first adopted when the author (actually called Alan Rustage) was writing sagas and it was almost obligatory that a woman's name appeared on the cover (other authors like Emma Blair and Mary Jane Staples are also men).
Before becoming a full-time writer, he was a teacher. In 1978-79 he was working in Iran and witnessed the fall of the Shah (see the Blog for what it was like to live through a revolution). He got used to having rifles - and, one occasion, a rocket launcher - pointed at him by both soldiers and revolutionaries, but he was never entirely comfortable with it.
He lived in Madrid for over twenty years, and still considers it the most interesting and exciting city he has ever visited, but for the last few years he has opted for a quieter life in the seaside town of Calpe, on the Costa Blanca.
His first series of books were historical sagas set in Cheshire (where he grew up) and London. They were very popular with his English readers, but his American readers find the dialect something of a strain.
He has written twenty books featuring DCI Woodend (a character based partly on a furniture dealer he used to play dominoes with) and ten (so far!) about Woodend's protegé Monika Paniatowski.
His DI Sam Blackstone books are set in Victorian/Edwardian London, New York and Russia, and the Inspector Paco Ruiz books have as their backdrop the Spanish Civil War.
Alan is a competitive games player who likes bridge and pub quizzes. It is only by enforcing iron discipline that he doesn't play video games all the time.
He now lives on Spain's Costa Blanca.
Sally Spencer is a pen name, first adopted when the author (actually called Alan Rustage) was writing sagas and it was almost obligatory that a woman's name appeared on the cover (other authors like Emma Blair and Mary Jane Staples are also men).
Before becoming a full-time writer, he was a teacher. In 1978-79 he was working in Iran and witnessed the fall of the Shah (see the Blog for what it was like to live through a revolution). He got used to having rifles - and, one occasion, a rocket launcher - pointed at him by both soldiers and revolutionaries, but he was never entirely comfortable with it.
He lived in Madrid for over twenty years, and still considers it the most interesting and exciting city he has ever visited, but for the last few years he has opted for a quieter life in the seaside town of Calpe, on the Costa Blanca.
His first series of books were historical sagas set in Cheshire (where he grew up) and London. They were very popular with his English readers, but his American readers find the dialect something of a strain.
He has written twenty books featuring DCI Woodend (a character based partly on a furniture dealer he used to play dominoes with) and ten (so far!) about Woodend's protegé Monika Paniatowski.
His DI Sam Blackstone books are set in Victorian/Edwardian London, New York and Russia, and the Inspector Paco Ruiz books have as their backdrop the Spanish Civil War.
Alan is a competitive games player who likes bridge and pub quizzes. It is only by enforcing iron discipline that he doesn't play video games all the time.
He now lives on Spain's Costa Blanca.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
November 2, 2019
Pretty good....
April 23, 2020
This is a great mystery series with Scotland Yard's Chief Inspector Woodend and his assistant Rutter. This story is set in a small English village after the end of WWII. The mystery story was good and the characters are great. It was interesting to see how the groups of nationalities interacted after the war.
April 16, 2020
New Series for Me
This is the second Sally Spencer Woodend book I’ve read and I plan on reading them all. I love her characters, even the minor ones. Very English, very entertaining. Good mystery, too, and she ties everything together very neatly at the end.
This is the second Sally Spencer Woodend book I’ve read and I plan on reading them all. I love her characters, even the minor ones. Very English, very entertaining. Good mystery, too, and she ties everything together very neatly at the end.
October 20, 2017
Very glad I discovered this series.
January 17, 2018
Such a comfortable little mystery. Read it while it snowed outside. Perfect.
January 6, 2021
Charlie Woodend showed his character in this one.
October 24, 2021
Five star fiction
It’s difficult to say how much I love these novels and this series. The characters are complex, and seem so real. Well written too.
It’s difficult to say how much I love these novels and this series. The characters are complex, and seem so real. Well written too.
February 6, 2022
Woodend and Ritter Rule!
Great characters and detective style unlike any other. Plenty of chuckles in between. Woodend tells it like it is! Will read more…
Great characters and detective style unlike any other. Plenty of chuckles in between. Woodend tells it like it is! Will read more…
November 8, 2023
I like the stories, but am loving the characters. They are well done. Plots are good.
October 28, 2015
Another Woodend/Rutter book.
A man is found killed in a northern community. Woodend and Rutter are sent from Scotland Yatd.
The man was German. He works for a company that employes, Germans, Poles, Italians and English men. Could the motive for this killing be related to old animosities left over from the war?
With his usual "bull in the china shop" approach, Woodend solves the crime that has roots deep in the past.
A man is found killed in a northern community. Woodend and Rutter are sent from Scotland Yatd.
The man was German. He works for a company that employes, Germans, Poles, Italians and English men. Could the motive for this killing be related to old animosities left over from the war?
With his usual "bull in the china shop" approach, Woodend solves the crime that has roots deep in the past.
July 25, 2016
I definitely appreciate Woodend's independent mind and determination to do what is morally right rather than politically correct or a good career choice. In this case, a German efficiency expert is murdered in a company town in England. The company wants to case solved quickly, without disrupting their work. Toss in a creative reporter, Nazis, WWII, fighter pilots that support each other, conflicts between English, German, Polish, and Italian workers, and a ghost. Entertaining.
June 10, 2015
I like a book that has superstition and myth that is infused in small towns and villages. When people believe something it is hard to change their mind. This book uses tradition and superstition and myth to keep you reading until the end. Charlie is a good inspector. These books keep you coming back.
March 7, 2015
It was a slow start, but enjoyable enough. Little hard for me to get into the feel of the English characters. But there was enough character development that I could check out other books in the series.
June 29, 2016
This time the plot had to do with Nazis and with people of differing nationalities living in Britain in early 1960s. Interesting, though the Italians and especially the Poles were a bit one-dimensional.
February 22, 2014
I'd missed reading this early book in an enjoyable series. The time period is interesting & the characters expand across this series of short but engaging books.
August 4, 2016
Excellent, I love Woodend, can't wait to read another
July 23, 2016
Good straightforward mystery story. I liked the inspector characters and their investigation methods. Will probably try some of the other Spencer stories.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews