The Dark Lady

Chief Inspector Woodend #4

by Spencer

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?

Genres: Mystery, Procedural, Crime, Fiction

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 7, 2001

Reviews

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good....

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[C. J. Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Fran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very glad I discovered this series.

[Marilyn Shea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a comfortable little mystery. Read it while it snowed outside. Perfect.

[Valerie Colquhoun · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charlie Woodend showed his character in this one.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Gail Rusk Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

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…

[Phyllis Fredericksen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the stories, but am loving the characters. They are well done. Plots are good.

[Jovdb · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Lucy Takeda · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[R H · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Marina Sinelnikova · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Mary Curd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent, I love Woodend, can't wait to read another

[KC · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good straightforward mystery story. I liked the inspector characters and their investigation methods. Will probably try some of the other Spencer stories.