The Salton Killings

August 1, 1998
After a young girl is drowned in the English village of Salton in the late 1950s, the village police realize they have a serial killer in their midst. The police chief in this Cheshire town calls in Scotland Yard and gets Chief Inspector Charlie Woodend, a middle-aged iconoclast (a mix of Rumpole and Morse), and his rookie partner, Detective Sergeant Rutter. Through grueling police work and the ability of Woodend and Rutter to immerse themselves in the life of the village, the murderer is unmasked after a surprising, frightening confrontation. This fine mystery succeeds both as a nuts-and-bolts procedural and as a portrayal of an English village moving from the quiet rhythms of rural life to the contemporary beat of rock 'n' roll. Spencer conjures a great sense of menace in the troubled village, and her epilogue is a real stunner, promising more from a very talented writer. ((Reviewed August 1998))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1998, American Library Association.)