The Enemy Within

December 1, 2003
Inspector Woodend (Death of an Innocent) looks into a most difficult case of murder: that of a terminally ill woman inexplicably slashed and burned. Woodend unwittingly takes part in the killer's plan, knowing only that the plan necessitates further murder. A solid, riveting British procedural.

Copyright 2003 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2003
Another entry in the popular Chief Inspector Woodend series, this latest offering has the rebellious and eccentric detective investigating a series of bizarre "bonfire murders." Assisted by his team of Bob Rutter and Monika Paniatowski, Woodend uses his considerable experience and finely honed intuition, plus plenty of hard slogging, to find out who is killing middle-aged women, all of whom have terminal cancer, and leaving their bodies on bonfires. At first, there is frustratingly little progress, but when two competitive journalists get involved, the case starts to open up. Meanwhile, Rutter and Paniatowski pay the price for their illicit love affair when one of the journalists threatens to expose them if they don't give her an exclusive scoop. Although Spencer treats her readers to an engaging cast of characters and plenty of fascinating procedural detail, the solution to the case seems to come out of left field--even given the fact that the story is set in the paranoid 1960s. But, all in all, this is an entertaining procedural from a veteran hand.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2003, American Library Association.)