Witch Maker

By Sally Spencer

A village with a dark code for Woodend to crack

To be Witch Makers in the moorland village of Hallerton is both a great honour and a heavy burden. It is he who, after years of painstaking apprenticeship, constructs the effigy of Meg Ramsden - he who ties it to the stake and burns it before a bitterly jeering crowd. But this Witch Maker - only the twenty-fourth in the 450 years of the ceremony - never lives to witness his moment of triumph.

This Witch Maker is discovered tied to the Witching Post early one morning with a length of twine wrapped tightly around his neck. DCI Charlie Woodend prides himself on knowing how villages work - but has absolutely no idea at all what makes this one tick. Why do the villagers, who almost revered their Witch Maker, seem so unwilling to help the police? Why have there been so many suicides in this apparently sleepy hamlet? And why, when he has peeled away one level of secrets, does he find nothing underneath but an even deeper level?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Severn House Publishers
• Release date: Aug 12, 2013
• ISBN: 9781448301041

Sally Spencer

Sally Spencer worked as a teacher both in England and Iran - where she witnessed the fall of the Shah. She now lives in Spain and writes full-time. She is an almost fanatical mah jong player.

Reviews for Witch Maker

[carol420 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Witch Maker by Sally SpencerDCI Woodend series Book #114.5 StarsFrom The Book:To be Witch Makers in the moorland village of Hallerton is both a great honor and a heavy burden. But this Witch Maker never lives to witness his moment of triumph and is discovered tied to the Witching Post early one morning with a length of twine wrapped tightly around his neck. Will DCI Charlie Woodend solve this mystery?My Thoughts:I enjoyed this book much more than I had thought I would. Sally Spenser did an outstanding job of portraying the small village and the strangeness of the people that inhabited it. The reader felt that they had been dropped into a time capsule and transported back 350 years. It seems that DCI Woodend and his Sergeant Monika Paniatowski also had that feeling...but while they were sorting out how to handle this case...another...seeming unrelated murder is dropped on their plates. The story features a suspenseful and well-developed story line. A surprise ending and several semi-Gothic elements along with quaint setting and the sense of dark foreboding...all adds up to a first rate mystery.