Sally Spencer books

Chief Inspector Woodend Reading Order

Detective Sam Brody Thriller

Inspector Sam Blackstone Reading Order

Jennie Redhead Mystery Reading Order

London Reading Order

Marston Trilogy Reading Order

Monika Paniatowski Reading Order

Short Stories/Novellas

Standalone Novels

Sally Spencer has been writing crime fiction since 1994, with most of her work set in the industrial towns of northern England. Her longest-running creation is Chief Inspector Charlie Woodend, a blunt, working-class detective operating in 1960s and 1970s Lancashire. That series ran for twenty books before Spencer shifted focus to Woodend’s former sergeant, Monika Paniatowski, who carries on in the same setting across fifteen books of her own.

Beyond Lancashire, Spencer also wrote the Inspector Sam Blackstone series, which follows a Scotland Yard detective through the streets of Victorian and Edwardian London. She published under the name Alan Rustage as well. Her earlier works include the Marston Trilogy, a family saga rooted in the north of England, and a pair of historical novels set in London. She also wrote the Jennie Redhead Mystery series, set in Oxford, along with standalone thrillers and a short story collection.

Spencer’s crime writing has a strong sense of place and period. Her Lancashire books capture the texture of mill towns, local pubs, and tight-knit communities where everyone knows everyone else’s business. The Blackstone novels trade that for the fog and gaslight of late-Victorian London. Across all her work, Spencer keeps the focus on careful police investigation and the social pressures that surround it.