THE WITCH MAKER

Still fascinated by fire, Spencer goes from Guy Fawkes revelry (The Enemy Within, 2003) to serious witch-burnings as Charlie Woodend finds a town so inbred even his stubborn cloggin-it can’t make a dent.

Chief Inspector Woodend would’ve imagined the Hallerton locals would be overjoyed at his efforts to discover who garroted Harry Dimdyke. The late village Witch Maker had been charged with the sacred task of crafting the effigy of Meg Ramsden, the free-spirited landowner burned in a 17th-century witch hunt, that’s the centerpiece of a re-creation so solemn it takes place only once every 20 years. But Constable Michael Thwaites is literally clueless, Harry’s brother Tom evasive, and Tom’s son Wilf, as apprentice Witch Maker, too absorbed in preparing for the upcoming ceremony to be any help. Even the publican, in most villages very hospitable to anyone willing to buy a pint of best bitter, turns a cold shoulder toward Charlie and his sergeant, Monika Paniatowski. They’re left with no resource but a traveling band of carnival workers—Zelda Todd and her daughter Hettie; Pat Calhoun, the man Zelda would like to become Hettie’s beau; and fairground boss Ben Masters, who was with the carnival when it last came to Hallerton twenty years ago—to help unravel a case tied tighter than the knot around Dimdyke’s neck.

The dark secrets behind the bright flames make Spencer’s latest a first-class chiller.