Natasha Cooper

The Department of Old Age Pensions is not noted for drama. Nor for scandal, corruption or even the odd leak to the tabloids. Not until Algernon Endlesham, its high-flying Minister, is brutally bludgeoned to death. Willow King, Assistant Secretary (Finance), is noted for her formidably enquiring mind. Though an enquiry is the last thing she could wish for. Especially if daunting ex-SAS Inspector Worth uncovers her figment of an alibi and well-kept secret. Disconcertingly for Willow, however, someone has a very violent means of silencing the curious . . . ‘A smart plot with some clever twists’ Oxford Times ‘Festering Lilies is witty and elegant. It is a pleasure to light on a new talent’ The Bookseller ‘Instead of the physical violence in which heroes of thrillers usually engage, Willow proves her superiority by verbal decimation . . . as she effortlessly trumps male condescension’ Observer

The brilliant and idealistic Trish Maguire returns in a devastating case of corruption and conspiracy. In a particularly difficult case of alleged child abuse, Trish knows that the jury’s decision hinges on the persuasive testimony of her friend and star witness, Kara Huggate. When Kara doesn’t appear at the trial, she realizes that something must have gone terribly wrong. She returns to her chambers after court to find the police waiting for her with some horrifying news: Kara has been brutally raped and murdered. At first it seems as though her attacker was the Kinsford Rapist – a serial rapist and killer who has managed to elude the police. Then several inexplicable clues indicate that the murderer may have been a copycat. Trish receives a letter from Kara, posted the night of her death, asking her to help a suspicious man named Blair Collons. Although Trish decides to help him out of loyalty and affection for her friend, she cannot understand why Kara cared so much for the paranoid and strangely obsessive Blair. Soon Trish finds herself mired in his unhappy story, with potentially devastating consequences. Fault Lines is a tense and disturbing examination of the power of corruption and the lengths to which people will go to protect themselves.

Fruiting Bodies is a compelling novel featuring female sleuth, Willow King, set within the fraught corridors of an NHS hospital. Just as Willow is giving birth to her first child, her obstetrician is found dead, face-down in his own birthing pool. To her he has always been charming, supportive and reassuring, but someone hated him enough to hold his head under water until he drowned. She has to find out why. Her husband, Superintendent Tom Worth, warns her that it is neither easy nor safe to pre-empt a police murder investigation, but Willow cannot stop. Interviewing a hospital administrator at one moment and a leading member of WOMB (Women Overtake Male Birthing) the next, Willow starts to find out what lay behind the obstetrician’s façade of charm and professional competence. When she and her baby are released form hospital, the scope of her enquiry widens. But she soon discovers that Tom was right and, in a violent confrontation, she pays a high price for her curiosity. In Fruiting Bodies Natasha Cooper once more mixes an entertaining, light-hearted mystery with a sidelong glance at some of the more intractable antagonisms of contemporary life and a shrewd psychological insight into the minds of those who love, those who hate, and those who cannot believe that they have to abide by the same rules as the rest of us.

Passions run high in the world of publishing, but they rarely lead to murder – or do they? Gloria Grainger, wealthy bestselling novelist, is found dead in her room one morning. Everyone assumes she died of natural causes – except for Willow King. Despite Chief Inspector Tom Worth’s mockery of her suspicions Willow is determined to uncover the sinister truth. She finds herself investigating a particularly nasty murder case, in which there seems no limit to the amount of emotional damage people can inflict upon each other. Then Willow herself becomes a target for the same murderous hatred that surrounded Gloria . . . ‘This sparkling whodunnit effectively blends mystery, sophistication, and a dash of romantic melodrama’ Publishers Weekly (Bloody Roses) ‘Well plotted – and immense fun to read’ The Times (Poison Flowers)

Three people die, in agony, each the victim of a different person. The police are convinced that there is no connection. Inspector Tom Worth disagrees. So does Willow King. Risking not only the secrets of her double identity, but also her own life, Willow races to unmask the serial killer before anyone else is murdered. From the dreariness of her part-time job in Clapham to the luxury and extravagance of her life in Belgravia, this most unusual female sleuth takes up the challenge and becomes involved in an exciting but near-fatal adventure. ‘Willy and elegant . . . an excellent read’ Publishing News ‘A well written, consistently enjoyable English antidote to the sometimes over-muscular American fashion’ Marcel Berlins, The Times (Bitter Herbs) ‘Willow is a beguiling heroine’ Francis Fyfield, Evening Standard (Bloody Roses)

Willow is sure Richard Crescent couldn’t commit murder. The police, finding him drenched in his colleague’s blood in the locked Corporate Finance department, are sure he did. Rushing back from a Tuscan idyll with Chief Inspector Tom Worth to help her friend, Willow uses all her romantic novelist’s imagination, her own experience as a high-powered woman in a man’s world, and her understanding of an uneasy double life, to put herself in the other woman’s shoes and learn why Sarah Allfarthing had to die. And as well as the high-tension world of merchant banking, conflict with Tom, and personal danger, Willow has to face the terrible possibility that the police could be right . . . ‘This sparkling whodunnit effectively blends mystery, sophistication and a dash of romantic melodrama’ Publishers Weekly ‘Well plotted – and immense fun to read’ The Times (Poison Flowers)

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