Bloody Roses

Bloody Roses carries on the delightful adventures of Willow King, part-time dowdy civil servant, part-time glamorous romance novelist, who here faces her greatest challenge yet - to save her old friend and ex-lover.
Willow's idyllic Italian holiday with Chief Inspector Tom Worth - whom she met in the course of earlier cases - is suddenly interrupted by a frantic phone call: Richard Crescent has been arrested for murder. Richard was found drenched in blood and holding the body of Sarah Allfarthing, a colleague in the corporate finance department. The police are convinced of his guilt, and he begs Willow to return to England to prove otherwise.
She does return, and faces not only danger, but the awful possibility that the police might be right about Richard. Yet she goes into battle on his behalf, donning yet another identity in defense of her desperate friend.

Cooper, aka British novelist Daphne Wright, follows A Common Death with this suspensefully plotted addition to the Willow King mystery series. Self-assured, well-to-do Willow shares her creator's penchant for multiple personas: she pens bestselling bodice-rippers under the pseudonym Cressida Woodruffe. However, she willingly sets aside her latest book contract when she receives a frantic call from her ex-lover, Richard Crescent, who has been arrested for murder after finding co-worker Sarah Allfarthing with her throat slashed. Seriously doubting that Richard could be the killer, Willow masquerades as a training consultant to gain entry to the banking firm where he and Sarah worked; there, employees reveal that the victim had inspired many crushes and may have used blackmail to get plum assignments. The glamorous Willow, with a full-time housekeeper and an outfit for every occasion, seems fit more for a soap opera than for sleuthdom. Happily, she tempers her fantasy lifestyle with convincing concern for Richard. Although Willow's expected lone confrontation with the guilty party seems anticlimactic, this sparkling whodunit effectively blends mystery, sophistication and a dash of romantic melodrama.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

When he is accused of brutally murdering his only female bank colleague, a former lover appeals to Willow King (a.k.a. romantic novelist Cressida Woodruffe) for help. With her British civil servant status on hold, Willow assumes the identity of personnel consultant in order to ferret out information at her friend's place of work. Cooper's well-modulated narrative voice and crisply refreshing prose continue a fine, literate, and deeply satisfying series ( Poison Flowers , LJ 11/1/91; A Common Death, LJ 1/91).
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.