BITTER HERBS

Trouble ahead for civil servant Willow King (Bloody Roses, etc.): though she's loosened up enough to acknowledge that she's secretly been writing romance novels as Cressida Woodruffe, her proposal for a new Woodruffe is coolly received at Weston and Brown, and her lover, Chief Inspector Tom Worth, has cooled considerably too. Not even the luxurious bathroom in her Belgravia Square flat or her priceless Mrs. Rusham's tactful preparation of stewed prunes can lift Willow's spirits. The solution: a monograph on her late fellow-romancer Gloria Grainger, who turns out to have had so many enemies at Weston and Brown and among her own household that she deserved to be murdered for her inheritance, her libel suit against an unimpressed reviewer, her withering bullying of her dependents, and her generally odious manner. After interrogating the suspects over a variety of tastefully prepared meals and organizing a wildly unlikely photo session at Gloria's viewing, Willow plumps for a surprising villain who seems—despite one or two subtle clues—to have been plucked out of a hat. A substandard mystery mars Willow's least overbearing appearance to date.