Natasha J. Cooper (born 1951 in

Kensington Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West End of London, West of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up b ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

) is an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

crime fiction Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, ...

writer.

Biography

Cooper is the second of five children. She was born into a family of academics. Since childhood Cooper dreamed of becoming a writer. But due to her

dyslexia Dyslexia, also known until the 1960s as word blindness, is a disorder characterized by reading below the expected level for one's age. Different people are affected to different degrees. Problems may include difficulties in spelling words, r ...

this seemed impossible. Nevertheless, her grandmother, Catherine Wright, encouraged her to try making her dream come true. After her formal education she started working in publishing. As a young editor she won the ''Tony Godwin Memorial Trust Award''. After ten years in publishing Cooper decided to begin writing herself. She started with

historical novel Historical fiction is a literary genre in which the plot takes place in a setting related to the past events, but is fictional. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature, it can also be applied to other ty ...

s using a pen name. While working on her first series about the civil servant and romantic novelist Willow King, Cooper discovered her favored genre: crime fiction. Cooper wrote her second series about a fictional barrister named Trish Maguire. Trish has a sensitive social conscience and is always meddling in affairs outside her professional scope. Cooper's third series focuses on the character Karen Taylor, a forensic psychologist. the fourth in this series, Vengeance in Mind, was shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger. Additionally Cooper writes book reviews for

the Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

the Times Literary Supplement ''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp. History The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication i ...

, and

the Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

. She also has a column in ''Crime Time''. In 2007 she chaired the ''Harrogate Crime Writing festival''.

Bibliography

Aliases

* as Daphne Wright ** ''Distant Kingdom'' (1987) ** ''The Longest Winter'' (1989) ** ''Parrot Cage'' (1990) ** ''Never Such Innocence'' (1991) ** ''Dreams of Another Day'' (1992) ** ''The Tightrope Walkers'' (1993) * as Kate Hatfield ** ''Drowning in Honey'' (1995) ** ''Angels Alone'' (1996) ** ''Marsh Light'' (1997) * as Clare Layton ** ''Those Whom the Gods Love'' (2001) ** ''Clutch of Phantoms'' (2007)

Willow King

* ''Festering Lilies'' (1990) * ''Poison Flowers'' (1991) * ''Bloody Roses'' (1992) * ''Bitter Herbs'' (1994) * ''Rotten Apples'' (1995) * ''Fruiting Bodies'' (1996) * ''Sour Grapes'' (1997)

Trish Maguire

* ''Creeping Ivy'' (1998) * ''Fault Lines'' (1999) * ''Prey to All'' (2000) * ''Out of the Dark'' (2002) * ''A Place of Safety'' (2003) * ''Keep Me Alive'' (2004) * ''Gagged and Bound'' (2005) * ''A Greater Evil'' (2007) * ''A Poisoned Mind'' (2008)

Karen Taylor

* ''No Escape'' (2009) * ''Life Blood'' (2010) * ''Face of the Devil'' (2011) * ''Vengeance in Mind'' (2012)

More books

* ''No More Victims'' (2008)

References

Sources

* * *

External links

Cooper's web presence

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cooper, Natasha 1951 births Living people Writers from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea English crime fiction writers 20th-century English women writers 21st-century English women writers 20th-century English novelists 21st-century English novelists English women novelists Women crime fiction writers