Flowers of Evil — John Sherwood

It was all very well for brilliant textile designer Richard Galliant to appear half-drunk at minor public functions, but turning up bombed to meet the Princess of Wales--and trying to embrace her--is a faux pas that makes international news.

Garden designer Celia Grant, immersed in a costly transformation of the Galliant garden for a very social party, is fascinated by such behavior in a man who has never been known to be a lush. The more she sees and hears--of Galliant's haughty third wife, of his troubled and mischievous children, of the inner workings of Richard Galliant and Company, with its stock now plummeting in consequence of Galliant's bizarre behavior-the closer she comes to the dangerous truth.

For behind Galliart's appearance of wealth and social success lies a situation ripe for murder and revenge....