LOW PASTURES

Police and criminals alike maneuver to keep their corner of England free of threatened interlopers.

Even before the murder of well-dressed London visitor Lawrence Ilk Masel indicates that outsiders may be watching the city, intending to swoop down and take control of its peacefully diverse criminal enterprises, the word is out that Assistant Chief Constable (Operations) Desmond Iles is interested in leaving his patch and moving away to a Chief Constable’s job elsewhere. Devoted as he is to “holy status-quo-dom,” Iles’ eagerness for the advertised promotion and acceptance of the concomitant relocation lead him to overlook for the moment the fact that his chief subordinate, DCS Colin Harpur, has cuckolded him and ask Harpur to conduct a mock job interview that vibrates with barely veiled malice on both sides. When rumors of Iles’ possible departure reach Panicking Ralph Ember, the duncelike head of the city’s criminal enterprises, he worries that the trashing of his club The Monty, which has finally been restored to its unholy sheen, will be nothing compared to the disorder he’ll face if the publicly pontificating, privately accommodating Iles is replaced by someone who doesn’t know the unwritten rules. So Ralph considers emerging from his stately manse, Low Pastures, long enough to consult with his counterpart, supplier, and sometime competitor Mansel Shale even as Harpur muses, “Nothing happening is something happening. The nothingness of it becomes something”—a Zen-like reflection that perfectly summarizes the latest episode of this heartlessly funny franchise.

War games that will baffle newcomers and delight fans who know what’s what.