THE PLAYING FIELDS

Cotswolds pub owner Alex Duggins’ extended tango with the Gambol Green constabulary is quickened by the threat of a serial killer.

Richard Seaton’s final performance on the stage of the Playing Fields, a barn whose boards the Phoenix Players have often trod, is posthumous. He’s been stabbed to death and his body arranged in a pose that can’t be natural. DCI Dan O’Reilly links his death to that of Edward Coughlin, who was brained with a cricket bat six weeks ago and posed just as carefully. While Dan and his squad ponder whether two fatalities are enough to label the perp a serial killer, Alex, a sometime painter who owns the Black Dog pub, looks forward to her wedding to veterinarian Tony Harrison, whose engagement to her is an open secret despite Dan’s attraction to her. But Tony doesn’t seem himself, and there’s an excellent reason why. Shortly before Penny Harrison, the wife who disappeared from his side eight years ago in Australia, is finally declared officially deceased, clearing the way for his remarriage, Tony receives a letter from someone claiming to be Penny and hinting at all she can do to spoil his plans if he doesn’t—well, it’s not entirely clear what he needs to do. So many series regulars, from ex-con Sid Gammage’s two sons to the Black Dog crew, pop up that the killer would stick out even without all the queasy-making mannerisms that shriek, “Killer!” Oblivious to them all, Alex is relegated to two roles: the suspicious contact Dan’s officious Chief Constable warns him away from, and the damsel in distress who has to be saved by the real detectives.

Unlikely to interest anyone but franchise addicts hungry for the latest updates.