Chapters (25)

Readers with an eye for the esoteric and unusual in architecture will recognise Hugh Oswald’s home as The Folly in Herefordshire which was built in 1961 by Raymond Erith, whose response to modernism was to pretend it never happened. It sits just as I describe it up on the Wylde and is a sight to see – although please remember that it is a private house and act accordingly.

Hugh Oswald demonstrates the benefit of a classical education by quoting from Book 17 of the Iliad:

Pokehouse Wood is a real place, but I’ve changed the dates on which it was replanted to suit the necessity of my story. I’m almost totally certain that it doesn’t form a gateway to the land of faerie, since if it did I’m sure its owners, the National Trust, would have, at the very least, put up a useful informative sign, if not a visitors’ centre with an attached café and small play area for potential changelings.

Since the events of this book, West Mercia Police have entered into a close alliance with several neighbouring police services. As a result Leominster nick is now fully staffed while Ludlow has become as lawless a town as Deadwood ever was – although presumably with better cuisine. This is assuming, of course, that they haven’t reorganised again while my back was turned.

Also by Ben Aaronovitch

Also by Ben Aaronovitch from Gollancz:

Rivers of London

Moon Over Soho

Whispers Under Ground

Broken Homes

Copyright

A Gollancz eBook

Cover image Courtesy of the Artist/TAG Fine Arts

Cover image taken from The Island ¬London Series, published by TAG Fine Arts

Design by Patrick Knowles

The right of Ben Aaronovitch to be identified as the author

of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the

First published in Great Britain in 2014 by

Gollancz

The Orion Publishing Group Ltd

Orion House

5 Upper Saint Martin’s Lane

London, WC2H 9EA

An Hachette UK Company

This eBook first published in 2014 by Gollancz.

A CIP catalogue record for this book

is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 0 575 13253 5

All characters and events in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor to be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Table of Contents

Dedication

Title Page

Contents

PART ONE

Due Diligence

Mutual Aid

Operational Flexibility

The Falcon Assessment

Customer Facing

Stakeholder Engagement

Enhanced Interrogation

Proactive Measures

PART TWO

Post Incident Management

Intelligence Led

Service Delivery Option

Passive Data Strategy

Operational Compartmentalisation

Media Compliant

Window of Opportunity