In the Red

Tavener's hilariously irreverent first work explores the modern English bastions of power and finds them all wanting. A serial killer is on the loose, and it's up to George Cragge, BBC Radio's crime correspondent, to sober up long enough to catch him. The murderer, who calls Cragge to bid for adequate news coverage, begins his spree with bank managers, thus making him quite popular, as criminals go. But then he escalates to finishing off a member of Parliament and even makes an attempt on BBC Radio economics correspondent Max Parker--hardly fair, since Parker doesn't know anything about economics. A dastardly plot is afoot as well pk inside the BBC itself, as the controllers of Radio 2 and Radio 4 plot the downfall of the corporation's director general. Meanwhile, when the town of Talbotting holds a by-election to replace its murdered MP, it finds itself wooed by the Reform Party, whose blunderingpk politicians locate an ideal candidate: ``His eyes were bright, his teeth were white and his head was empty.'' But when thepk party officials get him arrested rather than nominated, they take the next-best course: fight the by-election with no candidate at all. (June)