This lackluster sequel to Into the Shadows
(2007), Wells’s first contemporary procedural to feature Lancashire DCI Max Trentham and forensic psychologist Jill Kennedy, finds Kennedy retired from police work and reinventing herself as an author of self-help books. Trentham, who was Kennedy’s lover as well as her colleague, drags her back into profiling after teenager Martin Hayden vanishes, only to be found in a canal with his skull fractured. The pair’s probe leads to the victim’s mother, Josie, revealing a shameful secret. When Josie is murdered and another teenager turns up dead, the police shift their focus from the Hayden family to a possible serial killer. Formulaic dead ends and suspects with guilty consciences unconnected to the killings interweave with Kennedy’s ambivalence about resuming a relationship with Trentham. An underdeveloped murder motive and a solution to the crimes telegraphed well in advance don’t help the predictable plot. (June)
