I've been slowly working my way through Shirley Wells' Dylan Scott series, which is published by Carina Press. I like the main character and the setting a great deal, the mysteries are usually pretty interesting, and Dylan's relationships with his wife, children, and mother provide warm secondary storylines. This book has less of the former and when we're in that storyline, life takes a depressing turn, which is probably part of the reason I found this less satisfying.

The mystery in this book is about teenaged young women who have disappeared. Dylan goes undercover to investigate whether a former criminal turned religious type, Joe Child, is involved. Dylan knew him when he was undercover in the police force and he's able to go and stay on Child's commune while he investigates. Both women spent time there before they disappeared. My tolerance for murder mysteries that involved the killing of young women and girls is not high these days, so it wasn't one of my favorite setups, although Dylan is enjoyable as ever.

But I found Dylan unbelievable and frustrating in the home-life storyline. He has to be away from London even more than usual, and Bev needs him when she starts feeling ill and the doctor starts doing a lot of tests. At first, Dylan refuses to believe anything much is wrong, and even when he gets concrete news, he is in denial and weirdly cheerful. Maybe this just hit too close to home for me, but it just didn't ring true. He really loves Bev and worries about her, but here he acted like a jerk. I get denial, but this felt worse than just that.

I don't like where the storyline with Bev is going. Why can't a mystery protagonist have a decent home life? Is there some sort of law against it? Grrr. ( )

Dylan Scott goes undercover again in Deans Clough to try to find out what happened to two teenage girls, who both spent time at a religious retreat run by an apparently reformed Joe Child, a former criminal associate of Dylan. Cleverly plotted and entertaining. ( )