Dark Side

In Duffy’s uneven 18th Patrick Galliard and Ingrid Langley mystery (after 2012’s Stealth), the intrepid married couple, who work for England’s Serious Organized Crime Agency, search for an extremely violent criminal with a powerful organization. When Det. Chief Insp. James Carrick, a friend of theirs, is framed for murder, Patrick goes off the grid to find the ringleader. In his absence, Ingrid leaves their five children with the nanny and grandparents to pursue a few lines of inquiry herself, though, as a successful novelist, she tends to worry a lot about how she can’t focus on her writing. There are plenty of gruesome details and dead ends (literally and figuratively) as the story barrels along at a good clip. Thorough and convincing police procedural details help compensate for the thinly developed main characters. (Mar.)