Title: Playing With Fire
Author: Dirk Greyson
Genre: Contemporary
Length: Novel (199 pages)
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (November 4th, 2016)
Heat Level: Moderate
Heart Ratings: ♥♥♥♥ 4 Hearts
Blurb: Jim Crawford was born wealthy, but he turned his back on it to become a police officer. Add that to his being gay, and he’s definitely the black sheep of the family.
Dr. Barty Halloran grew up with lessons instead of friends and toys and, as a result, became a gifted psychologist… with only an academic understanding of people and emotions.
When Jim’s pursuit of a serial killer goes nowhere, he turns to Dr. Halloran for help, and Barty thinks he can get inside the shooter’s mind. In many ways, they’re two sides of the same coin, which both scares and intrigues him. Together, Jim and Barty make progress on the case—until the stakes shoot higher when the killer turns his attention toward Barty.
To protect Barty, Jim offers to let Barty stay with him, where he discovers the doctor has a heart to go along with his brilliant mind after all. But as they close in on their suspect, the killer becomes desperate, and he’ll do anything to elude capture—even threaten those closest to Jim.
ISBN: 978-1-63477-910-4
Product Link: https://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/books/playing-with-fire-by-dirk-greyson-7720-b
Reviewer: Veronica
Review: A Cop, a Psychologist and a Serial Shooter. Jim the Cop is on the hunt for a crazed killer that is shooting people from roof tops. With all the evidence and clues that he’s collected from each victim at the Crime scenes, he’s hit a snag in the case and asks his captain if he can bring in a Psychologist that can help to Profile the shooter. Dr. Bartholomew Halloran, the Psychologist is a Professor at the College where he teaches. His field is studying behavior and how people think. Others say that he’s brilliant and is a genius, but completely clueless when it comes to people. He wakes, goes to work to gives his lectures and after work, he goes home to his cat Penelope.
Barty has brought a lot of insight into the killer’s mind and the case. When they’ve gotten closer as to finding out who the Shooter is, he leaves a voicemail message for Jim at the Police station and even mentions Barty’s name. Jim have to protect Barty, so he takes him home to stay with him to protect him. He doesn’t want Barty as the next victim. With Barty staying with Jim, he finds Barty very attractive and realize that Barty is his weakness: he’s in the academic field, he’s a geek, he’s tall and he wears glasses. Jim is trying to guard his heart from another heartbreak from his last relationship that didn’t end too well. But Barty wears him down. Barty has never been in any kind of relationship with anyone. He’s having these `weird feelings` as he calls them, every time he looks at Jim and is trying to figure them out.
When working together pushes Jim and Barty closer, will they and the Police force find and apprehend this Serial Shooter before someone else becomes the next victim, and what happen when this pushes the Shooter closer to Jim’s family?
I absolutely love this book and I highly recommend it to anyone who loves suspense along with romance.