Playing with Fire by Dirk Greyson

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.

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Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Avid Reader – ☆☆☆
3.5 stars
M/M Mystery, Romance

Jim is the black sheep of his prominent family. Rather than follow in his father's footsteps, or go into something that his parents felt was more respectable, Jim became a police officer. When a serial killer targets his town, Jim works his butt off to figure out why and who is terrorizing the citizens. He works very hard, but doesn't really have much of a social life.

Then you have Barty. He is a genius and could also be on the autism spectrum. His behaviors are regimented and he tries very hard to figure people out. He has difficulty with understanding social behaviors, despite dedicating his life to studying behavior. Barty is good at getting inside the killers' heads. And, while he's amazing at his job, he does have an internal worry that he is just like the killers that he studies.

While the story was well planned, I do think that the relationship aspect was somewhat tame and lacked chemistry. Jim and Barty, while they want to be a good match, seem to miss something. The mystery aspect was somewhat jumbled for me in the sense that it seemed to end very abruptly. I really enjoyed the twists while the mystery was active, but once it was figured out – and it wasn't too hard to figure out – then the story just seemed to end.

Overall, this was had some great aspects.

DIRK is very much an outside kind of man. He loves travel and seeing new things. Dirk worked in corporate America for way too long and now spends his days writing, gardening, and taking care of the home he shares with his partner of more than two decades. He has a master’s degree and all the other accessories that go with a corporate job. But he is most proud of the stories he tells and the life he’s built. Dirk lives in Pennsylvania in a century-old home and is blessed with an amazing circle of friends.

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Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided a free copy of Playing with Fire by Dirk Greyson to read and review.