Reviewed by Tammy
TITLE: Playing With Fire 
AUTHOR: Dirk Greyson
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 200 Pages
RELEASE DATE: November 4, 2016
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 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.
REVIEW:
Jim Crawford is a detective with the New Cynwood Police Department, he’s been pursuing a serial killer for several weeks and he’s no closer to catching the killer now than at the beginning. Jim decides it’s time to bring in a psychology professor to help him understand exactly what it is that the killer wants. This is when Jim meets Dr. Bartholomew “Barty” Halloran.
Barty has absolutely no experience in dealing with people. Barty finds himself constantly recalling what his nana taught him about appropriate emotional responses to other people when he comes across situations requiring an emotional response of some description. Because Barty was found to be a genius when he was incredibly young his parents didn’t know how to deal with him. They put him in every class they could find, every music lesson everything except with other children so he never learnt how to interact with other people. When he meets Jim, Barty is confused by the things he starts feeling and thinking but he’s so excited to be working with him he starts to relax and let down his guard. Barty has known he’s gay since he was a teenager but there has never been an opportunity to do anything about it so, he is still a virgin who hasn’t even been kissed.
The interaction between Jim and Barty is wonderful to read, Jim knows Barty is uncomfortable around people so he nudges him gently in the right direction with every interaction. He never makes fun of Barty for which Barty is very thankful and the more Jim displays genuine affection towards him the more Barty comes out of his shell. Jim is Barty’s first kiss, his first hand holding partner, his first lover, pretty much his first everything! The only complaint I have about this is the fact that we don’t read about Barty’s first time bottoming L
It’s fascinating to read about Barty and Jim’s relationship and the way Jim is so gentle with him. Jim has of course had relationships in the past but the last one hurt him so bad he vowed to stay away from nerdy professor types who wore glasses, this lasted until he met Barty! You can feel Barty’s innocence jumping off the page at you but what is impressive is the way he puts Jim’s parents in their place when they start to attack him over his job. Because he comes from money no-one in his family has any comprehension of why Jim wants to be a police officer instead of going into something more befitting someone of his standing.
I’m going to leave it there. I know I’ll let out too many spoilers if I go any farther! You’ll have to get you’re copy of Playing With Fire to find out who the killer is and how Jim with Barty’s help, find and catch him!
RATING: 
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