L.L. Bartlett's Dead in Red starts fast, picks up speed, and finishes with a bang. Jeff Resnick is flawed, human, complex and tenacious enough to earn this reader's loyalty. The book explores unusual terrain (for most of us!) without pandering or getting prurient, while the sibling dynamics between Resnick and his half brother offer other another layer of interest. There's a touch of the paranormal here with Resnick's unusual talent, but not so much to move the book into the fantasy realm. Bartlett manages to straddle the line between realism and supernatural handily. Resnick is more conscious of his short-comings than confident about his abilities, and that makes for a very interesting protagonist indeed. A fast-paced read with plenty of twists and turns.

Jeff Resnick is back after MURDER ON THE MIND--not only thought-provoking (and in his own unique way!), but compelling and memorable. If you want to spend a good read immersed in spare, evocative prose and characters so realistic you'll expect--and want--to meet them on your street corner, DEAD IN RED will do it for you.

What a great read. I usually sus to the killer around about page 10, but happily L L Bartlett keeps you guessing until the last chapter, and in my book, sorry no pun intended, makes it worth every penny. The psychic element isn't overplayed, you can believe that a viscious knock to the head has unlocked an unwanted talent to pick up on the feelings and thoughts of others. As well as being a murder mystery where you want to know "who dunnit" you become involved in what makes Jeff Resnick tick, you empathise with him and his characters they become real and at the end of the book you hope very much that you will meet them again and again.

A brutal attack left Jeff Resnick with a head injury that forces him to rely on his half-brother, the responsible and more successful doctor. The inevitable sibling rivalry resulting from this forced dependency is accompanied by a strange residual effect of Jeff's brain trauma; unpredictable psychic flashes. Although his brother Richard hopes that Jeff would be content working as a temporary paralegal, a favor for a friend has Jeff working undercover in a bar investigating the murder of the owner's bartender. Aided - and hindered - by a psychic flash of a red, high-heeled shoe, Jeff begins investigating the dead man's involvement in the cross-dressing/foot fetish community. Although a homeless man is soon arrested for the murder, another flash implicates Cyn Lennox, the owner of the town's mill, where the murdered man's body was discovered. That Cyn is a former ex-girlfriend of Richard only complicates matters, especially considering that Richard has made himself Jeff's unwanted guardian and investigative partner.
While Jeff does less actual detecting than somewhat blindly following his psychic images, Bartlett provides the reader with fun glimpses into the world of drag queens. Dominating the story though, is the relationship between Jeff and Richard. Bartlett has developed a very realistic and complicated sibling relationship that has them each wanting to protect the other even as they resent those same inclinations in the other. Jeff is angered by how his health problems have forced him to rely on Richard for financial aid, while Richard disapproves of Jeff's resistance to accepting help and adopting a more stable lifestyle. The romantic element tentatively introduced in the previous entry of the series, Murder on the Mind, is largely ignored here with the focus instead falling on Jeff's fear of endangering Richard(understandable considering the injuries he suffered in that debut novel). Overall, the brothers' complicated interactions carry the novel in this entertaining and lively mystery that has contains sprinkling of the paranormal.

This book was well written and great to cuddle up next to before going to bed. I just couldn't put this book down until I finished it.... much like the previous book in the series. If you like murder mysteries with a touch of romance, but not alot of smutt then this is the book for you. I can't wait for the next book in the series.