Pick Up A Pulp [51]: RED-HEADED SINNERS by Jonathan Craig

Red-Headed Sinners, on the surface, is meant to be a psychological crime drama, spruced with all the period pulp staples - and it delivers - for the most part. What's missing is the element of surprise, complexity, and deep character engagement despite some marred attempts. 

The plot follows a damaged and dangerous police officer with murderous tendencies towards women with red hair due to an incident which occurred in his youth in which a red-haired woman was prominently featured. 

As the struggle to suppress the murderous urge intensifies, the thin blue line between law and unlawful becomes blurred - to the point of being irrelevant. With lust taking over, the plot boils over into a murder frenzy with seemingly no way out. Any character with red hair is a certain target - for the reader, the only devil is the detail in which the author crafts each characters end. 

Personally, I enjoyed this pulp, first published in 1962 and brought to life again in 2013. The story holds up well despite the passing time yet it doesn't quite deliver everything I wanted; namely some element of suspense or mystery; characters pop up, die, and then it's on to the next one. Whilst this is fine, it does become tedious by the fourth victim.

I'd rate this pulp a solid 4 stars despite my misgivings. Red-Headed Sinners is an easy and enjoyable well written book which puts it a touch above most pulps published around the same period I've previously read.