Book Review - Heartsick by Chelsea Cain
Category Book Review Chelsea Cain Heartsick
I ended up reading Heartsick by Chelsea Cain as a prep for a review of her follow-on novel Sweetheart. Having never heard of this author, I wasn't sure how much I would enjoy the series. Turns out it hooked me solid. Cain did an outstanding job in her debut as a crime thriller novelist, and it didn't hurt that all the action takes place in the city I live in, either.
Archie Sheridan is a Portland police detective with a rather nasty history. He was lured into a meeting with a female serial killer, Gretchen Lowell, and she proceeded to take him to the brink of death before bringing him back to life and turning herself over to the police. Turns out she's killed 200 people, but no one knows the names and victims of them all. She'll only reveal the names and places to Sheridan one at a time during his weekly visits with her in the Oregon State Penitentiary. The problem is that Sheridan has an emotional attachment to her, crossing the line into an addiction. His personal life is in shambles, as the torture during his captivity messed him up both physically and mentally. He's hooked on painkillers, and his wife and children take a back seat to his fascination with Lowell. Sheridan is brought back onto the job to help capture a different serial killer who is killing young sophomore high school girls. He enlists the help of a young newspaper reporter, Susan Ward, to give the case some press play to lure the killer into the open. Ward's own personal history comes into play as she follows Sheridan around, narrowing in on a shrinking number of suspects who had access to the girls. The more Sheridan digs around, the more likely it is that Ward is a key to solving the killings...
Having the story set in Portland Oregon automatically drew me in, as I could readily imagine the scenes and locations. It took awhile to figure out how Lowell came into play, as she was in prison during all the current killings. It was tempting to think that somehow she was driving them, but then I realized that her role was more along the lines of explaining Sheridan's life. Their time together during his captivity is told in flashbacks during the course of the book, and the torture scenes are highly graphic. It's still somewhat unclear as to why she was driven to kill others so easily, as well as why she was fascinated with Sheridan. But the mix of the current crime and the psychological twists of his past made for a story that wasn't easy to put off to the side.
I am definitely looking forward to reading the next installment...
I ended up reading Heartsick by Chelsea Cain as a prep for a review of her follow-on novel Sweetheart. Having never heard of this author, I wasn't sure how much I would enjoy the series. Turns out it hooked me solid. Cain did an outstanding job in her debut as a crime thriller novelist, and it didn't hurt that all the action takes place in the city I live in, either.
Archie Sheridan is a Portland police detective with a rather nasty history. He was lured into a meeting with a female serial killer, Gretchen Lowell, and she proceeded to take him to the brink of death before bringing him back to life and turning herself over to the police. Turns out she's killed 200 people, but no one knows the names and victims of them all. She'll only reveal the names and places to Sheridan one at a time during his weekly visits with her in the Oregon State Penitentiary. The problem is that Sheridan has an emotional attachment to her, crossing the line into an addiction. His personal life is in shambles, as the torture during his captivity messed him up both physically and mentally. He's hooked on painkillers, and his wife and children take a back seat to his fascination with Lowell. Sheridan is brought back onto the job to help capture a different serial killer who is killing young sophomore high school girls. He enlists the help of a young newspaper reporter, Susan Ward, to give the case some press play to lure the killer into the open. Ward's own personal history comes into play as she follows Sheridan around, narrowing in on a shrinking number of suspects who had access to the girls. The more Sheridan digs around, the more likely it is that Ward is a key to solving the killings...
Having the story set in Portland Oregon automatically drew me in, as I could readily imagine the scenes and locations. It took awhile to figure out how Lowell came into play, as she was in prison during all the current killings. It was tempting to think that somehow she was driving them, but then I realized that her role was more along the lines of explaining Sheridan's life. Their time together during his captivity is told in flashbacks during the course of the book, and the torture scenes are highly graphic. It's still somewhat unclear as to why she was driven to kill others so easily, as well as why she was fascinated with Sheridan. But the mix of the current crime and the psychological twists of his past made for a story that wasn't easy to put off to the side.
I am definitely looking forward to reading the next installment...
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Posted by Gregg Eldred At 19:14:37 On 06/08/2008 | - Website - |