Book Review - Sweetheart by Chelsea Cain
Category Book Review Chelsea Cain Sweetheart
Through the Amazon Vine review program, I received an advance readers copy of Sweetheart by Chelsea Cain. This is the follow-up to her first novel, Heartsick, and continues the story of detective Archie Sheridan and serial killer Gretchen Lowell. While you still don't learn the complete reasoning behind Sheridan and Lowell's obsession with each other, the story kept me up far past my bedtime...
Sheridan has stopped seeing Lowell on a weekly basis at the prison, as he's trying hard to put his life back together with his family. He *seems* to be making progress, but the damage from his ten days of torture at the hands of Lowell is something that won't go away quickly, if at all. Now back to work on a regular basis, he draws a call on a crime scene in a forested park area of Portland. It reminds him of his first case involving Lowell, and he starts to slip a bit in his personal rehab. When they find two more bodies in the same area, he's back in task force mode, attempting to manage politics and reporters. He again calls in Susan Ward, the newspaper reporter, to get him the media coverage on the bodies. He needs this as the clues are few and far between on this one. Ward has her own problems, as she's about to have a major story published that will bring down a state senator over allegations of an affair with a family babysitter ten years ago. But before she can get the story published, the senator seemingly commits suicide by driving off a bridge, taking her senior editor down with him. She doesn't know why her editor was meeting with him on the side, nor can she find out why the abused girl won't return her calls. The newspaper seems to be spiking her story, as everyone wants to remember him as a beloved leader and statesman.
On top of all this, Sheridan's life takes a major turn for the worse when Lowell is able to escape from prison. She immediately makes contact with him, and he knows that his family's life is in extreme danger. She has no qualms about killing, and she wants to hurt Sheridan as much as possible before she actually finishes him off. All his old emotional wounds are reopened, and he decides that he'll give her what she wants... his death. He doesn't feel life is worth living much these days anyway, and his painkiller abuse is slowly killing him anyway. He sneaks out of police protective custody, meets up with Lowell, and puts his plan into play that hopefully will end with her death as well as his own...
As with Heartsick, there are two major plotlines going on here. One is the current crime scene, and the other is Sheridan's obsession with Lowell. The further I got into the book, the less able I was to put it down, and I ended up reading WAY past my normal bedtime. I was not completely thrilled at the end, as I felt it was stretched pretty tight to come out with the ending that was used. Still, if Cain continues this series (which it seems like she will), I'll definitely be ready to read the next installment...
Through the Amazon Vine review program, I received an advance readers copy of Sweetheart by Chelsea Cain. This is the follow-up to her first novel, Heartsick, and continues the story of detective Archie Sheridan and serial killer Gretchen Lowell. While you still don't learn the complete reasoning behind Sheridan and Lowell's obsession with each other, the story kept me up far past my bedtime...
Sheridan has stopped seeing Lowell on a weekly basis at the prison, as he's trying hard to put his life back together with his family. He *seems* to be making progress, but the damage from his ten days of torture at the hands of Lowell is something that won't go away quickly, if at all. Now back to work on a regular basis, he draws a call on a crime scene in a forested park area of Portland. It reminds him of his first case involving Lowell, and he starts to slip a bit in his personal rehab. When they find two more bodies in the same area, he's back in task force mode, attempting to manage politics and reporters. He again calls in Susan Ward, the newspaper reporter, to get him the media coverage on the bodies. He needs this as the clues are few and far between on this one. Ward has her own problems, as she's about to have a major story published that will bring down a state senator over allegations of an affair with a family babysitter ten years ago. But before she can get the story published, the senator seemingly commits suicide by driving off a bridge, taking her senior editor down with him. She doesn't know why her editor was meeting with him on the side, nor can she find out why the abused girl won't return her calls. The newspaper seems to be spiking her story, as everyone wants to remember him as a beloved leader and statesman.
On top of all this, Sheridan's life takes a major turn for the worse when Lowell is able to escape from prison. She immediately makes contact with him, and he knows that his family's life is in extreme danger. She has no qualms about killing, and she wants to hurt Sheridan as much as possible before she actually finishes him off. All his old emotional wounds are reopened, and he decides that he'll give her what she wants... his death. He doesn't feel life is worth living much these days anyway, and his painkiller abuse is slowly killing him anyway. He sneaks out of police protective custody, meets up with Lowell, and puts his plan into play that hopefully will end with her death as well as his own...
As with Heartsick, there are two major plotlines going on here. One is the current crime scene, and the other is Sheridan's obsession with Lowell. The further I got into the book, the less able I was to put it down, and I ended up reading WAY past my normal bedtime. I was not completely thrilled at the end, as I felt it was stretched pretty tight to come out with the ending that was used. Still, if Cain continues this series (which it seems like she will), I'll definitely be ready to read the next installment...
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