Detective Archie Sheridan tracked the sadistic Beauty
Killer, Gretchen Lowell, for years before nearly becoming
her last victim. Kidnapped and physically and mentally
tortured for 10 days, Archie was rescued in the nick of
time -- although some days he wonders if surviving was
really the best outcome. He's estranged from his wife and
children, hooked on various medications and still bears the
visible and invisible scars from the ordeal. He also visits
Gretchen in prison every Sunday, telling himself it's
because she has promised to reveal the locations of more
bodies if he will see her. Archie doesn't want to look any
deeper than that.
Meanwhile, a new serial killer, dubbed the "After School
Strangler," is murdering teenaged girls. Archie's old task
force is reconvened and once again citizens are depending
on him to keep them safe.
Susan Ward, a feature writer for the Oregon Herald, is
asked to write a series of articles profiling Archie.
Susan's punk-pink hair and tough-as-nails attitude masks an
insecure girl deep inside. She'll need every ounce of
attitude to deal with the grisly details of the
investigation and to try to get past Archie's carefully
constructed walls. In addition, one of the victims went to
Susan's old high school, which awakens some demons from the
past that Susan thought were long buried.
And through it all, Gretchen Lowell hovers in the
background, a beautiful black widow in the middle of a
tangled web.
This is a dark book. The flashbacks of Archie's captivity
are not for the squeamish. Yet Archie, Susan and Gretchen
are such fascinating characters that once you start
reading, you won't want to stop. With shelves full of
serial-killer books, HEARTSICK stands out, not only because
it features a female serial killer who would make Hannibal
Lecter proud, but because of Chelsea Cain's ability
to evoke a mood or describe a scene with a few well-chosen
words. If you like authors such as Tess Gerritsen
and Lisa Gardner, you'll love this debut book from a
talented new author. (And there will be two more Beauty
Killer novels coming in 2008 and 2009.)
Damaged Portland detective Archie Sheridan
spent ten years tracking Gretchen Lowell, a beautiful
serial killer, but in the end she was the one who caught
him. Two years ago, Gretchen kidnapped Archie and tortured
him for ten days, but instead of killing him, she
mysteriously decided to let him go. She turned herself in,
and now Gretchen has been locked away for the rest of her
life, while Archie is in a prison of another kind---
addicted to pain pills, unable to return to his old life,
powerless to get those ten horrific days off his mind.
Archie’s a different person, his estranged wife says, and
he knows she’s right. He continues to visit Gretchen in
prison once a week, saying that only he can get her to
confess as to the whereabouts of more of her victims, but
even he knows the truth---he can’t stay
away.
When another killer begins snatching
teenage girls off the streets of Portland, Archie has to
pull himself together enough to lead the new task force
investigating the murders. A hungry young newspaper
reporter, Susan Ward, begins profiling Archie and the
investigation, which sparks a deadly game between Archie,
Susan, the new killer, and even Gretchen. They need to
catch a killer, and maybe somehow then Archie can free
himself from Gretchen, once and for all. Either way,
Heartsick makes for one of the most extraordinary
suspense debuts in recent memory.
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