Heartsick (Gretchen Lowell Series #1) Book

Serial killer stories are a dime a dozen but Chelsea Cain's HeartSick is a cut above the rest (no pun intended). Not only is this novel a real page turner, but it's also very well-written with characters you believe in and sympathize with, even when they're doing things you suspect are definitely not in their best interests.

The book opens with Detective Archie Sheridan's moments-too-late realization that he's fallen into the clutches of a serial killer, the beautiful, sociopathic Gretchen Lowell who has tortured to death 199 people and plans to make Archie number 200. She drugs and imprisons Archie, then begins a brutal and flinch-worthy regimen of torture---and this is just in the first chapter. Archie knows he is probably going to die. He counts the days until he's either found alive by his task force, or finally murdered. Flash forward a few years (chapter two) and we discover that Archie did actually survive his ten-day ordeal at the hands of a psychopath---only after Gretchen called 9-1-1 and turned herself in. But did Archie really survive? His life in shambles and addicted to pain killers, Archie returns to detective work a very different man, breaking his work hiatus only because a new serial killer, one targeting sophomore girls, is on the loose in Portland. The chilling Gretchen Lowell sits behind bars in a maximum security prison, but every Sunday Archie goes to visit her and in a sick and symbiotic relationship, Gretchen reveals the location of more of the bodies she dumped years past while continuing to torture Archie mentally. As the current serial killer investigation team rushes to find the new murderer, Archie allows a young reporter, Susan Ward, to shadow him and write exclusives on the "hero cop" who has returned (addicted, as Susan soon learns) to the force. Susan has her own issues, Archie his, and the imprisoned Gretchen Lowell seems deadlier than ever as she manipulates the world from behind bars.

I was surpised at how absolutely satisfying this book was. I'd read and enjoyed Cain's first novel, a Nancy Drew parody for adults entitled Confessions of a Teen Sleuth which is just about as entirely different from HeartSick as one could possibly get, and I wasn't sure if I'd enjoy her second book. I did, I did, I did. And now I will be encouraging more people to go out and enjoy it too. I just looked up Chelsea Cain on amazon.com and there is an interview with her about HeartSick in which I learned that she has already written a second book in this series. Normally I'm not a series reader, but I will definitely be looking for Sweetheart when it becomes available.