Heartsick
by Chelsea Cain
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Book Reviews of Heartsick
Book Review: Need More Archie and Gretchen!
Summary: 5 Stars
HEARTSICK is the first book in Chelsea Cain's series featuring cop Archie Sheridan and serial killer Gretchen Lowell. As teenage girls are turning up dead in Portland OR, scarred cop Archie Sheridan is recruited to find the killer. His past becomes his present as he works to stop the killings before another girl is abducted.
The plot of this book is very interesting based on the current status of these two characters and the evolving mystery at hand. The author literally "cuts" into the book at periodic times with the chilling history of Archie and Gretchen and how they became "acquainted". It was this cop/killer relationship that really kept my page-turning interest throughout this book. I did start to feel the book was getting to be too coincidental and predictable but the author had a solid ending to clear up these concerns.
I definitely recommend this book and can't wait to start the sequel, SWEETHEART.
Book Review: A bit uneven, but a cracking read
Summary: 4 Stars
This is by no means a perfect book, but it is certainly a page turner. The opening, in which he finds out his lady love is the serial killer he has been hunting for 10 years, is great. I only wonder why the author starts the series there, and then makes us hunt for another serial killer, rather than start with him thinking he is about to die, and not give us 2 years LATER, but 2 years EARLIER?
Still, great characters in Archie and Susan, I love the setting of Portland, a lovely place which becomes creepy with the author's eerie touches, and I devoured this book in one sitting.
I actually discovered this series with book 3, and am now going to read book 2, which I already started, it had come in the mail before this one. I don't feel I missed out reading them in the wrong order though, because the characters are so well-drawn, and the suspense is so tightly woven.
Book Review: Interesting psychological drama
Summary: 5 Stars
Gretchen, a beautiful serial killer who gives new meaning to the word "wacko", has a hold over police officer Archie that is impossible to understand at the beginning of the book, but as it unfolds, along with the horrendous things Gretchen did to Archie and 199 other victims, the reader begins to comprehend the dependence they have on each other. The "After School Murders", which provides a secondary story line, ties in a little unbelievingly, but it provides an interesting contrast in serial killer psyches.
This book has frequent and vivid blood and guts descriptions and so is not for the squeamish, but if you like psychological thriller/police procedurals, I recommend you read this and its sequel, "SweetHeart". Ms. Cain has crafted characters that, while they may not always be likeable, are interesting and make you want to read more.
Book Review: Hannibal Lecter Eat Your Heart Out
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a sick book from the serial killer mystery genre. Archie Sheridan is the detective who was captured by serial killer, Gretchen Lowell, and lived to tell the tale. Now Archie goes to visit Gretchen in prison every Sunday. He tells himself he does it so that he can get the identities of more victims and to provide closure for families, but there is more to it than that.
On equal footing with this relationship is the fact that Archie is now trying to track down another serial killer who is loose in Portland, Oregon.
This is no Hannibal Lecter - Clarice Starling relationship, though. Gretchen is more manipulative and more evil than that. If "Heartsick" had been published before "Red Dragon" was published we might never have heard of Hannibal Lecter. This is a page-turner of the highest degree.
Book Review: Not SUPER...not HORRIBLE...
Summary: 3 Stars
The book grabbed my attention as soon as I read the synopsis...what could be better than a serial killer on the loose? That was a super part, the horrible part was that so much of the book revolved around this group of people that just "so happened" to be involved/or knew each other too well. I understand in a movie/novel you have to intruduce the "killer" at some point, but this one just seemed to have too many things going on, and somehow all the "things" ended up being connected.
What I found amazing is the authors ability to make me feel the need to quit reading in a few parts. This is nearly impossible for me, but their were a few "Gretchen" moments that just made me shiver...kudos to Cain!
Overall, I'd probably like to give this a 3.5 star (if that was possible!).