Sweetheart
by Chelsea Cain
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Book Reviews of Sweetheart
Book Review: Sweetheart
Summary: 4 Stars
Twelve years after Police Detective Archie Sheridan stood over the body of a dead girl in Forest Park, in Portland, Oregon [his first homicide case], he is again called to that scene to view the body of another as yet unidentified dead girl. It is only a few months since Archie returned from medical leave, two and a half years since he had been tortured nearly to death during the ten days he had been held prisoner by Gretchen Lowell. In the interim, he and has wife had divorced, then started living together again after a year and a half had passed, hoping they could salvage something together.
Archie had been head of the Beauty Killer task force, and after she was captured and imprisoned, had gone every week to meet with Gretchen Lowell, dubbed by some the Queen of Evil - Sundays at the State Pen, part of his ritual. Gretchen herself had had other rituals. She had her obsessions; Archie's obsession became Gretchen herself. Archie's whole being --- his body, life, mind and very soul --- have belonged to Rachel. She had claimed, almost unbelievably, 199 victims --- Archie was to have been the 200th --- but in the end she spared his life, leaving him "only" grotesquely scarred, mentally and physically, and dependent on pain meds. As part of her plea deal, Archie ultimately became the conduit for her confessions and the location of the bodies of 41 of the people she had murdered. And against all reason, Archie remains obsessed --- one might almost say possessed --- by Gretchen.
In a separate story line, we meet Susan Ward, the 28-year-old ambitious and [currently] blue-haired reporter for the Oregon Herald, who was herself nearly the victim of another serial killer, in what became known as the After School Strangler case. After Henry tells her "You care about stories more than people," she tries to be more sensitive vis-à-vis the girl at the heart of the huge story she is working on about an enormously popular State Senator who had seduced his kids' 14-year-old babysitter. Susan is brought onboard by Archie to cover the Forest Park murder case, which becomes even bigger when the remains of other bodies are discovered.
Although she has been a very real presence to that point as Archie et al retrospectively go back over the events of the past, Gretchen herself doesn't make an actual appearance until page 88, when she escapes from the penitentiary [something broadcast loudly on the back page of the book] and, naturally, contacts Archie immediately. And the horror starts anew. From that point, things go into high gear, and this reader could not put the book down. Gross descriptions of torture and sadism are kept to a minimum, and the book is just as compulsively readable as was "HeartSick," the book which introduced these characters. Recommended.
Book Review: Decent follow-up to "Heartsick," but Gretchen is far less terrifying
Summary: 3 Stars
Chelsea Cain's debut horror novel, "Heartsick," introduced readers to the shocking yet compelling "couple," Portland police detective Archie Sheridan and serial murderer/shrink Gretchen Lowell. In that novel's dual-track plot, we were horrified as Lowell slowly murdered Sheridan as Sheridan gradually fell in love with her. "Heartsick" was a gruesome, bloody, and darn fun read.
"Sweetheart" picks up where "Heartsick" left off. Sheridan is a mere husk of his former self, while Lowell is in maximum security prison, having traded the gradual disclosure of the as-yet-undiscovered bodies of her 199 murder victims in exchange for a life sentence. Intrepid reporter Susan is now hard at work trying to nail a beloved Oregonian who just happens to be in the U.S. Senate for the statutory rape of a 14-year old babysitter in years past (an allusion to local politics that Oregonians unfortunately recognize all too easily).
These various strands get intertwined in a jumble of a book involving political coverups, Gretchen's murders, Sheridan's struggles to reunite with his loyal wife Debbie, and Gretchen's eventual escape from prison.
The strength of the book is Cain's ability to get inside Sheridan's head as he struggles with his personal Stockholm Syndrome - he's flat-out in lust with Gretchen, a fact that is as repellent to his own good sense as Gretchen herself. He hates her more than anything he could have ever imagined, but she's his heroin. Not even the balm of family and friends can pull him out of his addiction.
Unfortunately, Gretchen is off-screen far too much in this book. There's lots of talk of Gretchen and many agonized references to what she has done, but still she remains more of a specter haunting the fringes of this book than a real terror. And when she is on-stage, she is not given all that much to do, frankly. This is a problem because Gretchen is so obviously inspired by Thomas Harris's Hannibal Lecter (which Cain cleverly acknowledged in "Heartsick"), but the less Gretchen gets to break out and forge her own unique brand of sadistic carnage, the more she seems like a cheap knock-off and less the compelling villain we were so attracted to in "Heartsick."
Still, sequels are hard, and Cain has managed her sophomore work with skill and some humor. There are plenty of good scenes here. But all in all, here's hoping that "Evil At Heart," Cain's third book in this series, puts Gretchen back in the forefront where she can grow and mature into her own paragon of evil rather than lingering in Dr. Lecter's shadow.
Book Review: A Huge Disappointment
Summary: 2 Stars
I truly enjoyed Cain's Heartsick. Although it was a by-the-numbers thriller, it introduced some truly incredible characters. Its sequel, Sweetheart is quite a disappointment. The wit is gone. The characters are no longer interesting. And the plot itself is so convuluted and self-indulged that you stop caring halfway through.
Archie is still fazed with Gretchen's spell. Gretchen is the female version of Hannibal Lector; a mad serial killer without remorse and with too much intelligence for her own good. After solving the Afterschool Murderer case, Archie has stopped seeing Gretchen at the prison. But soon enough, she escapes and her hold on him is stronger than ever.
Meanwhile, Susan is investigating a politician. But when he is murdered and her story is buried by the newspaper, Susan is left wanting more out of this story. Eventually, she is brought back to Archie and will become fully involved in Gretchen's escape.
How do the two stories relate? They actually don't. And that's why the book feels so disjointed. Cain tries to mix two different mystery plots that never mesh well with one another. The characters have also become quite convoluted. Archie is so absorbed in Gretchen that he becomes a caricature, not a realistic persona. After a while, you just want to shake him to wake him up. It's almost as though he likes being tortured by Gretchen, both physically and psychologically. How can you care for a character that doesn't even try to help himself? Susan is whiny and often annoying. And Gretchen? I liked it much more when she was a mysterious character whose presence was felt more than anything else. Now that she takes an active role in the story, her character isn't as amazing or scary as it was before.
As for the plot... Well, let's just say that the characters do so many stupid choices that you stop caring for them quite early in the story. The book starts off strong with a murder investigation. But when Gretchen escapes, Archie and his family and Susan and her mother are placed under police protection. The book stalls for 100 pages. And then, finally, Archie and Gretchen meet. And that meeting is so anti-climatic that the whole finale seems quite redundant.
Many characters have the chance to kill Gretchen during the story, but none of them do. I think Cain needs to move on and develop new characters. She is too trapped in this narrative. After just two books, it already feels drawn out. She's capable of much better.
Book Review: Very disappointing sequel
Summary: 2 Stars
This novel was such a disappointment. We were introduced to author Chelsea Cain with her first novel HEARTSICK. It was an intriguing psychological thriller that also first introduced us to the main characters serial killer Gretchen Lowell and her only surviving victim - detective Archie Sheridan. I would rate HEARTSICK very highly. The characterizations were pretty believable and she made the ongoing relationship between Gretchen and Archie believable. There was also a major plot of another serial killer. This novel was very suspenseful and at times shocking. A very promising debut for Ms. Cain.
Second novels are usually where we see what an author is truly made of. If they had an impressive debut does the talent carry on or even possibly grow. Some authors are one hit wonders. Having second novels be sequels to the first can also be a difficult task. Yes, the characters are ones readers are used to but there must be a purpose to the conitinuation of the story,. For me everything excellent about the first is totally lost in SWEETHEART. The relationship between Gretchen and Archie is still a strong focal point but the believable insightful characterizations are gone. Archie's actions and lingering attraction/need for Gretchen which made sense in HEARTSICK make no sense here. The reader must suspend much belief with this novel. i found myself scipping through the book after reading more than half so I could finish it.
There is again a plot of other murders and here the plot line lacks any suspense or intruigue. And most important the relationship between Gretchen and Archie that carried the first book is no longer a great psychological character study. There was honestly no reason to bring these characters back for the lackluster plot and poorly conceived developments. There was comparison to Hannibal and Clarise from SILENCE OF THE LAMBS with HEARTSICK. I don't know if they were that well developed but they certainly were interesting.
I read SWEETHEART and must admit I found no suspense at all. The readers were totally let down with a very subpar secondary literary attempt. It is so sad for there was much expectation here. Archie and Gretchen have lost all substance and hopefully this is the last we see of them and Ms. Cain will proceed to new territory with her next novel and hopefully she will again be capable of the literary level that she seemed to possess with HEARTSICK.
Book Review: It's more about the characters this time and less about the crime drama
Summary: 4 Stars
It's more about the characters this time and less about the crime drama, which threw me off for a bit. The book spent a while reintroducing us to the main characters, such as Archie and Susan, while inserting the requisite unexplained set of homicides. In the end, however, since I had become attached to the characters the first time around, I eventually came to enjoy this book quite a bit and found it entertaining.
The good news is that she's scaled back the graphic depictions of torture in this one. In fact, there's a bit of sex in this one just to spice it up (although I won't reveal between which characters). One thing I'd highly recommend is avoiding reading any summaries or posted reviews as this tends to give away some main points in the storyline. I was fortunate in that I didn't know what was going to happen and looking at the summary posted by either Amazon or the publisher, I can see how reading the summary would have spoiled some plot lines in the book.
The difference with this book, though, is that the crime(s) being investigated take a back seat to character development, which seems an odd choice for a second book, especially when we know about the characters already. Still, there's more to learn about Archie and more about how his relationship with Gretchen evolved is revealed. I took a bit of ribbing in my review of the first book when I compared some of the plot to Silence of the Lambs (which I didn't mean to imply was as good as that, but simply that it was an intriguing crime drama). As the crimes in this take a back seat to the main characters, I didn't feel disappointed but I could see someone still expecting more of the same of the first book might be disappointed. I've heard that this might be a trilogy, so I'll be up for reading the finale of the series.