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3.82 AVERAGE
3.82 AVERAGE
Another one I loved. Heartsick is unlike any book I have ever read before. Chelsea Caine has introduced a set of characters I cannot wait to read more about.
Detective Archie Sheridan is thoroughly flawed. Female serial killer Gretchen Lowell does her job horrifically well. Heartsick weaves together the tales of a current police investigation and the torture of Sheridan at the hands of Lowell two years earlier.
Detective Archie Sheridan is two years into medical leave after Gretchen Lowell, the female serial killer he was pursuing, kidnapped, tortured, nearly killed him, and, inexplicably, turned herself in to save his life. He is called back to the job when another serial killer surfaces; this time one hunting young high school girls. Sheridan is addicted to pain pills, addicted to his weekly visits to Lowell at a nearby prison, and doing his best to keep the body count from rising. In order to appease the city and the press, this time around he agrees to have a local reporter, pink-haired Susan Ward, profile him and the work on the case. What he learns is that the present is always linked to the past and some people are so good at manipulation you don't know until it's to late.
Caine weaves the present-day investigation with flashbacks of the torture of Sheridan at the hands of Lowell. There is nothing more chilling in anything I've read than Lowell's description of how she killed a victim. I'm not sure I can crochet ever again...
This novel is equal parts horror and hope. While Archie's visits to Lowell are to learn about more of her victims, there is also a link between the two that gave me the creeps. But he has an ex-wife and children who could give him the light necessary to excise the dark that Lowell imposes on his world. If only he will let them. Susan Ward is a delightfully flawed journalist with her own links to Lowell.
Number one in a series...you know I'm one happy reader!
I checked this out from the Roselle Public Library.
This review originally appeared on my blog Motherhoot.com
Detective Archie Sheridan is thoroughly flawed. Female serial killer Gretchen Lowell does her job horrifically well. Heartsick weaves together the tales of a current police investigation and the torture of Sheridan at the hands of Lowell two years earlier.
Detective Archie Sheridan is two years into medical leave after Gretchen Lowell, the female serial killer he was pursuing, kidnapped, tortured, nearly killed him, and, inexplicably, turned herself in to save his life. He is called back to the job when another serial killer surfaces; this time one hunting young high school girls. Sheridan is addicted to pain pills, addicted to his weekly visits to Lowell at a nearby prison, and doing his best to keep the body count from rising. In order to appease the city and the press, this time around he agrees to have a local reporter, pink-haired Susan Ward, profile him and the work on the case. What he learns is that the present is always linked to the past and some people are so good at manipulation you don't know until it's to late.
Caine weaves the present-day investigation with flashbacks of the torture of Sheridan at the hands of Lowell. There is nothing more chilling in anything I've read than Lowell's description of how she killed a victim. I'm not sure I can crochet ever again...
This novel is equal parts horror and hope. While Archie's visits to Lowell are to learn about more of her victims, there is also a link between the two that gave me the creeps. But he has an ex-wife and children who could give him the light necessary to excise the dark that Lowell imposes on his world. If only he will let them. Susan Ward is a delightfully flawed journalist with her own links to Lowell.
Number one in a series...you know I'm one happy reader!
I checked this out from the Roselle Public Library.
This review originally appeared on my blog Motherhoot.com
Great series! If you like authors like Erica Spindler, Kay Hooper, Alex Kava, etc. you will like Chelsea Cain.
4.5 stars!
I really enjoyed this book! It's a great start to the series and introduces the characters and sets up the relationships well. I definitively got attached to everyone and this has been one of my favorite series of 2021! It was a fast read with a decent mystery and twisted relationships that keep you coming back for more! The dynamic between Susan and Archie is just so interesting and only gets more interesting as the series progresses. I like it though!
But let's talk about the real stars of the show - Archie and Gretchen. Wowza, this is one twisted fucked-up relationship. You learn more about them in the later books but you can tell there is more going on between them in this book than meets the eye. Archie is so calm and collected and resigned, my heart breaks for him, but I also love his pragmatism. With Archie, I feel like the author doesn't always give us everything and lets us guess. Like he will do something that I totally was not expecting that was actually really smart or the flip-side, really dumb. He's just so sacrificial and somewhat suicidal and will absolutely save anyone before himself. Gretchen definitively plays on this to keep him coming back to her and she definitively gets off on the power she has over him while there are hints of something more to her actions regarding him as well. I liked how the book started out in the past with Gretchen kidnapping Archie and how it weaves between the past and the present showing us what happened then and how it has affected Archie up until the present. The poor guy!
Susan is one of those unlikeable female protagonists, but I enjoy reading about her! She has no chill and no self-preservation and I actually appreciate her gung-ho attitude and throwing herself right in the middle of everything.
The storyline in this one is a little too unbelievable in parts which is why I didn't give it a full five (mainly the final reveal of the bad guy), but overall this was a great twisted read and if you love serial killers, then this is the book for you! I think this is one of the few books that actually explores what a relationship with a serial killer would be like and I think it's just fascinating. It's like Prodigal Son (RIP!! I love that show and miss it so much already) where the MC has a relationship with the serial killer they can't let go of or escape from.
Anyway, definitively a recommended read and I loved this series!
I really enjoyed this book! It's a great start to the series and introduces the characters and sets up the relationships well. I definitively got attached to everyone and this has been one of my favorite series of 2021! It was a fast read with a decent mystery and twisted relationships that keep you coming back for more! The dynamic between Susan and Archie is just so interesting and only gets more interesting as the series progresses. I like it though!
But let's talk about the real stars of the show - Archie and Gretchen. Wowza, this is one twisted fucked-up relationship. You learn more about them in the later books but you can tell there is more going on between them in this book than meets the eye. Archie is so calm and collected and resigned, my heart breaks for him, but I also love his pragmatism. With Archie, I feel like the author doesn't always give us everything and lets us guess. Like he will do something that I totally was not expecting that was actually really smart or the flip-side, really dumb. He's just so sacrificial and somewhat suicidal and will absolutely save anyone before himself. Gretchen definitively plays on this to keep him coming back to her and she definitively gets off on the power she has over him while there are hints of something more to her actions regarding him as well. I liked how the book started out in the past with Gretchen kidnapping Archie and how it weaves between the past and the present showing us what happened then and how it has affected Archie up until the present. The poor guy!
Susan is one of those unlikeable female protagonists, but I enjoy reading about her! She has no chill and no self-preservation and I actually appreciate her gung-ho attitude and throwing herself right in the middle of everything.
The storyline in this one is a little too unbelievable in parts which is why I didn't give it a full five (mainly the final reveal of the bad guy), but overall this was a great twisted read and if you love serial killers, then this is the book for you! I think this is one of the few books that actually explores what a relationship with a serial killer would be like and I think it's just fascinating. It's like Prodigal Son (RIP!! I love that show and miss it so much already) where the MC has a relationship with the serial killer they can't let go of or escape from.
Anyway, definitively a recommended read and I loved this series!
Hot damn Chelsea is so good! She pulls you in with no hesitancy, and drags you on a leash the whole way through. Great series. If you enjoy crime with some good thrill to it, this is your book.
Portland-based. A solid offering in a serial killer police procedural. The characters are interesting enough to pull me to the next installment, which I guess is the mark of a successful novel of this sort.
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
loved this book. you can read my full review (spoiler free) on my blog at http://knowitnotsomuch.blogspot.com/2012/09/heartsick.html
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
