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Detective Archie Sheridan is a deeply wounded man, physically and psychologically. He is the only known survivor of serial killer Gretchen Lowell. She has killed, by her own estimation, over 200 people. These are not easy, nice deaths; Gretchen has brought new meaning to the words “long, slow, painful death.” She will only reveal details about and locations of previous victims to Archie, in weekly visits he must make to the prison. He’s been doing this for almost two years, once he was physically able to go. As one can imagine, this isn’t doing his mental health any good at all. His physical health isn’t all that great; he’s got a nice addiction to Vicodin, too. His previous bosses call him upon when the bodies of young high-school girls begin to turn up. All dead, all strangled, all bleached, all similar in physical appearance and demeanor. Archie insists upon having a reporter cover the investigation with him, from the beginning. This is a trifle unusual, but the higher ups cut him a lot of slack. Chelsea Cain has written a thriller that won’t let go of the reader once the book is done. She never explains why Gretchen Lowell is the person she is; that is left to the imagination. Cain does go into fairly graphic detail about what Gretchen does to Archie, and to one or two of her other victims. This is not a well woman – she's intelligent, incredibly beautiful, very sexy, very sick in the head. The relationship between Gretchen and Archie is bizarre, but oddly comprehensible. The police procedural aspects of the novel work well, as do the characterizations of the investigators and suspects. The depiction of Portland jives with its soggy reputation; one of the characters isn’t truly comfortable if it isn’t raining. HEART SICK is well written, deeply disturbing, and difficult to put down once one begins reading it. Archie is all too human, and Gretchen is believable enough to be very scary.
Reviewed by P. J. Coldren, August 2007
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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