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Friday, October 12, 2012

Heartsick

by Chelsea Cain

I listened to this audio book while cutting fabric and pressing quilt blocks.  When I had to stop to sew, I wished I had earphones so I could continue listening.  *Note to self - get earphones out of drawer in the library and put near the sewing machine.

This is not a book for the faint of heart.  There's nothing cozy about this mystery.  This was a book on my Pinterest "Book Recommendations" board that I was able to find on searchoverdrive.com.

Heart Sick features a beautiful, female serial killer.  Gretchen Lowell may be the scariest villain I've encountered in my reading.  I really liked Archie Sheridan, the investigator that she tortured and let live.  The story starts out with Archie dreaming about the time with Gretchen and the torturing.  It had been over 2 years since she held him captive but he is still obsessed and thinks about her, reliving the nightmare daily.  Archie's partner encourages  him to come back to work and help solve a new serial case involving young girls.

The story shifts between Archie's memories, along with visits to Gretchen in the penitentiary, and working to find the latest serial killer.  I like books that build on two or more story lines at a time.  Earlier tonight I discovered this is book one of a series.  I will probably read the next but I don't understand why.  There's something compelling about Gretchen's psychological hold on Archie and I hope that he is successful in expunging her from his thoughts. 

2 comments:

Susan said...

I have one of Chelsea Cain's books, though I haven't brought myself to read it yet. She is intense, is what I've read about her books, and I haven't been ready for those kinds of images yet. One day I will be ready. I hope it's soon because your review makes it sound very interesting.

Thoughts of Joy said...

I've read the first 3 and had high, low and middle ratings respectively. I will give #4 a listen on a road trip soon. We'll see how the scale tips. :)