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50 Book Challenge #2: Heartsick

By "Milbarge" and "Fitz-Hume"

Heartsick by Chelsea Cain. (Amazon, B&N, Powell's) After Entertainment Weekly called this one a "profoundly creepy thriller," I picked up the audio version (read by Midland, Texas's own Carolyn McCormick). It was good enough that there were several times when I sat in my car and waited for a scene to end before I could turn it off. So that's my review: "Heartsick is good enough to make you pollute!"

Now, if I were a clever book reviewer, I would figure out a way to transition from that image to note that the killer terrorizing Portland, Oregon, in Cain's mystery uses bleach to clean up after his crimes. This guy -- dubbed the After School Strangler -- kidnaps, rapes, and kills high school girls. So the police convene a task force. Luckily, they already had one together for their previous serial killer, the Beauty Killer, the lovely and evil Gretchen Lowell. Lowell tortured and killed scores before targeting the head of the task force, Archie Sheridan. Lowell kidnaps and tortures Archie, but ends up letting him live and turning herself in. (We learn about her reasons and the after-effects on Archie as the book progresses.) Two years later, Archie is barely functional and addicted to pain medication, but they need him again to catch the After School Strangler.

Our entree into all this is when newbie reporter Susan Ward (who has some issues of her own) is invited to follow the task force for a series in the paper. Susan realizes that the real story is the continuing, bizarre relationship between Archie and Gretchen Lowell. You'll think this is a gender-flipping Silence of the Lambs ripoff, but Gretchen has no interest in helping Archie catch the new killer.

I'd say that overall, I liked Heartsick. The twist wasn't jaw-droppingly surprising, but the story was suspenseful, and for the most part, well-told. (Cain does a good job building tension by jumping back and forth between the chase for the After School Killer and Archie's torture at Gretchen's hands, but she needs a synonym for "palpable"). It's really all about the characters, though, and here Heartsick is a winner. The three main characters are fully-formed and fully human. It's rare to see protagonists so flawed, and with flaws that really are flaws, and not the kind of "flaws" you tell an interviewer you have ("I'm a perfectionist!"). All in all, it's pretty good -- I would compare it favorably to the Michael Connelly I've read -- and I would recommend it if you're into serial killer/police thrillers.

Full post as published by Begging the Question on January 14, 2008 (boomark / email).