heartsick

Every month I get four emails from the library.  It's their list of suggested books based on genre.  So I get one for YA, one for Horror, one for general fiction and one for Thrillers/Suspense.  I never read them, but I save the emails for a time when I feel like I might need a new author to read.

Three days ago I got the Thriller/Suspense email so I thought, hey, I'm not loving anything I'm reading right now so let's take a gander at what my good friend the library suggests for me.  The first book was by Chelsea Cain and it was called Kill You Twice.  The first sentence of the description said something like 'In this fifth installment of the series featuring Archie Sheridan (and serial killer Gretchen Lowell)....'  Basically, they had me at 'serial killer Gretchen Lowell'.  A female serial killer?  I'm in.

Of course, you know me, I have to start at the beginning.  So I went to the library and picked up Heartsick.

I read it in about 3 hours. 

Totally worth it.  Of course, you don't read about female serial killers too often.  Everyone knows who Aileen Wournos is and if you do hear about a female SK she poisoned her victims or like in Wournos's case claim self defense.  Rarely, do you hear of a female who tortures her victims and that's where Gretchen Lowell comes in.  

The only part of the book that bugs me is Archie Sheridan.  Yes, female SKs are rare, but burned out, addicted, broken detectives are not.  Granted, Sheridan's reasons for being broken are way different, still I didn't fall in love with him.  Didn't really feel sorry for him.  He was my means of getting to Gretchen.

There are basically two stories here.  One is the present day story.  Someone is kidnapping teenage girls and dumping their bodies along the river in Portland, Oregon.  The mayor wants a task force convened and he wants Archie to head it.  Why?  Because Archie is the hero cop who broke the case of the Beauty Killer.  Albeit, he broke it when she kidnapped and tortured him for ten days, but nonetheless, he survived and she went to jail.  Barely functioning he knows he needs to get his shit together to find out who is killing these girls.

The second story comes and goes.  It's the ten days of torture that Archie suffered at the hands of Gretchen.  And here is where you start to understand why he is the way he is and more importantly, who Gretchen is.  

I've read some reviews in which people said that the present day story was pale in comparison to learning Gretchen and Archie's past, but I disagree.  Though at first, there doesn't seem to be anything truly shocking about The After School Killer (stupid name) there are ties that bind both stories together.

Cain doesn't spend a lot of time on other characters.  There's Susan, the writer from The Herald who is sent to profile Archie.  Susan is damaged goods so it seems she recognizes in Archie more than the people who love him do.  Susan's role is a little coincidental, but everything seems to come full circle.

Seriously good read.  It's when you read a book like this that you realize how crappy some of the authors out there really are.  The authors that grace the NYT Bestsellers list twice a year with their manufactured books with no grip, no hook, you buy the book because you've been buying their books forever.  I'm not saying their books are total crap (*coughJamesPattersoncough*), but how is it that everyone raves about them and yet I had never heard of Chelsea Cain?  It's a travesty I tell you.