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Heartsick
 

Heartsick

by Chelsea Cain

Chelsea Cain steps into a crowded, blood-soaked genre with Heartsick, a riveting, character-driven novel about a damaged cop and his obsession with the serial killer who...let him live. Gretchen Lowell tortured Detective Archie Sheridan for ten days, then inexplicably let him go and turned herself in. Cain turns the (nearly played out) Starling/Lecter relationship on its ear: Sheridan must... (read more)

Top tags: thriller,  serial killer,  fiction,  suspense,  mystery (all tags)

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Other Reviews

Amazon Reviews (5)
 

Most Helpful Reviews

Liked It

mazda502001
  • Rated 4 stars

“Wow, what a book. Chilling, gripping, creepy. I didn't want to put it down. Very addictive but very dark.

Back Cover Blurb:
When beautiful serial killer Gretchen Lowell captured her last victim - the man in charge of hunting her down - she quickly established who was really in control of the investigation. So why, after ten days of horrifying physical and mental torture, did she release Detective Archie Sheridan from the brink of death and hand herself in?
Two years on,...”

mazda502001’s full review »
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Didn’t Like It

2 of 2 members found this review helpful.
Rowan sees children eager to learn, not colors
  • Rated 1 stars

“The press release says this is the author's first novel. I can honestly say I have read better attempts on the walls of a junior high. The only good thing is that the serial killer is a woman. I found this charecter to be interesting, but no Hannibal Lectur. The book was less terror and more trifle. I so wanted this to be a cool book. The pre-release copy came in an evidence bag, the cover to the book had bloody smears of finger prints and a handprint. Unfortunately. the ending left a lot...”

Rowan sees children eager to learn, not colors’s full review »
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Community:
  • Rated 3.984694 stars
Amazon:
  • Rated 4 stars
  

Newest Comments

  • RobinReads

    robinreads said:

    “I had the pleasure of meeting Chelsea Cain a few months ago at a reading for this book. She was caustically funny and down to earth. I enjoyed this page turner and am looking forward to it's sequel "Sweetheart" that's due out in Sep 08. For those of you who are fans the movie rights have already been purchased.”

    posted Thursday, February 21 2008 ( | view 1 reply )
  • athenagoddess

    athenagoddess said:

    “I can't say that I loved or hated this book. There are several elements that I liked, such as the flashbacks to Archie and Gretchen, but the other elements, like introducing characters that are never fully fleshed out, that really bother me. It was almost as if she threw the characters in there just to have filler. There was no real reason to put in the woman that lived in Gretchen's house. You could have cut the entire scene out of the book and lost nothing. If this were a movie half of the characters would have ended up on the cutting room floor because they make no sense in the context of the book. I guess we will have to wait and see if she does another book with these characters and maybe the whole thing will make more sense. The Molly Palmer side story would have been better off if they had left it for another book. I understand that Susan is trying to help the girl but it seems like she's just thrown in to make sure that you know that yes Susan had a fling with a teacher and she's trying to help this girl because she knows how the girl feels. I would have rather had another couple of scenes with Archie and Susan or even Archie and Debbie. The ending leaves the storyline open for anther book and I hope that Ms. Cain realizes what she could do with the characters that she has. The whole thing kind of reminds me of Silence of the Lambs a bit too much.”

    posted Wednesday, February 13 2008 ( | view 1 reply )
  • LisaDale

    lisadale said:

    “was this formulaic? i haven't encountered anything like it so far. also, i don't know if i'd say formulaic so much as combining "old" elements of thrillers in a new way. but then again, from this genre, i don't really look for groundbreaking writing techniques so much as a fun, engaging, stylized read. (sorry for that bad sentence.) hope it's ok that i chimed in.

    lisa”

    posted Sunday, January 27 2008
  • Zeni T

    zeni t said:

    “Whether you liked the book or not I recommend Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn as a good comparison to the female serial killer, crime novel genre.”

    posted Friday, January 25 2008
  • RobinReads

    robinreads said:

    “Met Chelsea Cain last night when she came to my town to do a reading of her newest novel. She also wrote the Nancy Drew Parody: Confessions of a teenage slueth. I highly recommend going to see her if she comes to a bookstore in your area. A lovely cross between bawdy and bohemenian this column writer for The Oregonian puts on a great show full of wry humor and interesting insight to the development of her novel. No surprise, the movie rights were purchased 3 weeks ago. ”

    posted Tuesday, October 2 2007
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