Damaged Portland detective Archie Sheridan spent ten years tracking Gretchen Lowell, a beautiful serial killer, but in the end she was the one who caught him. Two years ago, Gretchen kidnapped Archie and tortured him for ten days, and then mysteriously decided to let him go. She turned herself in, and now Gretchen has been locked away, while Archie is in prison of another kind-- addicted to pain pills, unable to return to his old life, powerless to get those ten horrific days off his mind. He continues to visit Gretchen in prison once a week, saying that only he can get her to reveal the whereabouts of more of her victims.
I've heard Heartsick billed as the next Silence of the Lambs, and I think that description is deceptive. Gretchen Lowell, the beautiful serial killer that Detective Archie Sheridan visits in prison every Sunday, isn't consulting on the current case he's working on. Gretchen kidnapped and tortured Archie when he was investigating the trail of bodies she was leaving. Now he visits her once a week as she slowly reveals locations of her victims, and also because he's mentally dependent on her in a sick, destructive way.
I wanted to give this book more than three stars, but the problem was that the plotline that revolved around Gretchen and Archie was far more interesting than the current-day serial killer mystery. With regards to the latter, there was no tension, no foreboding, no sense of urgency, and the pacing was all wrong. I spent almost 2/3 of the book dying for a scene where we get to see Archie actually visit Gretchen in prison. I thought it was a shame it came so late.
The resolution to the current-day mystery almost ended up being a total bust - without any spoilers, I thought that it was ridiculously coincidental and almost threw the book against the wall. It's redeemed in the end, luckily.
The synopsis for the sequel, [b:Sweetheart|3441591|Sweetheart|Chelsea Cain|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/4180LM3jFtL._SL75_.jpg|3014061], promises more of a focus on Gretchen, even if it does sound a little far-fetched.
Reading updates
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Started reading
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30 January, 2009:
Finished reading
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30 January, 2009:
Reviewed