Review: Heartsick by Chelsea Cain

• Author: Chelsea Cain
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; Reprint edition (July 29 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312947151
• ISBN-13: 978-0312947156
• Product Dimensions: 16.8 x 10.7 x 2.8 cm 

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. In this outstanding thriller, the first in a new series, Cain (Confessions of a Teen Sleuth) puts a fresh spin on a scenario familiar to fans of Thomas Harris's The Silence of the Lambs. When someone starts dumping the bodies of teenage girls around Portland, Ore., after soaking them in tubs of bleach, Archie Sheridan, a police detective addicted to pain killers, turns for help to Gretchen Lowell, an imprisoned serial killer who once tortured him (the big scar on his chest was shaped like a heart). Covering the crimes is reporter Susan Ward, a smart-alecky punk with pink hair and authority issues. The suspense builds as the narrative shifts between Sheridan's new case and his ordeal with Lowell, who in her own way is as memorable a villain as Hannibal Lecter. The damp Portland locale calls to mind the kind of Pacific Northwest darkness associated with Ted Bundy and Kurt Cobain. A vivid literary style lifts this well above the usual run of suspense novels. 200,000 first printing; author tour. (Sept.)
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My Take:

I love Portland and I love a good thriller so as it turns out, I loved this novel as well.  When I first started reading it I was a little undecided but before long the author had drawn me into the story and I was hooked.  A book full of damaged interesting characters set in soggy Portland provided just the right mood for a good story.  And a good story it is with lots of twists and turns that kept the story moving along quickly. I felt for Archie Sheridan as he moved through the book in a fog of prescription drugs.  And I despised mass murderer Gretchen Lowell who continues to shock with her evil brilliance.  I am looking forward to the next two books in the series: Sweetheart and Evil at Heart. Hopefully I won't have nightmares tonight!