Heartsick
by Chelsea Cain
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Book Summary Information
Author: Chelsea CainEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-07-29
ISBN: 0312947151
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Book Reviews of Heartsick
Book Review: "One day of privacy. You get the other six."
Summary: 4 Stars
Building her popular thriller on a troubling narrative, a serial killer and the detective she kidnaps, tortures and seduces in a Stockholm Syndrome-esque drama, a clever premise yields an unusual look into the dynamics of a profoundly dysfunctional relationship. Ten years after his torture at the hands of Gretchen Lowell, a beautiful murderer, detective Archie Sheridan is still in thrall to a woman who has absorbed his life, taken the place of wife and family and dominates his dreams and waking moments. Begging her to kill him, put him out of his agony, Archie must live with the consequences of the 9-1-1 call that delivers Gretchen to the authorities and Archie to the emergency room. Ten years later, assigned to a current spate of serial murders of teenaged girls in Portland, Oregon, Sheridan exists on a diet of pain pills and adrenaline, saddled with a broken body and a dependency on drugs begun during his kidnapping.
His body hostage to the narcotizing effects of the pills he carries with him everywhere, Archie struggles to maintain a placid mien to the world, to hide the extent of the physical and psychological damage wrought by his captivity. Most troubling is his inability to break free from Gretchen, whom he visits every Sunday as she gradually reveals the names and location of other victims. But when edgy young reporter Susan Ward of a local paper, the Herald, is assigned to track Archie's every move for a four-part human interest series, Sheridan seizes on an opportunity to break free from Lowell while solving the new rash of murders, Susan capturing his sympathy and respect as they visit one crime scene and broken family after another. With the aid of an FBI profiler, Archie applies his considerable insights into finding this killer, while Susan bravely embraces a career path that puts her on a collision course with danger.
While the plot is unique, frightening even, in its implications for Archie's future, it is also deeply disturbing on many levels, particularly Archie's inability to break free from his would-be murderer, revealing unspeakable vulnerabilities in the victim of an ingenious seduction that binds him more tightly to Lowell than life. Whatever Sheridan does while solving the recent spate of murders with his team, he is inextricably tied to the woman who awaits his weekly visits like a hungry spider. Even Susan, though she breaks through Archie's considerable defenses, is powerless to interfere with the masterful manipulation of a man emotionally destroyed by his captivity and his tormenter. At the core of this story beats the heart of darkness, a netherworld where a monster is beloved, her heinous acts insignificant in the face of her seduction. In a narcotic haze, Sheridan dances to a melody only he can hear, ever closer to a precipice that, once crossed, yields certain annihilation. Luan Gaines/ 2008.
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