Heartsick Review

Heartsick is a riveting, exciting, and suspenseful book. If you like movies like Silence of the Lambs, I can almost guarantee you will like this book. Archie Sheridan is a good and dedicated cop. However, his life in shambles because he was tortured by the notorious Beauty Killer, Gretchen Lowell, and was forever changed by the experience. He pops pills and is pretty much obsessed with the woman who tortured him. A new serial killer, the After School Strangler, is on the loose, targeting young girls with the same features. Archie comes out of his retirement to lead the team to stop him. Can Archie pull it together to save the next girl from being a victim?

A relationship such as Gretchen Lowell and Archie Sheridan's has not been seen since Hannibal Lecter and Clarice Starling. Gretchen and Archie's relationship is intensified beyond the latter couple's because of the ten day torture he suffered at her hands. Archie is an honorable, but traumatized cop. He has a drug abuse problem, much like Dr. House. Because of his fixation on Gretchen and substance abuse, he has lost his family, his wife, his friends, and pretty much his whole life as he once knew it. Archie is a likable character, despite his many flaws, and you truly want him to figure out the case and detach himself from Gretchen.

Gretchen is a fascinating character. She is a very prolific serial killer. She is unpredictable in both her mood and action. She literally influences almost every aspect of the plot from her cell in jail. Even the third person narrative that oscillates between Archie and Susan, his shadow reporter, passes over Gretchen, enhancing her mystery. Every scene with her was enjoyable for me because I just didn't know what to expect from her, whether she would smile and be sweet or completely tear down a person and leave them a quivering mass of nerves.

Heartsick is a riveting tale, featuring a suspenseful plot, complex characters, and (of course) murder, using fluid and easy language. I can't recommend this book enough. Whenever I read it, I just can't put it down.

5/5