I was surprised how much I liked this book. Everyone compares Gretchen to Hannibal Lecter, but I think she is scarier. I am looking forward to reading more! ( )

What I like about it is there's actually a female serial killer this time and she acts close to Hannibal Lecter with some minor differences. It sure is nice to see an evil female part though. It's a refreshing sight instead of having females always being portrayed as victims. The plot got better and better through each chapter and it just seemed as if the book went by really quickly - perhaps because I was just too engrossed in the book. You get two different stories here in this book. You have the current case Archie is on, then you also have chapters in between where they are flashbacks of Archie when he was being held captive by Gretchen. They were gruesome and rather hard to swallow but it added a lot of depth into Archie's character and explains to you why he is how he is. I thought that was pretty well done as it's a great way of explaining his character and his behavior. Gretchen made a wonderful villain. Manipulative, cunning, cruel, sadistic, all in one very attractive package it was perfectly done and even in prison she still continues to fiddle with her puppet strings.

It wasn't blatantly obvious who the culprit was behind the murders of the teenage girls, which was good, and it kept you guessing. What I liked was it wasn't until the last minute when you actually found out who it was and by that time it was cleverly done that you wish you could have seen it in the first place. There were a few twists and turns with the final twist happening between Gretchen and Archie. I thought that was great and it left me asking for more.

No doubt there will be sequels and I see this as a promising series. I'm left wanting to know what's going to happen in the next book. I'm definitely looking forward to reading it. The book however, did leave me with a lot of questions unanswered, particularly why Gretchen is what she is and how she came to be this way. It does drop hints here and there but nothing too specific or defined. Perhaps it's to build up the mystery behind her character.

I do warn, some parts in this book are not meant for the squeamish. However those with a like for police serial killer novels, with a cat and mouse game and lots of twists do take this book and give it a chance. You won't regret it.

Overall a great start to a series, and I'm looking forward to more. ( )

What a great story! Could not put the book down. Have not read Chelsea Cain before, but I plan to get all her books. Can't wait to read more about Gretchen and Archie! ( )

THE BEST THRILLER BOOK EVER!!!

Seriously, if you love thrillers, and ESPECIALLY thrillers about serial killers, then you DON'T want to miss HEARTSICK.

I don't know how Ms. Cain came up with the character of Gretchen Lowell (actually, I probably don't WANT to know!), but she has to be the most twisted killer I've ever come across. You may have thought Hannibal Lecter was the king of serial killers -- but that crazy man doesn't hold a candle to the chilling Ms. Lowell.

Trust me. Get the book. It's that good. Just don't read it while you're home alone, or when there's a threat of a power outage, or when you're eating dinner. ( )

http://bactra.org/weblog/algae-2009-0... ( )

I read Heart Sick on the recommendation of Stephen King, with whom I don't always agree. He had these two novels as one slot in his Top 10 of 2008. I'm also intrigued by female serial killers, especially given their statistical rareness.

Heart Sick introduces readers to brilliant and beautiful serial killer Gretchen Lowell. Gretchen managed to kill 200 people, mostly in Portland, itself almost a character in these books. She posed as a psychologist helping the task force, and she managed to kidnap and torture Det. Archie Sheridan, the task force leader. Mysteriously, Gretchen held Archie for ten days but did not kill him. In fact, she called 911 to turn herself in. Archie is physically, emotionally and psychologically scarred from the encounter; Gretchen is in prison. Quirky reporter Susan is doing a profile piece on Archie for the Portland newspaper.

Archie and Susan both offer first-person narratives. These damaged characters are emotionally compelling, and although there are many mysteries going on simultaneously, they do not clutter the narrative. I really liked Heart Sick, but I'm glad I had heard good things about it. I wanted to stop reading during the first chapter; apparently I don't handle graphic depictions of torture well. I confess to skimming the more gruesome parts (perhaps Beat the Reaper was still fresh in my mind?) I'm glad I stuck with it. ( )

Set in Portland, with lots of references to recognizable features. A police detective was kidnapped and tortured for 10 days by the serial killer he was investigating. Two years later, the killer is in jail, but she still is manipulating his life. He visits her each week, and she discloses another victim their burial place. She has chosen a reporter to profile the detective, and the connection is terrifyingly revealed at the end of the story. Graphic violence, but engrossing.

a great killer- very likable in an evil way. First of a series ( )

I absolutely love this book. I read it in one night because I could not put it down. I'm a huge mystery and horror fan so this fit me perfectly. I also love reading about real-life serial killers and Gretchen Lowell is one of the great fictional serial killers. Everything about Gretchen was spot on. I thought I knew what was going on but Ms. Cain definitely had me fooled and I was greatful for that because I hate knowing too soon. Great read!!! ( )

I have to say that this was a wonderful book. Yes, it's gory and distressing. Serial killer Gretchen Lowell kidnaps police detective Archie Sheridan and subjects him to horrendous torture. When she's captured, he is barely alive and even two years later he suffers both physical and emotional effects of his ten-day ordeal. When I checked it out, I discovered that there are two sequels—excellent news!I "read" the book on unabridged audio CD, which I picked up off a sale table at a Borders Outlet store in January. It only cost me $2.00, because it was priced $3.99 and the books-on-CD were BOGOF (buy one, get one free). ( )

There came a moment while reading Heartsick when I knew, I absolutely knew who had done it. There was no doubt in my mind. My heart sank, not only because I liked this particular character, but also because I'd figured it out too early in the book. This happens to me a lot, because I read a lot of mysteries, and it's the rare author who can keep me guessing until the end. And I've never been wrong when I get one of these convictions.

Until now. Chelsea Cain is one clever lady. Even though the right answer is obvious in retrospect -- as it should be in any mystery that plays fair -- the solution eluded me with its many red herrings. This solid first effort, though clumsily written in spots, reveals an extremely promising talent, and I'm hoping we'll be hearing a lot more from Ms. Cain.

Her tale involves the ghastliest criminal since Thomas Harris wrote The Silence of the Lambs, a woman named Gretchen Lowell, who claims to be responsible for at least 200 deaths. She is now safely locked up, but she still manages to control Portland Detective Archie Sheridan, who was in charge of the investigation to capture her for ten long years. Just before she was caught -- she actually turned herself in -- she spent many long days leisurely torturing Sheridan both mentally and physically, until he became hers in heart, mind and body. He still visits her every Sunday, ostensibly to get from her the names and locations of her kills, but really because he can't help himself; he must see her.

Now a new serial murderer is loose in Portland, taking young teenage girls, killing and raping them. The old task force formed to catch Gretchen is reunited to catch this new murderer as quickly as possible, before the body count mounts. Sheridan's work is either complicated or helped (it isn't entirely clear which) by the constant shadow of Susan Ward, a young newspaper reporter who hopes to earn a Pulitzer with a series of articles about him. Ward is simultaneously likeable and unlikeable, an apparent case of arrested development who still favors torn jeans and pink hair despite her unquestioned talent as a mature writer. Her involvement with Sheridan becomes more complicated than either of them expected, and one soon begins to wonder who needs who the most.

Heartsick suffers from a number of the problems one expects in first mysteries: a few characters who are too obviously stereotypes, like the mayor who can't wait to give the press conference announcing the identity of the murderer, or the partner who does things against his better judgment because he trusts and is protective of Sheridan. But Gretchen Lowell is a wonderful invention, on a par with but not derivative of Hannibal Lecter. I want to know more about what makes this woman tick. I hope that Cain has more books planned around her horrific misdeeds, because I can't wait to read them. ( )

Excellent thriller. The style of the book very much reminded me of the style of Thomas Harris. Ms. Cain grips the reader from the beginning and makes Archie Sheridan a character that I want to know more about. I can't wait to read the sequel. ( )

A dark, twisted, gory thriller that was right up my alley. I read this book and the sequel Sweetheart in a two day period, I was that captivated. I think I made some co-workers a little nervous when I described what I was reading, but hey they asked.

Great story of a Portland, pill popping detective who has been tortured and brought back from death by his tormentor, who he just happens to be obsessed with and perhaps a little in love with the beautiful serial killer Gretchen. ( )

Thriller. First novel in the series about Archie, a police detective, and Gretchen, a totally uncompromising female serial killer. In this book, Archie has recovered from nearly dying at the hands of Gretchen. He is encouraged to head another serial killer task force in order to bring him back to normalcy. This new serial killer is targeting young high school girls in order to rape and murder them.

Archie is still haunted by his experiences with Gretchen. In flashbacks, the reader is shown what was done to Archie - from his perspective - and I'll always look at cleaning products differently. Gretchen is in jail now, but has managed to manipulate Archie into visiting her on a regular basis. This both hampers and helps his recovery.

Chelsea Cain's strength is the ability to fill each page with dread and gruesome horror. She's colourfully graphic and she doesn't hold back about describing blood and pain. I like how Cain can have so many scenes with Gretchen, yet keep her character, her thoughts, her emotions so completely fathomless. ( )

Detective Archie Sheridan spent ten years heading the task force of detectives that tracked the Beauty Killer, a twisted serial killer who tortured her victims within an inch of their life before killing them. Archie is tricked and captured by Gretchen Lowell, the serial killer he had been tracking. After spending days as the subject of her horrific abuse, Archie is on his death bed and is subsequently saved by the woman who killed him. Gretchen saved Archie's life by giving herself up and calling in the police for help. Two years have passed since Gretchen's apprehension and Archie is still a mess due to the torture he suffered at her hands. He's addicted to prescription pain medication, has left his wife and kids and is in regular contact with Gretchen Lowell. It is safe to say that Archie is a headcase.

Now, with a new serial killer stalking the streets of Portland, Oregon, preying on teenage girls, Archie has been called off his extended medical leave to head the task force for the After School Strangler. Acting as Archie's shadow on his first case since Gretchen Lowell, is journalist Susan Ward, who was hand picked by Archie to be the sole inside reporter on the case. Susan, a sassy young journalist with bright pink hair and a string of issues almost as long as Archie's, is pulled from a story she's been secretly working on to follow Archie, a big deal for any Portland journalist. Susan takes advantage of the opportunity to work alongside the infamous Archie Sheridan. She dives into the case, green as a newborn, but Susan is capable and tough. In other words, she has the makings of good journalist. Together, Archie and Susan embark on a case that not only tests their mettle for their respective careers, but opens up past demons that both want to remain buried.

HeartSick is told from a few different point of views. Switching from Archie's third person to alternating chapters of his captivity told in third person present. Susan and Anne, a criminal profiler working on the case, also have a third person point of view. Susan was an interesting character, she's both capable and self destructive. Her father died when she was at a pivotal point in her life and Susan has found a way to act out ever since. Part of this acting out shows in her compulsive need to sleep with married or complicated men. Anne is working on the After School Strangler case almost as a way of making up for her faulty profiling in the Beauty Killer case. She had Gretchen pegged as a man from the start and feels that her mess up is what caused Archie to be taken by Gretchen in the first place.

While there were a few different threads going in this story, by far, the most notable of them was the twisted relationship between Archie and Gretchen. It was at once intriguing and repelling. Reading about them was the equivalent to watching a train wreck: I wanted to look away but the twisted, macabre of it all kept my eyes glued to the oncoming disaster. It is obvious that Archie is suffering from some form of Post Traumatic Stress syndrome, and as Gretchen so aptly points out: Stockholm Syndrome, and probably a few other syndromes. He's a functioning junkie and only finds true solace in Gretchen, the woman who pretty much killed the man he once was.

Gretchen is smart, and continues to be able to manipulate Archie from behind bars. She plays her hand wisely, giving Archie just enough information on her past unsolved killings to keep Archie coming back to her. But Gretchen lacks the appeal that made her predecessors, like Hannibal Lecter, immensely likeable in their craziness. At the end of Silence of the Lambs one was torn as to whether they should root for Hannibal or Clarice, at the end of HeartSick, I wanted Gretchen dead and for Archie to be the one to kill her. Though Archie was the books saving grace - his struggle with right and wrong, and the man he was vs the man he'd become made him the most compelling character - there were points where I wanted him to suck it up and show Gretchen who was boss. He did sort of, but I have a feeling that it won't last for long.

If I could sum up HeartSick in one word, it would be 'interesting.' I found all of the working threads to be just that, but even though my interest was held, the story lacked the punch that I was waiting/hoping for. The After School serial killer case was a bit predictable, and I felt it drug along in places. There was, at times, too much description and then at other times, too little. The eventual tie up of the mystery was unremarkable and most of the characters were blah. But even with all these things working against the story, I found it very readable, and finished the book in two sittings. Then, upon closing the it, I was ready to read the sequel. So HeartSick had that certain something that worked for me, even though I had problems with it.

That said, I do plan on continuing with the followup Sweetheart. I'm interested in seeing where the story that Susan was working on prior to being assigned to Archie, goes. I also hope to see Archie with a stronger backbone where Gretchen is concerned, and I wouldn't mind seeing Gretchen fry. Archie was bordering a little too close to sad sack in this book and sad sack's are not that interesting to read about. And Gretchen was a little too ingenious, too perfect, too unreal for me to feel anything for her other than dislike. ( )

Audiobook. Mostly this book annoyed me. But I finished the book and bought the sequel. Very amateurish in many ways: clunky language, too many implausible connections, way to serious and romantic, way too gory. But I wanted to like the book. A Northwest author, a female serial killer, an extended exploration of victim and victimizer. I was going to trash the book. But I've thought better. Some intriguing details. Give her a chance. More on this book on my blog:
http://idiotgirlinseattle.blogspot.co... ( )

I love dark and twisty stories and this one fit right in with that description, although I could have done with a little more character development. Overall the content felt a little light and reminded me of "Silence of the Lambs" in a few cases. However, I still enjoyed it. It was a quick read and definitely different. I may pick up the next in this series but I won't be in a hurry to do so. ( )

Surprisingly good thriller! Similarities to 'Silence of the Lambs' except that the featured serial killer is a woman, not a man. ( )

Predictable . Gretchen Lowell, the female serial killer, is one of the scariest characters in literature today. I am looking forward to Cain's development of this character in future books. ( )

Not only are female serial killers rare in real life, they're also rare in fiction. Cain gives you a doozy of a killer in this book. I really thought this was incredible. Archie's obsession with Gretchen, and vice versa, is compelling and addicting. Sometimes you find yourself so caught up with what happened in the past that you forget they're chasing a new serial killer. At first I thought that Susan's involvement was rather convenient, but it all makes sense in the end. This is supposed to be the first in a series, and I can't wait to see what happens with Archie (and maybe Susan as well?) ( )

No bad. The big plot twist was a bit predictable but the book wasn't bad and I liked and believed in the characters (mostly).

Detective Archie Sheridan is kidnapped and tortured by the serial killer he has spent ten years searching for. Somehow (and oddly) after torturing him for several days she suddenly decides to turn herself in and save his life. This book takes place two years later when he finally returns to work, just as another seriel killer comes to light. And through his obsession with Gretchen, the woman who ruined his life, and his addiction to all manner of prescription drugs, he tries to solve his latest case.

I liked the book, I will probably read the next one in the hope that it sheds some light onto why Gretchen went from planning to keep and kill Archie to setting him free (in one sense only). I would recommend it but can't see it becoming a favourite or one to keep me awake at night. ( )

If you like serial killer books, this is a pretty good one. It had enough tracks to throw you off on, that I didn't guess the killer til almost the end. That is great!M ( )

Excellent cop/psycho thriller. And I'm not just saying that because the serial killer is named Gretchen. The characters are multi-layered and intriguing. Enough background detail and foreshadowing are presented to keep us wanting a sequel... ( )

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. ( )

This was quite a thriller, but I enjoyed it....sort of. It deals with a police officer who is heading up an investigation to find a serial killer. That is tense enough, but it is the flashbacks to a time when he was held captive by a serial killer and the torture he endured that gets a bit graphic. All this serves to make a compelling, albeit gruesome read. ( )