Evil at Heart

Gretchen's on the run, but she promised poor Archie she'd murder no more. But murders occur, weird and terrible one with eyeballs and spleens and stuff. Will poor Archie be allowed to recuperate his mental health without being dragged into the grand guignol? No! Each book so far has added a few more wounds to poor Archie's body, and this is no exception - guess what sort of bizarre and terrible wounds are inflicted on the long-suffering guy, and win a prize.

This is such excellent and entertaining trash that the nastily transgressive body-horror bits sneak up on you, but it's well within the sick logic of Gretchen's world.

Two years ago Gretchen Lowell held Portland Detective Archie Sheridan captive in her basement, torturing him for ten days. His actual survival as a human being, to his mind, is a point under dispute, since as he wryly observes to the serial killer during a jailhouse visit, “You’ve ruined me for other people.” Poisoned by memories of his ordeal, the astounding amount of drugs he takes to cope, and his inability to shed a peculiar Stockholm Syndrome for his torturer or a guilty conviction that he deserved his suffering, Archie isn’t a traditionally heroic lead by any means. He understandably has more than a few screws loose, and after his mental and physical breakdown in previous installment “Sweetheart” attempting to catch show more Gretchen and restore some sanity to his life, it comes as small surprise “Evil at Heart” opens with the hero in the loony bin and off his Vicodin.

Archie and Gretchen’s mutual fixation continues to be explored and its train-wreck nature stays captivating, though at the end of “Evil” Archie appears to be clawing his way back towards reality and sanity. Whether the demons will win out in future installments or not, it’s an encouraging note of hope after two books of decline for the detective. The continued inclusion of Susan Ward sees the young reporter’s capability and guts really come forward, and her scenes are often hilarious to boot—the danger of death by coconut, for example.

But in addition to the gore and pathos rife in the series, Cain really makes it shine here with some witty, sharply dark social commentary along for the ride. Another, wider facet of obsession is brought to the fore here: cultural obsession. On the lam, the gorgeous sociopath has become a celebrity, a folk hero, a subject of murder-site tours, a special episode of “America’s Sexiest Serial Killers”, digital key-chains marking her days as a fugitive, and “Beauty Killer” manicures—French pink with blood-red tips. There are even fan websites, complete with Gretchen/Archie fanfiction. Screwed up as it seems, it’s spot-on for reality, and even Archie’s exasperated complaints to a teenage fanclub about fawning over a monster go nowhere.

Overall, the humor is as black, bitter, and scalding as the morning coffee; and it keeps the often heavy, grim subject matter very readable. The first two books are excellent reads, definitely necessary to catch up and understand the story thus far, but “Evil at Heart” is the best of the series yet. Read this one with the lights on. show less

There is a special pleasure to reading several entries in a series one right after the other. Part of it is delayed gratification: despite the arrival of a book you’ve hungered after a year ago, or even several books over the past several years, you haven’t read it/them; you’ve waited. Now you have a book or two (or three or more) all set in the same universe, and you can live there for days on end while you read all the books. At times like these, the real world fades out and you are more alive in the fictional world of the books you hold in your hands.

After reading Sweetheart (reviewed here), I immediately picked up Evil at Heart. I was hard-pressed to imagine how Chelsea Cain would keep the Archie Sheridan/Gretchen Lowell show more relationship going for another book without going completely over the top. (Sweetheart was already rather uncomfortably Hannibal-ish for my taste – that is, the good guy had too much seemed to become a willing pawn of the sociopath who drives the action.)

Cain succeeds admirably in this new novel by introducing the possibility of copycat killers out there in a world that’s infatuated with the idea of Gretchen Lowell. Despite the fact that the woman is one of the most truly vicious serial killers I’ve ever come across in fiction, huge swaths of the public are delighted that she has escaped from prison. They wear tee shirts urging, “Run, Gretchen, run!” They have websites extolling her praises. And, very possibly, some of them take their anti-hero worship to the next extreme by killing in her style.

When the book opens, Archie has been a patient at the Providence Medical Center psych ward for two months, kicking his addiction to Vicodin and overcoming his suicidal tendencies. In fact, though, his addiction is long gone, his liver is recovering, and he doesn’t feel particularly suicidal any longer; but he refuses to check himself out of the hospital, insisting that he is still a danger to himself in order to prolong his stay. It’s much easier than dealing with the fact that his marriage will not be resurrected, Gretchen will not become a woman he can love and live with, and his career is verging on destruction if the full extent of his relationship with Gretchen becomes known. Archie moves himself to leave the ward for a day, though – or at least his partner, Henry Sobol, moves him – when body parts are discovered in the toilet at a Columbia River Gorge rest stop.

The discovery of eyeballs in the tank of a public toilet can sure kick-start a thriller. Archie isn’t certain that Gretchen is the killer they’re searching for, but there is no doubt that he not only wants to catch the murderer who separated those eyeballs from their owners, but also Gretchen – and this time he wants Gretchen dead.

Archie teams up this time as much with Susan Ward, a journalist who wants the crime beat at the local paper, as he does with his long-suffering partner. Susan finds herself with more scoops than she can handle, and more physical danger than she had really imagined was possible for a scribbler. Her hair is purple this time around, but that doesn’t detract from her competence. It’s been fun to watch her grow over the course of three books, and now she is truly a force to be reckoned with.

As is my habit when I write about thrillers in this space, I’ll stop short of giving you any more information for fear of spoiling all the nice traps Cain lays for her readers. I will say only that I thought this a better book than Heartsick, with a more realistic denouement. Evil at Heart is a great thriller. show less

I think this horribly addictive series has finally found a balance - Archie has pulled his head out of Gretchen's backside, the bitch is back (in jail), and Susan goes from strength to strength. The copycat storyline was also well played and fast paced. Onto book four!

I've seen from other reviewers that Evil at Heart was not the favorite. I agree with ome of the arguments made: it did seem a bit all over the place with no real and clear storyline. The gist of it is that someone is leaving body parts, mainly eyes, in areas where the victims of the Beauty Killer, aka Gretchen Lowell, were found.

It isn't a shock when the police and the media think that Lowell is killing again. She has been free for 67 days or so. However, things get murky when an I Love Gretchen Lowell cult and a former victim are involved.

The Archie Sheridan/ Gretchen Lowell series is something I really wanted to like but I haven't really felt the love over the past two books. Archie was tortured by a serial killer who infiltrated his show more investigation in guise of a psychiatrist. I get it; Gretchen broke him but sometimes, it was enough already.

I finally felt Archie became a cop. Now I can see that he could be a formidable force to be reckoned with as soon as we past the self-pitying nonsense. I believe I can read all the books in this series and still will never like Gretchen. She tries way to be hard to be evil. I sense a bit of an Mary Sue. Susan was tolerable but barely. I could see her dead and not bat an eyelash.

Chelsea Cain impressed me with her message of the media transforming serial killers into these tragic antiheroes. The victims of these brutal crimes should be remembered but sadly, they're not. It's their killers who live forever in infamy.

Out of the three books so far, I've liked this one the best. show less

I've seen from other reviewers that Evil at Heart was not the favorite. I agree with ome of the arguments made: it did seem a bit all over the place with no real and clear storyline. The gist of it is that someone is leaving body parts, mainly eyes, in areas where the victims of the Beauty Killer, aka Gretchen Lowell, were found.

It isn't a shock when the police and the media think that Lowell is killing again. She has been free for 67 days or so. However, things get murky when an I Love Gretchen Lowell cult and a former victim are involved.

The Archie Sheridan/ Gretchen Lowell series is something I really wanted to like but I haven't really felt the love over the past two books. Archie was tortured by a serial killer who infiltrated his show more investigation in guise of a psychiatrist. I get it; Gretchen broke him but sometimes, it was enough already.

I finally felt Archie became a cop. Now I can see that he could be a formidable force to be reckoned with as soon as we past the self-pitying nonsense. I believe I can read all the books in this series and still will never like Gretchen. She tries way to be hard to be evil. I sense a bit of an Mary Sue. Susan was tolerable but barely. I could see her dead and not bat an eyelash.

Chelsea Cain impressed me with her message of the media transforming serial killers into these tragic antiheroes. The victims of these brutal crimes should be remembered but sadly, they're not. It's their killers who live forever in infamy.

Out of the three books so far, I've liked this one the best. show less

Gretchen Lowell, America’s most gorgeous, insane and sexy serial killer has escaped. The camera loves Gretchen and so, it seems, does America. Her picture graces magazine covers, t-shirts with “Run Gretchen” appear on our teenagers, coffee mugs with “I’d Kill for a Cup of Coffee” and her visage appear in break rooms throughout offices, women read articles on how to “get Gretchen’s hairstyle” in fashion magazines. Gretchen Lowell fan clubs are springing up across the country. Archie Sheridan had hunted her for years, and found right beside him, involved in the case. The horrific injuries she inflicted upon him are nothing compared to the psychological damage she left in her wake. Archie has suffered and bled and show more survived, and now, after he has been hospitalized for months and just starting to heal, he’s being drawn back into the hunt. People are once again dying in gruesome ways, and it seems that Gretchen has returned and began killing once more. Archie is forced to begin his hunt again to discover if the Beauty Killer has returned or if this is the work of a bizarre cult of her followers.

Chelsea Cain’s new book, Evil at Heart is a high speed adrenaline pumping, pulse pounding, dry-mouthed thriller. Do you remember the times you’ve gone to a really good scary movie, and someone, usually a girl, goes into a dark scary building? And you’re saying….”don’t go in…don’t go in..” because you just know that no good can come of it if she does? That’s what this book does.

At one point, while I’m reading as fast as I can, my right brain is screaming, “No, don’t go in there, run…run…. don’t you watch scary movies…get out get out get out….” At the same time, my left-brain is saying, “Uh…imaginary character in a novel…get a grip…” After my right-brain got done slapping the crap out of my left-brain, I continued reading and freaking out. A few more minutes of reading with my fingers splayed in front of my eyes, and I made it to the end of this particular chapter…whew…now I could go to bed. It was late, and then, yup, I’m sucked back in. It was the old “just a few more pages” bit. My recommendation: don’t start this book when you have enough time to read it in one sitting. You don’t want to dream about it, that would be scary and bad, and you sure as heck don’t want to wait and see what happens next.

Cain understands that too much of the unrelenting fear factor might not be manageable to us weaker hearted readers. She lets us see moments of humor in the thoughts of her protagonists that can elicit a chuckle from us, even though we know we probably shouldn’t giggle.

Chelsea Cain is the Queen of Creepy as far as I’m concerned. Her first two novels, Heartsick and Sweetheart were good, and I liked them enough that I was interested in reading her third. If you're a person who hates coming in partway through a series, (like me) you might want to check them out, but I don't think you'd have to read them first to "get" Evil at Heart. I expected to like this one as well as the last, but I was wrong. It’s the best of the three, Cain just keeps getting better and better. Okay…. creepier and creepier too. My 14-year-old daughter asked what I was reading, and all I could say was, “nothing you’re allowed to read yet.” (She gets nightmares really easily, doesn’t watch scary movies either.) I hope Queen Chelsea of Creep is hard at work writing another novel, this is one loyal reader who can’t wait to have the bejeebers scared out of me again by this talented, albeit, often frightening author!

Evil at Heart goes on sale on September 1. If you're a fan of the genre...get this book! Thriller suspense at its best. But be warned, its a gruesome and graphic page turner, with a strong "ewwww" factor. (I'm as warped as the author must be, I loved it!) show less