Heartsick by Chelsea Cain

Wow... what a great book! I so get what all of the excitement and hype was about this book. Though I normally try and reserve A+ grades for those books I would reread again and I would not probably reread this book, I do give it an A+.

Damaged Portland Detective Archie Sheridan spent ten years tracking Gretchen Lowell, a beautiful serial killer, but in the end she was the one who caught him. Two years ago, Gretchen kidnapped Archie and tortured him for ten days, but instead of killing him, she mysteriously decided to let him go. She turned herself in, and now Gretchen has been locked away for the rest of her life, while Archie is in a prison of an other kind- addicted to pain pills, unable to return to his old life, powerless to get those ten horrific days off of his mind. Archie's a different person, his estranged wife says, and he knows she's right. He continues to visit Gretchen in prison once a week, saying that only can get her to confess as to the whereabouts of more of her victims, but even he knows the truth- he can't stay away.

When another killer begins snatching teenage girls off the streets of Portland, Archie has to pull himself together enough to lead the new task force investigating the murders. A hungry young newspaper reporter, Susan Ward, begins profiling Archie and the investigation, which sparks a deadly game between Archie, Susan, the new killer and even Gretchen. They need to catch a killer, and maybe somehow then Archie can free himself from Gretchen for once and for all.

This book has it all. Such a great and wonderful well written thriller story but it was not all bloods and guts. There was a great character development with a bunch of the characters, though mostly with Susan and Archie. I loved Susan and sometimes wanted to go through the pages and strangle Archie for some of the things he choses to do. Gretchen's hold over Archie is unbelievable and the things that she did to him are absolutely unbelievable. I have read that this is the first book in a trilogy and absolutely HATE the fact that I have to wait any amount of time for the next installment. Anyone who has any info for me needs to let me know. ASAP.

Up next is Gone Baby Gone by Dennis Lehane. He is the author of Mystic River and the movie based on this book is to be released soon. It was recently in the news because the movie's release is being pushed back in England because of the disappereance of Madeline. That really peaked my interest as I have been following the case and always kinda suspected the parents. I mean give me a break, what type of parents leave their young children under the age of three alone when they go to dinner?!? Anyways I picked it up from the library and will get started with it now. Hopefully it won't take me as long as the past few books have.

Happy reading!