Book Review: Heartsick

I’ve decided that our book club is sorta demented.  This is the second book (by request) about a serial killer that we’ve read….and loved. Let that sink in.

Here’s the Spark Notes from Amazon:

“Portland detective Archie Sheridan spent years tracking Gretchen Lowell, a beautiful and brutal serial killer. In the end, she was the one who caught him…and tortured him…and then let him go. Why did Gretchen spare Archie’s life and then turn herself in? This is the question that keeps him up all night—and the reason why he has visited Gretchen in prison every week since.

Meanwhile, another series of murders is tearing up the Portland streets. Archie seems to be getting closer to solving this high-profile case…until he finds himself in a fatal collision course with the killer—one that inevitably leads him back to his former captor. Gretchen may be the only one who can help do justice. The only thing she can’t do, this time, is save Archie’s life.”

If it sounds creepy it’s because it is.  I flew through this book because I wanted so badly to know what happened in the next chapter.  Does Archie die?  Does he get back with his family? Is Gretchen responsible for the murders despite her being in prison?  Will her and Archie hook up?  As you can see, this book kept me hanging.

I’ve never really read books like this, I typically tend to stay away from murder type stories because they can be too realistic to me.  This one however I couldn’t put down and I was literally covered in sweat the last 40 pages of the book from being so nervous and anxious (another reason why I don’t read these).

It’s interesting to think back on it because I can honestly say, I didn’t like one single character in the book.  I also didn’t like  the subject (serial killer) yet I loved this book.  I loved this book so much that when I found out it was a series (mistake) I called all the bookstores within a 2 mile radius to my apartment looking for it.  I had to start the next one that evening. And I did.  And I regret it.

If you want to read a thriller, a sit on the edge of your seat type book, definitely read this.   But stop there.  Whatever you do, do not make the mistake of continuing on with the series.  The second book was just so….not good and it almost ruined the first one for me.  Too much information, too much romance (hello Gretchen escapes prison and her and Archie spend a week in a love nest in the mountains together doing love type things..) and nothing like the first book.  But go read Heartsick, like now.

That’s all the nonsense I have for now!

Series you’ve been disappointed in?