Heartsick

By: Chelsea Cain

Narrated by: Carolyn McCormick

Length: 11 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's summary

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 another kind---addicted to pain pills, unable to return to his old life, powerless to get those ten horrific days off 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 he 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, once and for all. Either way, Heartsick makes for one of the most extraordinary suspense debuts in recent memory.

Don't miss this Heartsick extra: Chelsea Cain'svideo tour of Portland! Then listen to Heartsick's sequel, Sweetheart.

©2007 Verite, Inc. (P)2007 Audio Renaissance, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishers LLC

Critic reviews

“Heartsick has it all: a tortured cop, a fearless and quirky heroine, and what may be the creepiest serial killer ever created. This is an addictive read!” —Tess Gerritsen, author of The Mephisto Club

“Chelsea Cain's novel is completely entrancing and totally original--what a read. Between the humanity of Portland cop Archie Sheridan and the chilling and twisted design of his beautiful nemesis, Gretchen Lowell, Heartsick is utterly unforgettable. Cain is a wonderful--and terrifying--storyteller.” —Dominick Dunne

“Law & Order¹s Carolyn McCormick does a mean female-serial-killer voice, bringing Cain¹s haunting horror story to life.” —People on Heartsick

Interesting but not very exciting.

If you’ve listened to books by Chelsea Cain before, how does this one compare?

I thought Kill Me Twice was so much better than Heartsick but I wanted to listen to it because it is the first in the series. Not a big fan of Heartsick. It was so predictable! It was also a little far fetched. I still enjoyed listening to it, even though the narrator was not the best..she was a little boring to listen to.
Honestly I would recommend skipping this book and diving into the series...I wasn't confused at all when I read Kill me Twice first, they go over everything a million times.

What a yawn!!!

Great book if you're looking for something to put you to sleep. I was instantly bored and could not get into it. I suffered through over half of it, but found that I just didn't care how it ended. Sorry, not trying to me harsh, but it just wasn't for me.

Wasn't sure what to expect, but I loved it.

This is a great book and a great read/listen! Definitely should listen to if you like a darker tone.

The plot twisted into both victim and killer....

......in a way that I've never experienced. What happens gives us an expanded take on love, atraction, hatred, and revenge.

We all own the traits that combine into personality disorders. In what combination and to what measure is the difference between those of us who embrace life and those of us who study and master torture and death.

This is a gripping, suspense-filled novel, and a compulsive listen.

Carolyn McCormick is a masterful reader, who sets up the characters and then smoothly disappears.

I can’t stop reading this book!

I’ve read at least 100 serial killer suspense cop novels… And this is one of my all-time favorites! I normally can figure out from the first chapter who the killer is but not in this novel. I typically don’t like a lot of alliteration but Cain gives just enough for you to picture and even smell exactly what she’s narrating in your mind. Cain doesn’t keep repeating the same description over and over. This book felt fresh to me and very current. I couldn’t get enough of this story and I was sad to reach the end. She wrapped up every loose end and left you feeling hopeful in the end. I give it a 10!

Well done villains but the protagonists bored me

Overall, I truly enjoyed this book. I liked some aspects of the main villain Gretchen, and it had to do with her bottomless insanity. There were a couple different storylines going on, all were interesting enough. My only issue was I didn’t find the main protagonists (the heroes) interesting enough, but that is due to my personal preference. I see this book may be a part of a series and briefly considered reading another book in this chain, but I think I’ll hold off on that for now.

Good Book

This was a great listen! It was very well written(a little wordy at times), but very thought-provoking and eye-brow raising. I do agree with some other reviews regarding the narrator. She was a little flat at first, but after a few minutes it becomes evident the book is worth listening too, poor narrator or otherwise. It was a good plot, I found myself bored with the "after school killer" and more interested in hearing about the Beauty Killer and Archie. It developed more as the story continued and wrapped together nicely at the end. I didn't find it to be predictible and was very satisfied with the ending. I'll definately be listening to "Sweetheart". Kudos to the author for developing a great female serial killer. I found that to be more entertaining than having a female heroin. Definately worth the time and money. Enjoy!

Enjoyable thriller

The story kept me involved and wanting more. I normally listen to audio books while walking for exercise and a couple walking trips were extended because I didn't want to stop listening.Good detail and narrative that made me have a personal connection with the characters. Recommended this to a coworker and would recommend to others.

Pretty good gory thriller, but...

This is my first experience with both Chelsea Cain & the reader, Carolyn McCormick. The book basically consists of two stories; the present-day tale involves detective Archie Sheridan going after a serial killer who targets high school girls, and the back story which describes Archie's torture at the hands of the notorious female serial killer, Gretchen, known as the ???Beauty Killer.??? Archie didn???t exactly catch Gretchen; she very nearly tortures him to death, then calls 911 and thus saves his life and is also caught. Gretchen has screwed up Archie???s mind arguably worse than his body; he has moved out of his home, leaving his wife & 2 kids, he visits Gretchen in prison every Sunday, and pretty much thinks about her all the time.

I???m aware of the Stockholm Syndrome, but Archie has something well beyond TSS???as in, a sexual thing from being vilely tortured by this psycho. I???ve read a lot of gory/horror books, but Gretchen really is in a class all by herself. Yikes. Also yikes that Archie gets off on remembering it.

Carolyn McCormick did a fine job with the book; her character voices were mostly identifiable and she has a pleasant voice, which I confess I don???t often find in a female reader (yeah, I know, shoot me. I am female myself, shoot me twice). It is one of my pet peeves that (generally) female authors get female readers, & male authors, male readers, regardless of the gender of the narrator or main character. It would have made more sense to me to have the reader of this book be male, since Archie was the main voice (though we do see things from G???s pov as well, though not as much). I'd have no qualms about hearing another book read by Ms McCormick.

I see there are 5 novels (so far) in this series; I cannot imagine how Cain can keep it going that long with a detective & the same serial killer, no matter what 'other' stor(ies) accompany the dynamic duo. Do they end up taking turns with a sort of ???catch and release" program, or what? I???m not interested enough at this point to spend the money to find out. If I get desperate for audiobooks, I may come back, but not yet.

Most Terrifying?

This book might well be the most grisly, frightening, and yes---terrifying mysteries I've read in a long time. I'm a huge Stephen King fan and never thought I could be shaken up beyond anything he's written. But this book scared the heck out of me. Often I had to turn it off just because I couldn't listen to more grim details. The story is fascinating and certainly not like anything else I've read. And the narrator is just wonderful! There was seldom a time when I didn't know who was speaking, even though many of the lesser "cop" characters pretty much could be mistaken for one another. I guess the degree of sickness on the part of this serial killer is just this side of Hannibal Lechter, but because he is so "normal", he frightened me even more. I would definitely read more books by this author and this narrator. Be prepared to be scared!