Heartsick
Chelsea Cain
St. Martin’s Minotaur
U.S. hardcover, 1st ed.
ISBN 0-312-36846-1
336 pages; $23.95

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.