EVIL AT HEART
Chelsea Cain
Minotaur Books
Thriller
ISBN: 9780312368487
If one was to attempt to name the most frightening aspect of Chelsea Cain’s latest novel, it would be difficult to pick a winner. Cain, a reporter for The Oregonian, exploded into the world of thriller literature with HEARTSICK, the first installment in a trilogy featuring female serial killer Gretchen Lowell and homicide detective Archie Sheridan. This debut went into dark places that seemed almost unimaginable, with Sheridan pursuing Lowell, her true identity unknown at that point, even as he was being seduced by her. In SWEETHEART, Lowell is in prison for the majority of the book, yet controlling actions in and out of her jail cell while continuing to manipulate Sheridan.
Lowell is physically absent for most of EVIL AT HEART, yet one cannot turn the pages without feeling her presence in the room. And therein lies one of the most startling aspects of the novel: the paranoia that informs practically every sentence of the story. This, combined with Cain’s unflinching, graphic descriptions of unspeakable deeds and (perhaps most significantly) Lowell’s ascendancy to folk-hero status, makes EVIL AT HEART one of the most frightening books you will ever read.
Lowell escaped from prison at the conclusion of SWEETHEART, leaving Sheridan in shreds physically, emotionally and personally. As the new book begins, his body bears the scars of sharp-edged indignities that Lowell visited upon him. Emotionally he is obsessed with her; and personally his marriage is over, his wife and children having fled Portland to new lives in Washington State. Sheridan has surrendered to a controlled and safe life as an inpatient in a mental hospital. Meanwhile, a cult of personality has inexplicably exploded around Lowell. There are guided Beauty Killer bus tours to the sites of her murders; Lowell’s image is on the covers of leading regional and national magazines; and everything from restaurants to nail salons are naming products and services after her. Yet she remains tantalizingly, maddeningly out of sight.
Sheridan is brought out of his seemingly safe cocoon and back to the world when it appears that Lowell, reneging on a promise that she had made to Sheridan, has begun killing again. Bodies are discovered at three different sites; the description of at least one of them, a roadside rest stop, will almost certainly give you pause every time you have the urge or need to stop at one during your next long-distance motor trip. Henry Sobol, Sheridan’s steady and dryly acerbic partner, is there to help Sheridan take his tentative steps back into the world and police work, as is Susan Ward, whose feelings for him remain undefined though very much in the moment.
While investigating the latest series of killings, Sheridan finds past horrific murders linked to Lowell that were never officially solved. Lowell is in touch with Sheridan, but is as enigmatic and, indeed, as erotically charming as ever, even as the horror of what and who she is shines through while remaining a haunting presence just off the page. When Lowell does appear, it is in a cataclysmic conclusion that raises more questions than it answers, leaving the reader gasping and haunted.
I somehow cannot bring myself to believe that we have seen the last of any of the characters who manage to reach the final pages intact. Regardless, EVIL AT HEART, as with the previous books, stands as a landmark exploration of the darkest reaches of the human psyche, where love, passion, and something unnamable and unknowable intersect.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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