#1 Archie Sheridan/Gretchen LowellAudio read by Carolyn McCormick
Audio Renaissance, 2007
7 unabridged cds
10.5 hrs.
336 pages
Rating: 5
This was quite an unusual story. Archie Sheridan is a savvy Portland, Oregon police detective who spent ten years heading up the task force looking for the Beauty Killer. But then, she caught him. Gretchen Lowell is gorgeous. She is also psychopathic. She mutilates her victims while they are awake and feeling. She is loving to them.....and kills them slowly. She does the same to Archie Sheridan. She feeds him all sorts of drugs, including hallucinogens. She breaks ribs with nails and a hammer. She removes his spleen. She carves up his chest with an Exacto knife. And then she poisons him by having him drink drain cleaner. All this without anesthesia.
Gretchen has always killed her victims, numbering 200. However, she spares Archie and allows herself to be caught and jailed. Now, two years later, Archie, totally addicted to various pain killers in large quantities, goes back to work heading another task force, to find a new serial killer that's killing 15 year-old schoolgirls.
The story weaves in and around Archie's current investigations, his memories of the time he was abused by Gretchen, his Sunday visits with Gretchen in prison, and the thoughts and life of Susan Ward, the mid-twenties journalist who has been assigned to profile Archie for the Portland Herald. Pink-haired, frisky, smart, and flawed by her father's death when she was 14, she is a character that pulls us in and makes us like her whether we want to or not.
And what a story this is. It was absolutely mesmerising. I can't wait to find out what's in store for the next installment. It looks like Chelsea Cain has just published her fourth about Archie Sheridan and Gretchen Lowell. I hope they all include Susan, too.
Next books in the series: Sweetheart, Evil at Heart, and Night Season, which was just published four days ago.
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