Evil at Heart by Chelsea Cain

Apparently I've been on a sex, drugs, and brutality kick lately--but only with the reading list, don't worry. After reading the first two Stieg Larsson thrillers (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played with Fire), I snuck Evil at Heart into the queue. Evil at Heart is Chelsea Cain's third book about Portland detective Archie Sheridan and serial killer Gretchen Lowell, after Heartsick and Sweetheart.

I was excited for this one--I really liked the the first two. Fun reads, but also challenging enough to be worthwhile. This one was just kind of...easy. It follows the same universe of characters (the Portland cops and reporter trying to bring down Gretchen, the most attractive serial killer this side of Ted Bundy), and a similar plot line. Gretchen is back on the loose, after manipulating Archie Sheridan from her prison cell for two novels and ultimately using him to escape. Archie, for his part, is still royally effed up by her, but is trying to push past it. He's in rehab for the pill addiction he developed after she carved him up and brought him back to life, and has finally started to break her psychosexual hold over him. But not much actually happens in the book, except a series of copycat murders that may or may not be Gretchen's handiwork.

There's also the world's slowest love interest development going on, between Archie and crime reporter Susan Ward. It took him one book to get rid of his wife, 2.5 to stop fantasizing about Gretchen, and now finally Archie and Susan are both admitting there might be a mutual crush. Who do they think they are, me? I don't know how many books Cain is planning, but jeez. Just get there already. Not that there's no romance going on in this installment--there's a touching scene of self-mutilation fetishization.

The most interesting part of the book is Cain's characterization of America's relationship to sensational crime stories. The newly escaped Gretchen is an object of obsession for the country, with TV specials like America's Hottest Serial Killers and "Run, Gretchen, run" t-shirts. There's also a cult of Gretchen-obsessed psychos who convene on an online message board (surprise, surprise) and meet up in spots where previous victims were found. The social commentary gets a little heavy-handed (the TV show in particular is a bit too on-the-nose), but I think Cain's pretty spot-on about the terror-to-fascination ratio.

The book also suffers from Dan Brown Syndrome, where the author uses chapter breaks to create artificial movement and action. The first fifty pages have about twelve chapters. And it's not a long book. I still really enjoy Cain's style and writing--and I would have been fine waiting longer, for a deeper and more substantial read. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the next one will be a little more satisfying. I bought this book knowing it'd be quick and dirty, but it turns out I needed a little more conversation first.