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SWEETHEART
by Chelsea Cain
Macmillan, July 2008
320 pages
12.99 GBP
ISBN: 0230015905


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Susan Ward is, as usual, trailing after a good story. As loyal readers will be aware, Archie Sheridan, law enforcement officer, and Susan, journalist, are both damaged people with Archie, perhaps being the more damaged of the pair. In the previous novel in the series, he had been captured by Gretchen Lowell, the Beauty Killer, who kept him prisoner while she went merrily about her vocation of carving various artistic works onto her victims‛ persons. Archie did not lose only his spleen to Gretchen but also his heart, and she returned the favour, carving a heart design on his chest above his actual heart.

Henry Sobol is Archie‛s partner. Together they investigate a murder in Forest Park where they first uncovered a victim of the Beauty Killer twelve years previously. Now, however, Gretchen Lowell is imprisoned, so whoever was responsible for another corpse in the woods, it can‛t be Gretchen.

Archie, whose marriage was deeply damaged by his fascination with Gretchen, is nevertheless still living with his ex-wife and children. Gretchen has kept him loyally attending her in jail as she doles out the names of her victims (and, therefore, the places she worships) at the meagre rate of one a week. Eventually, Archie is convinced that he can never fully recover while constantly visiting Gretchen, so he attempts to take steps away from the beautiful murderer.

Susan is investigating the story of a US senator who seduced his children‛s fourteen-year-old babysitter ten years ago and who is still involved with her. Should the sordid story become public, the Senator‛s political career might find itself abruptly over.

Chelsea Cain has made a reasonable fist of another mystery. Of course, one must make a willing suspension of disbelief in several directions, most especially the trapeze act into belief in a masochistic love affair between a slightly defective detective and the psychopathic murderer.

I wouldn‛t care to examine the characters of Archie and Gretchen too closely but the other baddies seem sufficiently convincing. Certainly it does not stretch credulity to believe that a politician would want to extend his political career regardless of what he deserves. The author is not bad, either, at replicating the atmosphere in the places where murders occur - a sort of a Place of the Skull spookily setting the scene.

Obviously, from the ending of the book, fortunate fans of the series can look forward to another murder or six in the near future.

Reviewed by Denise Pickles, August 2008

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