Heartsick - Chelsea Cain - Rated 
There is little to add to the reviews already written which rightly appraise "Heartsick" as a strong debut and excellently explain the plot and characters.
All I would add to these are that the theme of psychological wounds and how to deal with them together with the victim/tormenter relationship is interesting - and rightfully remains unanswered.
I agree with the other reviewers that this is a gripping read and will evolve into a good series but I felt that the red herring added in was easily seen through and that the ending was too contrived for me.
Simply fantastic - Rated 
I brought Heartsick in August 2007 and was sceptical of a novel involving a female serial killer but I have to say that it has been the best book I have read in a very long time. The main characters in the book are Gretchan Lowell - serial killer who has perfected the art of inflicting unimaginable pain on her victims and Archie Sheridan - detective hunting her! It is not long before the hunter becomes the prey and Gretchen Lowell acquires her greatest prize off all Archie Sheridan. Chelsea Cain expertly shows the reader the bond developing between the two and as you read the tension in the book builds at an extraordinary pace. This is one of those rare finds - a female serial killer, a gut retching plot and a book you will not be able to put down!!!!
I simply cant wait for the follow up novels - Sweetheart and heart breaker whcih are due within the next 2 years
blistered fingers - Rated
This is the kind of novel that Thomas Harris could only dream about writing.The most unputdownable novel I have ever read. I could not turn the pages fast enough. More please
Gripping Read - Rated
I looked at this book several times before deciding to buy it and I'm so glad I did. I thought it was excellent. I could hardly bear to put it down and consequently read it in two days. I'm really looking forward to the next book whenever that may be!
Brilliant (if a little sick) - Rated
For nearly 10 years a serial killer, dubbed as The Beauty Killer, was on the loose, putting the victims through vicious torture and brutal mutilation before bringing them to their grisly end. A task force of detectives and profilers was put together to catch this sadistic killer, but all went wrong when the team's leader Archie Sheriden was also kidnapped and put through 10 days of terrible abuse and even surgery. This was when Archie Sheriden met Gretchen Lowell.
Now, over 2 years later, Archie is on the slow road to recovery from Gretchen and has been called back to help the rest of the Beauty Killer task force when a new killer is on the prowl, abducting, raping and finally murdering young girls on their way home from school. Gretchen is in prison after giving herself up, but Archie must still face this beautiful monster and visit her each Sunday, where she gives him names and locations of other people she had murdered over the years. Also, working in Archie's shadow is the young reporter Susan Ward who is writing a story on Archie but is also trying to work her way into the mind of the psychopathic killer, Gretchen.
If you take the genius yet insane mind of Hannibal Lector (The Hannibal Saga) mix it with the obsessiveness of Annie Wilkes (Misery), add the sick torture skills of Jigsaw (Saw) and the beauty and seductiveness of Catherine Tramell (Basic Instinct), you'll begin to get some idea of what Chelsea Cain's character Gretchen Lowell is like. For a debut novel this is very, very good. The book grips you from the first page with the first chapter being where Archie has nails hammered into his ribs to for a heart shape. It then fast forwards 2 years to the new after school killer and with Archie having to cope with the trauma that he has been through and knowing that Gretchen is still controlling him even though she is being held in a maximum security facility. The story also has quite a large focus on the reporter, Susan, being her first real big assignment, she is going all out to get the story, and the sense of excitement and fear around the crime scenes (and of course Grethen) adds a lot of realism to the mix. I read a lot of crime thrillers and this is easily one of the most gruesome and sickest I've ever read - giving even the likes of Karin Slaughter, Thomas Harris and Jonathan Nasaw a run from their money. Don't let that put you off though (unless you really can't stomach it!) as lying behind this gorefest is a very clever, very exciting and most importantly, very scary psychological thriller that will keep you thinking about it long after you have put the book down.
The only things that really stop me giving 'Heart Sick' the full 5-star rating is that at times it does feel a little bit like an introduction to the next book, building up Gretchen's character and giving her the ultimate serial killer status perhaps a bit prematurely, as although she does have similarities to Hannibal, Wilkes and Tramell (as well as dozens of other fictional killers), she still doesn't quite have the powerful presence that I felt when reading or watching the others for the first time, where they did actually scare the hell out of me.
This aside it is definitely still one of the best crime thrillers of recent years and Chelsea Cain is an author that I'll be keeping an eye out for in the future when she releases her next novel, and follow-up to Heart Sick, Sweetheart, later on this year. Overall, if you enjoy serial killer thrillers that are guaranteed to keep you engrossed from start to finish, and you can also stomach the disturbing and gory detail, then I highly recommend Heart Sick to you. It is a very entertaining read - just don't expect it to be a very pleasant one!
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