Heart Sick of the usual crime thrillers?? - Rated 
If as the title says your sick of the usual crime thrillers then try this book. I did and yes its graphic but no more than your usually Patricia Cornwell or kathy Reiches. Yes you can see its an early novel but with a lot of promise. Yes its disturbing but Im so sick of the predictable story lines that are being rehashed lately that I found it refreshing, a new author with a new story to tell. Read it its a refreshing change to the usual famous crime writers who seem to me to have lost the plot, literally! I was desperate to find something new and fresh and here it is. Enjoy
Déjà vu......Hannibal has already been here... - Rated 
Why do some authors believe that a crime novel gets better if they load it with horrible and gruesome details???
Personally I just hate it. My crime "taste buds" need something more sophisticated than that.
Don't buy this book.
A tale as awful as the book's title - Rated
This is one of the worst books I have ever read. The attempts to shock and appal the reader fall flat. The serial killer "Gretchen" has no motive or reason whatsoever for her mindless violence. The author assumes this adds spooky terror a la Hannibal Lecter. On the contrary, it just makes the whole dull plot more ridiculous. One feels that our author here has read some Thomas Harris and got all excited, thinking, "I could do that"! - and Chelsea Cain absolutely cannot do it. This is absolute, bargain bucket, trash, a poor man's 'Hostel' (which is saying something!). This is badly written torture porn, which manages to be boring, irritating, derivative, unpleasant and naive. I could barely stomach to finish the book. The actual main serial killer (think Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs - another original idea from this author!)is caught without any detection work whatsoever, the cops merely wait till the kiler "grabs another girl" in the hope to find him in the act. Some detectives! Rarely have I read such a pathetic attempt at a novel - truly, shockingly, awful. Utter rubbish.
Heartsick? Sick and tired by the end. - Rated
I'd been looking forward to reading this book. However, towards the end the only reason I endured it is because I don't like leaving books half-read. I cared very little about the characters. I found Susan aggressive and annoying; did we have to know what she was wearing during every chapter?; Archie pathetic and weak; and Gretchen was tiresome and her murders unnecessarily horrific and slightly far-fetched. There was a total absence of forensic science or any plain detective work in solving these crimes.
I see that the author was introducing the characters for use in subsequent books, but to be honest, I'm not going to bother with them.
Tries too hard - Rated 
I had high hopes for this book after hearing rave reviews comparing it's killer to the likes of Hanibal Lector and Annie Wilkes and comparing the writing to that of Karin Slaughter.
Both of these statements, in my oppinion, are far to generous.
It felt to me like Cain was trying too hard to Gross out the reader. I'm not against gore in books Karin Slaughter is one of my favorite writers. However where Slaughters gore seems neccesary to the story Cains does not. Now this may boil down to the fact that this is Cains debut and she has a long way to go before she reaches the writing talent of say Slaughter, and for that reason I may have let it slide. But the truth is this book is boring.
There are no characters that the reader would care about. Not the sadistic serial killer who is so obviously based on Stephen Kings Annie Wilkes. Nor the drugged up cop with a broken marriage or the troubled reporter whos pink hair seems to be referenced almost every chapter.
No it all seems to me that Cain's selling factor was to base her Killer on famous previous killers and then to throw in some gorey details that have proven succesful for the likes of Karin Slaughter and Mo Hayder. This book seems to be looking for a niche, treading old ground and not really pushing any boundaries in the genre. And while that isn't unfamiliar with a debut and therefore not really a reason to award it with such a low mark I refer back to the the writing which really isnt up to standards debut or not.
Maybe Cain will make this into a good series and gain some credibility but im afraid I wont continue reading this series to find out. And i'd advise you to save your time and money and do the same
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