Evil at Heart: Long character arc's is Fan appreciated!




Chelsea Cain has become one of my favorite authors over the last year. I have read a great number of her books, and have even considered getting a newspaper subscription so I can keep up with her more day to day writings as a columnist at The Oregonian.

I lucked into an Advance Reader Copy of this book. By 'lucked', I mean that I hit up every source I knew which was giving away copies and threw myself in the pot. I waited patiently through all of July, crossing my fingers and hoping. Though my fingers are stiff, I guess it worked. The better part of a month before public release, I received a glorious copy.

When it arrived in my cubicle at work, I opened the package and felt a little tug in my blood box.
Other books in this series include HeartSick and SweetHeart, each of which includes key characters Archie Sheridan, Susan Ward, Henry Sobol, a variety of others, and of course, the Beauty Killer herself, Gretchen Lowell

The third book in a series, Evil at Heart did not disappoint. The book picks up with Detective Archie Sheridan, holed away in a mental institution. He has purposefully stayed there where he can be kept out of trouble. After nearly dying at the hands of escaped serial killer Gretchen Lowell (twice), he is in need of a break, recoup time and d drug rehab. Archie is pretty screwed up, there is really no nice way of stating that.

I would say more, but I refuse to spoil the plot in any way.

The front cover of the Arc copy is a dummy cover. It hides the proposed street cover underneath it. In my opinion, the UK cover version looks far cooler than the US version.
Emblazoned across the ARC reads the cliche “To truly understand evil, you must become it….”.
Instead it would have been better to write, “To truly understand evil, smell her sweet breath as she leans in to kiss you. ”. No cliche is needed for this series.

--
Disclosure:
This book was kindly provided by the publisher after my digital begging. it was provided for review purposes. I hate begging, but sometimes you must be the submissive man in the gimp costume in order to get what you desire. Being the gimp in no way influenced my perspective of this novel.

Comments

  1. jennAugust 13, 2009 at 3:15 PM

    I heart Chelsea Cain with a big, pink, shiny heart (or in this case maybe a heart dripping in blood). I really enjoy reading her hilarious column about her daily ins and outs with her family and the city (if you haven't read one yet, please google the one with her and the kolala. It makes me pee-my-pants laugh) and then reading her dark, highly enjoyable novels. Being your wife (well almost) I was completely swooning when you let me read the advanced copy before you (even if you did it primarily so I wouldn't be pestering you with the constant "are you done yet? are you done yet?" questioning of my 5 year old side). This novel was totally awesome and I can't wait to buy a hard cover copy as soon as it is published. I only wish we were able to go to her reading so we can have it signed like we did the last ones. But, alas, I hope there will be a next time (i.e. another book!!!!!)

    ReplyDelete
  2. erisianAugust 14, 2009 at 2:15 PM

    you mean this one about the koala?

    http://www.oregonlive.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2008/02/chelsea_cains_lets_go_koalawal.html

    its pretty damn awesome!

    ReplyDelete

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