Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Kill You Twice-Chelsea Cain

Kill You Twice


Chelsea Cain

Minotaur, Aug 7 2012, $24.99

ISBN: 9780312619787



Portland Police Detective Archie Sheridan the insomniac knows why he cannot sleep by touching the scar; so when nine year old Patrick calls him, he commiserates as they belong to the same survivor club and counts numbers with the traumatized child until the lad falls asleep.



On the top of Mount Tabor in a park, Archie looks at the body of Jake Kelley, a volunteer at the Life Work Center for Young Women. The victim was hammered in the head and tortured while alive with skin carved from his chest and abdomen before he died. Legally insane serial killer Gretchen Lowell resides in lock up at the Oregon State Hospital where she persuades Dr. Prescott to inform Archie that her child is in danger; he wants nothing to do with the great manipulator who scarred him and left him sleepless in Portland though he knows if a child lives the kid could be his. When a second victim is burned to death on the fifty foot city neon sign in Old Town, Lowell contacts reporter Susan Ward insisting Ryan Motley is the killer and that there is a third not yet found victim.



The latest Sheridan-Lowell Oregonian tango (see The Night Season) is somewhat the same refrain especially early, but freshened up starting with Prescott's revelation and Ward’s interview of the diabolical serial killer that provides series fans with deeper insight into her psyche especially her past. The twisting storyline is fast-paced from the Kelly homicide and never slows down as Lowell proves her psychopathic brilliance; summed up by her assertion that Archie is happiest when he chases her.



Harriet Klausner

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