Evil at Heart by Chelsea Cain MacMillan, HK$91
If you have yet to discover Chelsea Cain's odd but immensely enjoyable trio of crime novels, can I advise you to get cracking? All have the word 'heart' slipped punningly into the title (the others are Heartsick and Sweetheart), and all are slippery and thrilling takes on the serial killer genre. The set-up is as follows. Detective Archie Sheridan had spent a decade hunting a vicious mass murderer called the Beauty Killer (aka Gretchen Lowell) when she captures, tortures and then for apparently no reason releases him, only to turn herself in. So begins a relationship that is twisted even by crime fiction standards - think Hannibal Lecter and Clarice Starling in need of marriage counselling. As part three opens, Gretchen has escaped from prison and is seemingly up to her old tricks: an otherwise innocent spleen becomes the centre of a murder investigation when drawings of 100 hearts are found on a nearby wall. Only, is this the work of Lowell or an overly ardent fan club? Whichever it is, they want Sheridan dead. Bit-part players such as journalist Susan Ward and detective Henry Sobol are increasingly to the fore. But never fear (or perhaps always fear): this is still the Archie and Gretchen show.
