The other day I went to my local Barnes and Nobel to do some book shopping, and can I tell you what a disappointment it was. I couldn’t find a copy of Rue Morgue or Fangoria to read for free while I drank my coffee, and the horror section was not much better. It consisted of maybe 4 or 5 authors; Clive Barker, Stephen King, Peter Straub, Jack Ketchum with a few Brian Keene scattered around. I was forced to buy the one Poppy Z Brite book jammed in the back, the one Ketchum novel I have not read yet, Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, and a comic book about Skrulls. It just shows what a sad state horror novels are in, fueled by pretentious “authors” with their heads up their asses like, Mehitobel Wilson and the small horror presses.
When I was leaving I noticed Chelsea Cain’s Heartsick had come out in paperback. Heartsick is a serial killer book I wrote a half-assed review (read here) for sometime ago, and while I stick to what I said, I wanted to point out that Cain’s series may be the only new books at stores worth checking out. While it won’t dazzle hardcore horror fans, the star of Heartsick (the female equivalent of Hannibal Lector), Gretchen Lowell is getting rave reviews. If you are not an avid reader of horror or thriller novels because you are too scared to take a blind leap into the book world, then Heartsick and Cain’s new book Swetheart may be for you. If you read a lot of books and have read everything there is to read, then I would also check out her books.
Bookreporter.com says: [Sweetheart] contains the salt of The Silence of the Lambs, the pepper of Basic Instinct and the garlic of Fatal Attraction. But the red meat (and there’s plenty of it) is all Cain’s own.”
Like I said in my review of Heartsick, Cain’s story may be a little too much like Silence of the Lambs, but she definitely delivers a great thriller, with just the right amount of twists and turns. Its a good read while waiting for the next Ketchum or Keene to come along, or while you wait for the next Dexter book.
