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Series · thriller

Archie Sheridan & Gretchen Lowell

by Chelsea Cain

The Archie Sheridan & Gretchen Lowell series by Chelsea Cain has 6 known books (6 published) and is best read in publication order, starting with Heartsick (2007).

Books
6 known books (6 novels)
Published
6
First published
2007
Status
completed
Shelved under
Thriller
Last checked

Start here: Heartsick (2007) — then read straight through in publication order.

Book one

Cover of Heartsick

Heartsick (2007)

Reading order

The date order of published books and any announced future entries — the default way to read the series.

  1. Heartsick

    Novel

    Heartsick launches the series in 2007, two years after Detective Archie Sheridan finally caught the Beauty Killer, Gretchen Lowell, who tortured him for ten days before inexplicably letting him live. Now addicted to the painkillers that got him through captivity, Sheridan is pulled back into an active case and forced to consult Lowell herself; the novel won the 2007 Edgar Award for Best First Novel.

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  2. Sweetheart

    Novel

    Sweetheart followed in 2008, matching Heartsick's 336-page length exactly, continuing the uneasy obsession, dependency, and mutual damage between Sheridan and his imprisoned nemesis Gretchen Lowell as Chelsea Cain complicates whether he can ever really be free of her.

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  3. Evil at Heart

    Novel

    Evil at Heart, the third entry, was published in 2009 at 352 pages, deepening the Sheridan-Lowell dynamic through her escapes, recaptures, and manipulations that drive the series far more than any single case.

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  4. The Night Season

    Novel

    The Night Season, from 2011, runs 387 pages, the longest book in the series up to that point, continuing Archie Sheridan's fraught pull toward Gretchen Lowell as the fourth installment in Chelsea Cain's Portland-set thriller series.

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  5. Kill You Twice

    Novel

    Kill You Twice appeared in August 2012 as the fifth novel, running 326 pages, keeping the Sheridan-Lowell relationship at the center as Chelsea Cain moves the series toward its conclusion the following year.

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  6. Let Me Go

    Novel

    Chelsea Cain closed the series with Let Me Go in August 2013, a 384-page sixth and final book that resolves Archie Sheridan and Gretchen Lowell's obsessive, damaging dynamic after six novels of escapes, recaptures, and manipulation.

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About the Archie Sheridan & Gretchen Lowell series

Detective Archie Sheridan spent years hunting the serial killer known as the Beauty Killer before she caught him instead, tortured him for ten days, and then -- inexplicably -- let him live and turned herself in. Chelsea Cain's series opens two years later in Heartsick (2007): Sheridan, addicted to the painkillers that got him through his captivity, is pulled back into an active case and finds he needs to consult the one person who understands the new killer's psychology best -- Gretchen Lowell herself, now his prisoner as much as he was once hers. Their relationship, equal parts obsession, dependency, and mutual damage, is the engine of the whole series far more than any individual case.

Cain, a Portland-based novelist and former alt-weekly columnist, built the series around the gap between the two lead characters -- rather than a straightforward hunter-and-hunted structure, each book complicates whether Sheridan can ever really be free of Lowell, and whether he even wants to be. Heartsick won the 2007 Edgar Award for Best First Novel and was named among Stephen King's best books of the year; the five sequels that followed kept the same uneasy central dynamic through Lowell's escapes, recaptures, and manipulations until the story's conclusion in Let Me Go (2013).

Frequently asked questions

How many books are in the Archie Sheridan and Gretchen Lowell series?

Six novels, from Heartsick (2007) through Let Me Go (2013).

Did Heartsick win any awards?

Yes -- it won the 2007 Edgar Award for Best First Novel and was named among Stephen King's six best books of 2008 by Entertainment Weekly.

Is the series complete?

Yes, it concluded with Let Me Go in 2013; Chelsea Cain moved on to a new series, Kick Lannigan, afterward.

Does the series need to be read in order?

Yes -- the central relationship between Sheridan and Lowell develops continuously across all six books.

Reading order last verified .