Dive into the Night Season

Chelsea Cain's novels have to be some of the creepiest stories I have ever read. She writes a series starring Portland Police Detective Archie Sheridan, who pursued Gretchen Lowell (a.k.a., The Beauty Killer) through her first three books. The NIght Season stars Archie Sheridan (and a few other characters from the first three books) but covers a whole new subject matter and killer who is just as disturbingly psychotic as Gretchen Lowell. The subject matter of the book is relevant---the action of the story is centered around a huge flood of the Willamette river, that runs through Portland, and the havoc it is wreaking on the town at the same time a crazed killer is murdering random people. Archie Sheridan is working overtime to catch the killer and figure out what all of his/her victims have in common. Archie Sheridan is a wonderful flawed hero---he has beaten his vicodin addiction but is still tempted, and his tempation makes him more believable. This book is great for fans of crime fiction, and even though The Night Season does not draw on events from Chelsea Cain's first three novels, you will miss out on a lot of character back story if you do not read this books in order by starting with Heartsick.