"We've been down Hannibal Lecter Avenue many times, and these two books shouldn't work...but they do. Chalk it up to excellent writing and Cain's ferocious sense of humor."
--Stephen King, Entertainment Weekly | Top 10 Books of 2008
(HEARTSICK & SWEETHEART)

"Popular entertainment - the kind that mixes crime, horror, and even a little comedy - just doesn’t get much better than this."
--Booklist, STARRED review
(EVIL AT HEART)

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Latest News

EVIL AT HEART: the TODAY show, Chicago Sun-Times, NYTBR, and USA Today!

Check out the TODAY show clip here.

Chicago Sun-Times, by Denise I. O'Neal, 10.04.09 -- Cain is among a new breed of women writers stepping way out of the stereotypical female comfort zones of writing purple prose and chick lit, and instead serving up meatier and more gruesome stories.

NYTBR, by Maria Russo, 09.27.09 -- You have to hand it to Cain, who's made the serial-killer genre a thoroughly female-friendly experience. It's not just that Gretchen Lowell, the psycho killer at the center of Cain's thrillers, is a woman.

USA Today, by Carol Memmott, 10.01.09 -- Cain's wonderfully over-the-top series takes a new turn...It's not to be missed.

NYT Bestseller: for THREE weeks!

EVIL AT HEART has now been on the NYT Bestseller List for three weeks! (9/20/09: #16, 9/27/09: #28, 10/4/09: #33)

Evil at Heart: NYT Bestseller!

See the full list here!

Chelsea Slays Portland: An Interview

Check out Chelsea's latest interview with Powell's Books here.  And why disembowelment is funny.  Or should be.

Evil at Heart EW Pick!

Entertainment Weekly names EVIL AT HEART their pick for September 5.  Go get your own copy already!

Evil at Heart: a Review by The Oregonian

"Archie may be an even more compelling character than Gretchen. Together -- and Cain puts them together in ways you'll never forget -- they perform a dance you can't stop staring at no matter how much it horrifies you....the prose itself is as sharp as Gretchen's scalpel and as deftly wielded."

MOST VIEWED on YouTube!

The trailer for my new book just HIT THE MOST VIEWED LIST under PEOPLE & BLOGS on YouTube!  Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb_WSQJamhA.

True Blood

A character was reading HEARTSICK on the HBO vampire-hit True Blood a few weeks ago. True Blood happens to be my favorite show right now, so there was a lot of yelling around here. Three more weeks until EVIL AT HEART comes out. Order your copy now at the usual places.
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Fast Facts

Evil at Heart
September, 2009
  • New York Times Bestseller
  • Named by Amazon as “One of the Best Books of 2009…So Far”
  • Starred review in Booklist
  • Recommended on the TODAY show

Check back after publication for more.

Sweetheart
September, 2008
  • New York Times Bestseller
  • One of Stephen King’s Top Ten Books of the Year (2008) in Entertainment Weekly
  • Audiobook an Audie Finalist
  • Appeared in an episode of the TV show Castle
Heartsick
September, 2007
  • New York Times Bestseller
  • One of Stephen King’s Top Ten Books of the Year (2008) in Entertainment Weekly
  • New York Times Book Review "editor's choice"
  • Amazon's “Mystery/Thriller of the Year” (2007)
  • BookSense 76 Pick (September, 2007)
  • Featured alternate for Book of the Month Club, Literary Guild, Doubleday Book Club, Mystery Guild, QPB
  • Translated into over 20 languages, including Icelandic, Romanian, and Japanese
  • Film rights optioned by DeMann Entertainment. Script in-development
  • Appeared in an episode of the TV show True Blood
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Biography

CHELSEA CAIN was born in 1972, lived the first few years of her life on a hippie commune in Iowa, and grew up in Bellingham, Washington.

Her first novel featuring Detective Archie Sheridan and serial killer Gretchen Lowell, HEARTSICK, was a New York Times bestseller in both hardcover and paperback and has been translated into over 20 languages.  SWEETHEART and EVIL AT HEART, the second and third in the series, respectively, are also NYT bestsellers. 

Chelsea is a former columnist for The Oregonian, and a regular contributor to The New York Times Book Review.

Her other books include:

  • DHARMA GIRL: A Road Trip Across the American Generations (Seal Press)
  • THE HIPPIE HANDBOOK (Chronicle Books)
  • CONFESSIONS OF A TEEN SLEUTH (Bloomsbury) 
  • DOES THIS CAPE MAKE ME LOOK FAT? Pop Psychology for Superheroes (Chronicle Books)

She lives in Portland, Oregon, with her family.

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Reviews

EVIL AT HEART, The Huffington Post

Oct 19 2009

Chelsea Cain is a writer who knows no fear. She manages to break all the rules of mystery writing by being as gruesome and gory as possible. You would think this style would turn off readers and repel them. You would be wrong. It attracts them. This is because Cain may be overly gruesome, but she is also a truly terrific writer. Her latest novel Evil at Heart is a prime example of that fact.

EVIL AT HEART, Chicago Sun-Times

Oct 5 2009

Cain is among a new breed of women writers stepping way out of the stereotypical female comfort zones of writing purple prose and chick lit, and instead serving up meatier and more gruesome stories.

EVIL AT HEART, USA Today

Oct 1 2009

She's the most twisted — and most beautiful — serial killer on the planet, and she's back with a vengeance in Evil at Heart, the third novel in Chelsea Cain's fantastic series that began with Heartsick and Sweetheart. Gretchen Lowell has been wreaking bloody havoc on Portland, Ore., and its environs for years. Archie Sheridan, the cop who loves and hates her, and also was once her captive, is still trying to catch her. Cain's wonderfully over-the-top series takes a new turn when fans of Gretchen try their hand at killing. It's not to be missed.

by CAROL MEMMOTT

EVIL AT HEART, New York Times Book Review

Sep 27 2009

You have to hand it to Cain, who's made the serial-killer genre a thoroughly female-friendly experience. It's not just that Gretchen Lowell, the psycho killer at the center of Cain's thrillers, is a woman.

EVIL AT HEART, The Courier Journal

Sep 26 2009

Author Chelsea Cain wields her sharp prose with a calculated cool that would make her great creation beam with pride...This is a terrific book...It's horrid, and anything but horrible.

EVIL AT HEART, Vancouver Voice

Sep 15 2009

It's a good read whose story invites you to read it too fast...the books get better and better.

EVIL AT HEART, The Onion-A.V. Club

Sep 10 2009

Gretchen and her followers are like divine forces of destruction, occasionally granting an audience to those whose lives they disrupt. If Archie falls in love with his tormentor, who can blame him? Who wouldn’t want to have an intimate relationship with God?

EVIL AT HEART, Page 69 Test

Sep 9 2009

Chelsea Cain continues to deliver heart-stopping thrills and chills in the latest entry in this dynamic bestselling series.

EVIL AT HEART, The Crime Scene by Borders

Sep 8 2009

Fast-paced and very creepy, Evil at Heart is a compulsive thriller read. You won't be able to put it down, and once you do, you won't want to turn off the lights!

EVIL AT HEART, The Oregonian

Aug 28 2009

The publisher's pitch for Portland writer Chelsea Cain's "Evil at Heart" goes like this: "To truly understand EVIL, you must become it ..."

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Contact Chelsea's Publicist

Hector DeJean
Minotaur Publicity Manager
St. Martin's Press
175 5th Avenue, 15th Floor
New York, NY   10010
email

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