Portland Detective Archie Sheridan spent ten years tracking Gretchen Lowell, a beautiful serial killer, but in the end she caught him. Gretchen kidnapped Archie and tortured him for ten days, then she released him and turned herself in. Now Gretchen is locked away, while Archie is in a prison of another kind—addicted to painkillers, and powerless to erase those ten days from his mind. He visits Gretchen in prison once a week, saying he wants her to confess the whereabouts of more of her victims, but even he knows that the truth is he just can’t stay away.

When another killer begins snatching teenage girls, Archie knows that he has to pull himself together and investigate the murders. Newspaper reporter Susan Ward begins following Archie’s investigation, sparking a deadly game between Archie, Susan, the new killer, and even Gretchen.

They need to catch a killer, and maybe somehow Archie can now free himself from Gretchen once and for all. Original, addictive, and profoundly disturbing, Heartsick heralds the arrival of a major new star.