Books: Evil at Heart

I received the ARC of Evil at Heart by Chelsea Cain from LibraryThing. Chelsea Cain is one of those people I keep hearing good things about, but hadn't quite gotten around to reading yet.
Evil at Heart is the third book about serial killer Gretchen Lowell, also known as the Beauty Killer. I had not read the prior too, but just jumped in to this one. While I am sure there are nuances I missed, I felt informed enough to get through it fine.
Archie, who had led the task force, remains in the psych ward. His doctors have suggested that he is well enough to leave, having recovered from his pain killer addiction and seeming to have improved.
Body parts are discovered at a rest stop along with the signature hearts of the Beauty Killer and Henry, the cop now leading the task force is trying to both keep the investigation moving forward and convince Archie to rejoin the real world (which for Henry means the task force). Susan, a reporter, who was kidnapped by the Beauty Killer is also trying to talk to Archie, supposedly to assist with the book she wants to write about the case. Susan is drawn further into the case when she is contacted about a body. Her research into fan sites of the Beauty Killer also proves useful as she, the task force, and Archie, who is lured out of the hospital, look further into the latest murders.
The book also gives some interesting thought to the media treatment such killers get.
The writing was great here, and I found the case intriguing. It is about a serial killer, so there are some gruesome bits. I didn't find it terribly hard to read, but I read a lot fictional serial killer books*.
The thing that I did wonder, on finishing is how long this series is expected to extend. I will talk about that more in another post, because that's really a separate issue.
*This may seem a silly warning, but I have seen a number of people complain that books about serial killers were gory and/or twisted.

Goodbye, Mr. Church

Forrest Church was a prominent UU minister, who lost his battle with cancer this month. In this interview, done last year after his cancer returned, Church speaks of his diagnosis and how that related to his approach to his diagnosis.

"These are the accidents of life and death. And if God, for instance, is responsible for a tsunami that obliterates the lives of 100,000 people and leaves their families in tatters, then God's a bastard. I cannot believe in such a God. For me, God is the life force, that which is greater than all and yet present in each. But God is not micromanaging this world."

Beliefnet, posted a prayer he had written for their series.

Goodbye, Kate

I was sort of joking when I started asking if there seemed to be more dead people this year. And that was before this latest round. I went to a workshop last year where Kate Duffy was part of the panel. And she was great - no nonsense sure, but not mean, just direct. (I still remember her saying, "I'm not like you [writers], I don't hear voices in my head.")
And of course, I heard, then and later of what a wonderful person she was to work with. So, it is with sadness that I discovered she passed away. She will be missed.

Smart Bitches link to an MSNBC segment Kate appeared in about the Kindle. (She appears after the 2:00 minute mark.)
SB Sarah has a lovely post here.
The Borders True Romance blog has a link to Kate talking about why she loves romance novels.

Paranoid Workaholic or Just Cautious

So, the double edged sword of working with systems is that it just takes one tiny thing to throw the whole thing off. I spent days trying to figure out an issue on one project only to finally call in help and have it turn out that the symptom and the problem were two entirely separate things. (The joy of the interconnected web there.) So, when I finally got it working, I took a screen shot. So that if it breaks again I can prove, that I had a reasonable belief that it was working. That it was in fact working. That this was not a sleep deprived hallucination, it was me with proof that it worked moving on to the next problem.
I IM'd a co-worker and she agreed that this was not paranoia or superstition, this was me gathering crucial evidence, so that if the problem reoccurs we have more information. So I felt better. But then I just wondered if she was paranoid too.

Snagged by the Digital Age

...and some footwork too.
I first heard about the plan for Wired magazine writer Evan Ratliffe to attempt to stay hidden for 30 days on NPR. A prize was offered wither to those who found him or to Ratliff should he succeed. He came close. And then a savvy follower tracked him to New Orleans and notified a pizza joint he suspected Ratliff might try and the folks at the pizza joint were able to "capture" him.
I always think how one of the challenges storytellers have these days, is that changing technology creates even more ways for people to be tracked. After all a book, or movie, or TV show about people sitting in front of a computer is really not that interesting. So, if you're planning to have your character hide, maybe don't have them go to specialty pizza joints.