HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Cain’s previous Archie Sheridan and Gretchen Lowell thrillers have routinely appeared on the New York Times bestseller lists, and the legion of fans who can’t get enough of the Beauty Killer will be lining up for more. Gretchen Lowell isn’t just the most fascinating villain (and certainly the most appealing serial killer) to appear in crime fiction in many, many years she’s also becoming a multifaceted character capable of engendering a much wider range of emotions than one would expect of somebody who enjoys carving up spleens.

But here’s the thing: Cain knows she needs to keep playing with the dynamic between Gretchen and Archie-and even with our view of Gretchen-if this series is going to stay both fresh and exciting, and she always finds new ways to do it. Slowly Archie realizes that Gretchen has been stage-managing much of his recent life from afar, all leading up to a series of birthday surprises that put Archie’s pal, punky reporter Susan Ward, in grave danger. Her next book One Kick (August, 2014) will be the first in her Kick Lannigan thriller series. Hoping to learn more, Archie crashes the drug lord’s Halloween costume party, where he gets a late-night visit from Gretchen (or was that part just a fantasy?). Chelsea Cain is the New York Times bestselling author of the Archie Sheridan/Gretchen Lowell thrillers Heartsick, Sweetheart, Evil at Heart, The Night Season, Kill You Twice, and Let Me Go. A DEA agent has been murdered, and it looks like the long-running sting operation aimed at a local drug lord may be in jeopardy. Except police detective Archie Sheridan, of course, on whose battered body Gretchen has done some of her best work, and who still can’t get Gretchen out of both his nightmares and sexual fantasies. After all, with all those revelers adorned in Beauty Killer masks, blond wigs, and red lipstick, no one will be able to tell the real Gretchen from the imitations.

It figures that nonpareil serial killer Gretchen Lowell, on the loose since Kill You Twice(2012), would pick Halloween for a return trip to Portland, Oregon.

Chelsea cain archie sheridan series