Seven Days Dead

March 21, 2016
The pseudonymous Farrow’s tedious sequel to 2015’s The Storm Murders finds retired Montreal police detective Émile Cinq-Mars and his wife, Sandra, vacationing on the Isle of Grand Manan in the Bay of Fundy. Sandra is hopeful the couple’s first summer holiday together will be quiet and crime-free. Unfortunately, their arrival on Grand Manan coincides with the suspicious death of odious island patriarch Alfred Orrock and the grisly murder of Rev. Simon Lescavage, the man who heard Orrock’s final confession. Émile initially declines an invitation from the local Mounties to participate in the investigation, but relents when the prime suspect—Orrock’s estranged daughter, Maddy—makes a personal plea for his assistance. Farrow (Canadian author Trevor Ferguson) squanders an intriguing setup and an entertaining, Poirot-like protagonist with cartoonish supporting characters, cheesy dialogue, excessive exposition, and a convoluted solution. Agents: Carolyn Forde and Bruce Westwood, Westwood Creative Artists (Canada).

Starred review from May 1, 2016
Retired Montreal police detective Emile Cinq-Mars (The Storm Murders, 2015) still doesn't quite understand vacations, and his wife, Sandra, fears that somehow Emile will find something to investigate, even on New Brunswick's remote Grand Manan Island, where the couple is planning to spend a week in the sun. She's right, of course; on the night previous to their arrival, a vicious storm wracks the island, and, in its wake, two bodies are discovered: that of a mean-spirited businessman who has ruled commerce on Grand Manan for decades and that of a minister, who is discovered eviscerated and tied to a tree overlooking the sea. Inevitably, Cinq-Mars is drawn into the investigation, and soon enough he's sparring with the closed-mouth fishermen and seaweed harvesters who live on the island. Much like P. D. James in The Lighthouse (2005), Farrow is less interested in using his island location to construct a locked-room puzzle than he is in exploring how the isolated landscape affects his cast of wonderfully eccentric characters. Cinq-Mars is a master at teasing meaning out of nuance, both in his encounters with suspects and in his wonderfully rich relationship with his wife. A delight for followers of Louise Penny and Donna Leon.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)