What is John Farrow reading?

Featured at Writers Read: John Farrow, author of Seven Days Dead.

His entry begins:

Mysterious Fragrance of the Yellow Mountains by Yasuko Thanh, a first novel by a fellow Canadian, is set in 1908 during the French rule of Saigon. A reader senses the impending tragedy that is yet to come to Vietnam within the dynamics of a group of blundering revolutionaries, and the times are granted a clarity of language that is as captivating as it is illuminating. No, it’s not a crime novel, not exactly, although murder is afoot and the main characters will find themselves on the run. The story is intriguing, the setting seductive, and...[read on]

About Seven Days Dead, from the publisher:

During an epic storm in the Gulf of Maine a lone woman races--first by car, then by a life-threatening sea crossing--to the island of Grand Manan. Her father is dying—will she make it in time?

Others also venture out into the maelstrom that night, including a mysterious band of men and women who gather on Seven Days Work, the sheer cliff that overlooks the wild sea. A housekeeper, a pastor, and a strange recluse are also wandering about out in the tempest. Who else risks being out in the turbulent black night? And how many murder victims will be revealed at the break of dawn?

Such questions will engage retired Montreal detective Émile Cinq-Mars. He and his wife seek shelter from the same storm as they make their way to the island for a rare summer vacation from both his police work and her horse stable. With a mounting death toll, a lengthy list of suspects, and a murder in the deep past that somehow affects the present, Cinq-Mars is drawn into uncovering ancient secrets that have led to murder. When the villainy turns against him, another race ensues, this time to solve the crimes before his visit to the island ends in tragedy.

Seven Days Dead continues the Émile Cinq-Mars series of crime novels, which Booklist has called “one of the best series in crime fiction,”; Die Zeit in Germany has suggested it might be the best of all time.

Visit Trevor Ferguson's Facebook page.

The Page 69 Test: Seven Days Dead.

My Book, The Movie: Seven Days Dead.

Writers Read: John Farrow.

--Marshal Zeringue