Seven Days

Description

For fans of Stephen King's Misery and Jo Nesbo's The Snowman comes an engrossing thriller about a monster who becomes a victim and a victim who becomes a monster. From Patrick Senecal, the Quebec author who has sold over a million books worldwide. One sunny fall day, Dr. Bruno Hamel's life changes forever. His beloved seven-year-old daughter, Jasmine, is the victim of a tragic crime. Grief-stricken, Hamel sets in play a meticulous plan. He will kidnap the man responsible for his daughter's death and make him pay horribly for what he has done. He manages to ambush a police transport and disappear with his target. But Hamel hasn't accounted for Herve Mercure, a detective with a troubled past who becomes certain he can track down Hamel by studying clues in his past-and in the increasingly unsettling phone calls Hamel makes to his partner, Sylvie. Both riveting and provocative, this daring thriller is an enthralling meditation on what it means to be human-and to battle the monster within and without.

Patrick Senecal was born in Drummondville, Quebec. He taught literature and cinema for several years, and, fascinated by suspense, fantasy, and terror, began writing to popular and critical acclaim in his native Quebec. Three of his novels have been adapted for film, and three other adaptations are currently under development in Quebec. He lives in Montreal, Canada, with his wife and two children. Visit him at PatrickSenecal.net.

Praise for Seven Days "Senecal is concerned with big questions here: what is the nature of evil . . . What are the limits of grief and sanity? Is revenge ultimately futile or purgative? . . . The issues Senecal grapples with are urgent, especially in our current fraught political moment." * Quill & Quire * "A tight little drama." * The Globe and Mail * "Senecal asks big questions about the nature of humanity." * Publishers Weekly * "A visceral thriller propelled by the seething, heartbreaking passion of revenge. Senecal holds nothing back, which is what makes reading him feel so dangerous." -- Andrew Pyper, bestselling author of The Only Child and The Demonologist "Both highly moral and absolutely terrifying. A revenge fantasy enacted with perfect, ambiguous realism." -- Nathan Ripley, bestselling author of Find You in the Dark "With Seven Days, English-speaking readers are going to discover what millions of French readers already know: Patrick Senecal is the real deal. I hope they enjoy this dementedly wonderful book as much as I did, but be warned: Here there be Tygers." -- Craig Davidson, author of The Saturday Night Ghost Club Praise for Patrick Senecal "Senecal is currently Quebec's best horror author." * CFOU FM - Le Voyageur insolite * "An author that no other equals in his ability not only to keep the readers riveted, but also to plunge them in an unsettling state from where they don't wake up before having devoured the book to its very last page." * L'Oeil regional * "Senecal masterfully sets up the thriller's efficient mechanics, a well-tempered mix of suspense and terror which has made its success. His books are full of tortured and excessive beings, outwardly strong but inwardly tormented. This is the reason why his literary universe is so seductive and so unsettling, and keeps us on the edge of our seats." * Acces Laurentides * "The author's best quality is that he doesn't flinch from his subject and goes all the way, with all the unsparing, morbid details." * Lectures * "Without imitating Stephen King's style, Patrick Senecal manages to instill as much interest in the reader as does the master of American horror stories." * Quebec francais * "What a great discovery! Patrick Senecal's universe is simply terrifying, for our greatest enjoyment! Reading this very talented author guarantees lots of extremely pleasurable shivers!" * CHEY - Rock Detente * "He excels at telling stories, revealing in the building-up of that ultra-precise mechanism which is that of the thriller, oiling each and every cog, listening to the implacable ticking of the words which - well, it must be said, he uses to manipulate the reader." * La Presse * "Senecal writes very efficiently. Action, rhythm, taking hold of the reader, are more important to him than stylistic flourishes. All the better for us." * Nuit Blanche * "A Quebec author who is a master at unsettling our emotions and taking us very far into the pit of madness." * Le Soleil * "This is very well done. It owes nothing to Stephen King and, as far as I'm concerned, it is in nothing inferior to Stephen King." * Radio-Canada - Indicatif Present *